Скачать или смотреть pHigment Designing Biodegradable Single Use Cosmetics for On body Chemical Sensing

Overview
pHigment explores the integration of biosensing and biodegradable materials within single-use cosmetics, including temporary tattoos, eyeliner stickers, and press-on nails. These formats often come into contact with body fluids such as sweat, tears, or saliva, and allow for diverse placement on the body, customizable shapes, and a range of colors—features that support the visual transitions of colorimetric biosensors. Unlike conventional cosmetics that absorb into the skin or wear off, these products retain their material structure and are typically discarded after brief use, contributing to landfill waste due to their synthetic components. By focusing on single-use cosmetics, this project addresses both the functional potential of on-body sensing and the environmental impact of cosmetic disposability.

We frame this project around the dual objective of designing on-body colorimetric biosensors that promote health and environmental awareness, while using biodegradable materials suited for single-use lifecycles. We present four main contributions:

(1) The articulation of this duality in biocosmetic interface design. We create a set of working prototypes—eyeliner, temporary tattoos, and press-on nails—that demonstrate how ephemeral cosmetic products can serve as both responsive sensors and compostable, body-worn devices;

(2) A DIY, skin-safe, biodegradable fabrication process based on alginate formulations with embedded anthocyanin;

(3) A detection system combining a custom case for light control and a computer vision app that converts RGB color to pH value;

(4) A compostability test of the material under natural conditions.

Authors
Olivia Bates - University of California, Davis, USA
Alyssa Yee - University of California, Davis, USA
Emily-Mae McConihe - University of California, Davis, USA
Phillip Gough - Design lab, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Anusha Wishana - School of Computer Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Katia Vega - University of California, Davis, USA



REFERENCE:
Olivia Bates, Alyssa Yee, Phillip Gough, Anusha Wishana, and Katia Vega.
2025. pHigment: Designing Biodegradable Single-Use Cosmetics for On-
body Chemical Sensing. In Companion of the the 2025 ACM International Joint
Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp Companion
’25), October 12–16, 2025, Espoo, Finland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3714394.3750716

Acknowledgment
Prof. Vega’s work was supported by the National Science Foun-
dation under Grant No 2146461 and UC Davis Academic Senate.
A/Prof. Withana is a recipient of an Australian Research Council
Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) - DE200100479 funded
by the Australian Government. Both professors acknowledge the
support from USyd–UC Davis Ignition Grant.