My makeup bag, dressing table and bathroom cabinet runneth over with the unused makeup I have purchased either through misguided necessity or impulse buy.

Why have these glorious cosmetics gone to waste when they were so obviously a must-have at the time….? While yes, a lot of the time it transpires that I have amazingly managed to duplicate a previously purchased gem, but for the most part it is because the new Arizona Tan bronzer makes me more oompa loompa than sun kissed beauty or the Raspberry Crush eye shadow gives me the sexy look of festering conjunctivitis that I hadn’t anticipated.

Now the days of clashing cosmetics with my pasty skin tone are numbered as a new technology is set to revolutionise how we buy our makeup (apparently). Cosmetics giant L’Oréal is piloting a range of digital mirrors which take a snapshot of a customers face and ‘applies’ the makeup of their choice to the image once the product barcode has been scanned. You can have a wee play to see how it will look here .

Will it put an end to those iffy beauty purchases? In an ideal world…perhaps. I love the concept and think a valid alternative to the bacteria-infested ‘testers’ is long overdue. But…do I trust Boots to not let them break after the first weekend of heavy use and to leave them taking up valuable floor space? Erm, quite frankly, no.

I would love to be proved wrong and although L’Oréal would like us to believe ‘we’re worth it’ in terms of enhancing our cosmetics shopping experience, I’m afraid this may be less one step closer to Minority Report and more one off (very expensive) gimmick. We’ll see….