Sephora and Boots UK stores are using devices that allow shoppers to match their skin tone before purchasing foundation. And, Sephora is set to roll out this device to many more of its stores this year.

The device that makes this possible works using ‘Capsure’ technology, developed by X-Rite Inc.

“Capsure”is an easy-to-use spectrocolorimeter that identifies the color of a customer’s skin in seconds, then precisely targets the closest matches among a library of color palettes loaded into its memory. This technology recently won the 2013 Technology Award from Cosmetics Business.

Capsure technology isbeing used in the Match Made Service offered in more than 890 Boots UK stores globally to help customers select the closest color match among the No7 Foundation collection to their skin tones.

Joanne Watson, innovation technologist at Boots UK, said early trials of the system showed that women appreciated the experience of having their skin tones measured with a sensitive instrument that could give more accurate and objective color readings, no longer relying on in-store lighting conditions. The device shows a digital photo of a person’s skin, and the foundation color that is the closest match.

Boots UK selected the device from X-Rite because it provided a robust method of color measurement and was easy for advisors to use and keep on their person, Watson said.

At Sephora, the system is called the Sephora + PANTONE Color IQ system. Itallows shoppers to match their skin tones with foundation colors.

After a successful trial test of the system last summer in New York City and its North American headquarters of San Francisco, Sephora expects to roll out the system to its more than 300 retail locations in the United States and Canada this year.

A wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Pantone licensed the exclusive use of the PANTONE Skin Tones library for use in CAPSURE at Sephora.