Conditions like strokes or arthritis can make applying lipstick challenging. Lancôme’s Hapta, designed for people with limited hand, wrist and arm mobility, is a computerized lipstick holder that compensates for disabled users’ dexterity.
Enabling users to apply lipstick with precision and ease, Hapta uses AI stabilizing technology, learning from users’ movements to improve application upon each use. With a projected worldwide launch in Spring 2025, Lancôme cites that their beta test was launched in Summer 2024 with 300 devices donated across the United States, French, and China in a final user test ahead of its full release.
Hapta has two components: the actual applicator, and the docking station, which enables users to extract their lipstick from its cap and snap lipstick into the applicator’s universal adapter. A key feature of Hapta that closely aligns with the functional solutions model of disability is the wide grip of the lightweight applicator device. Pairing ergonomic design with self-leveling technology, Hapta seeks to overcome mobility limitations with innovative tech: “Embedded with advanced, real-time sensors for a full range of motion and steady lipstick application, HAPTA provides 360 degrees of rotation and up to 70 degrees of flexion, enabling hand and wrist motricity to be compensated without effort,” Lancôme’s page states. In terms of the applicator’s features, Hapta can be considered accessible in its utility, desirability, and usability. While Hapta is branded as “compatible with any lipstick,” improving the accessibility of this product could entail broadening its compatibility with beauty products at large: eyeliners, eyebrow pencils, and makeup brushes.
Instructions for using Hapta (source: Lancôme)
As Amy Carner notes, the functional solutions model “cares less about the social or political nuances, but rather strives for innovation as its motivation.” Lancôme’s promotional videos for Hapta resonate with Carner’s definition. Hapta’s marketing also calls to mind the social model of disability—that disabled people are entitled to the human right to participate in society, to wear makeup as a method of self-expression as they move through the world. As one interviewee notes in the Hapta ad, “Our world is diverse, and people with disabilities eat, sleep, and breathe just as much as everyone else. And we wear makeup, too. So we want to be part of the beauty world, just as much as everyone else.”
While Lancôme seeks to address makeup application as an accessibility barrier, Hapta’s price tag marks a contrast between Lancôme’s “commitment to accessibility” and the reality of this tool. Retailing at over $200, Hapta represents a price increase of over 600% from the average cost of a lipstick, $15-30 each. As noted by Millie Flemington, founder of makeup brand Human Beauty, Hapta “doesn’t even include the Lancôme lipstick needed to function”. Framing Hapta in the social and functional models of disability, the price barrier doesn’t address the underlying issue of ableism—especially as the cost of living crisis is exacerbated for disabled people.
As Flemington adds, accessibility in respect to utility, usability, and affordability is more about making smaller changes to existing products, rather than creating expensive devices. Aside from captions on a promotional video, Lancôme lacks any kind of accessibility features on their website, not even on Hapta’s product page. To quote Flemington, “This raises the question: did Lancôme truly have accessibility for all in mind when creating this product, or was it simply a marketing ploy?”
The first tool of its kind, Hapta’s design is certainly innovative. Still, its marketing (price tag included) necessitates a closer, more critical look.