Mobile phone lets you check your lip gloss

A new terminal that allows you to see how ranges of make up will look on you is sweeping Japan. It's about to burst into the UK. Clever boffins are looking to miniaturise the system so it can run on mobile phones.

It could end the humiliation for millions of women at the hands of the 'Blusher Bullies', the perfectly made up Nazis who run many department store cosmetic counters, whose currency is patronising remarks and cosmetic-related catty remarks.

In the new system, a customer faces a camera, where the Real-Time Makeup Simulator's built-in software assesses the shapes of her eyebrows, eyes, lips and other facial features - in a non judgemental way!

When the customer places IC tag-incorporated cosmetics over an electronic reader, simulated images of her face wearing with the selected cosmetics instantly appear on its monitor.

The terminal for the simulator, developed by the Shiseido Company (www.shiseido.co.uk) has so far been installed at 30 department stores across Japan.

It could come to the UK soon, as the manufacturer is looking at installing a similar system on mobiles. µ