Warm up your look with a touch of orange
Lora
Aa
Sui-Sui brand board: photographs of an older woman following the app at her dressing table, a makeup palette with the prompt “Warm up your look with a touch of orange”, a phone showing a routine screen, and rose petals. The Sui-Sui logo sits at the centre. Brand colours are #9D000F, #CB0013, #E8002C and #FFF6DC. Typefaces are Lora and DM Sans.
Sui-Sui
“Brings cosmetic therapy out of the classroom and into daily life for Elders.”
Sui-Sui is a home-based wellness app that brings cosmetic therapy into the daily lives of older women. Through structured, guided sessions, from hand warm-ups to skincare and makeup, it turns a clinical practice into a personal ritual, slowing cognitive decline and restoring confidence one session at a time. Sui-Sui (媠) means beautiful in Taiwanese, a reminder that it’s never too late to bloom.
Background
A rapidly growing population living with dementia
Dementia is outpacing every other major condition in growth, and it isn’t spread evenly. Women bear most of the burden, both as patients and as carers.
Global Dementia Population Trend
Source: Alzheimer’s Disease International
Global Female Dementia Population Ratio
Source: Alzheimer’s Research UK
Global dementia population trend: approximately 47 million people in 2015, projected to reach 132 million by 2050. Global female dementia population ratio: 67% of people living with dementia are women, compared with 43% who are men.
What is Cosmetic Therapy
Rehabilitation that doesn’t feel like rehabilitation.
Cosmetic therapy is a rehabilitation approach that combines skincare and makeup with occupational therapy. Through fine motor movements, it activates cognitive function, improves hand-eye coordination, and strengthens the sense of self.
Design Challenge
Rehabilitation only works if it happens often.
Cosmetic therapy already works, it just only happens when an instructor can be in the room. SUI SUI moves it onto a phone, so it can happen every morning instead.
What I'm making
A mobile app that takes cosmetic therapy, a rehabilitation practice normally run as an instructor-led workshop, and turns it into a routine older adults can do alone at home.
For adults 65+ with early to moderate dementia, and the family carers beside them.
How it works
8–20 minute sessions shaped around a morning that already happens.
Camera detection closes the gap between watching and doing; time-aware prompts surface the right routine at the right moment.
A senior-first interface, so starting costs one tap.
What it should change
Training that ran once, when an institution arranged it, now runs daily, when the user decides.
More repetitions of fine motor and cognitive training, and a reason to come back tomorrow.
Less caregiver burden, more daily independence.
BEFORE
AFTER
no booking, no waiting
follow along in the mirror
Color
Red, taken from Shiseido, the company that has run cosmetic therapy in some 400 care facilities in Japan since 2013.
Every text and background pairing clears WCAG AA (4.5:1), so it stays legible for ageing eyes.
Typography
Lora for headings, DM Sans for body, both have open letterforms and a tall x-height, so characters stay distinct instead of blurring together.
Body text never drops below 16pt, so ageing eyes never have to work for it.
Lora
DM Sans
Function 1
Setup in three questions
A few questions at first launch shape which routines get recommended. Font size and reminder time are set here too, the two things most likely to stop an older adult before they’ve even begun.
Product libraryFunction 2
Product recognition
Users photograph or scan the products already on their dressing table. The app recognises and sorts them automatically, so every routine is built around what someone owns, not what they’re expected to buy.
Course preview
Product scanningFunction 3
Hand warm-up
A short set of hand movements before every session. It wakes up grip and coordination before any product is picked up, and gives the day’s practice a clear starting line.
12345
12345Function 4
Practice that watches back
Each step is demonstrated, then mirrored back. The camera checks that the movement actually happened, so the session responds to the person instead of simply playing at them.
Guided practice screens. Screen one, Step 2 – Clean: Wipe your palm up and down 3 times. Screen two, prompt: Engage your fingertips. Step 2 – Clean: Wipe your palm up and down 3 times. Screen three, prompt: Warm up your look with a touch of orange. Step 5 – Eye Shadow: Pick the light pink shade and blend evenly. Screen four, Step 6 – Eye Shadow: Sweep the eyeshadow across eyelid 3 times.
“Brings cosmetic therapy out of the classroom and into daily life for Elders.”
