Lumière Skin — Press Kit

One-line description

Lumière is the AI skin coach built for every skin tone — calibrated for Fitzpatrick I–VI, including melanin-rich and deeper tones most consumer skincare AI gets wrong.

50-word company summary

Lumière Skin is an iOS app that scans your face, returns a tone-aware read of your skin, and tracks how it changes week by week. Calibrated for Fitzpatrick I–VI and the Monk Skin Tone scale, it distinguishes PIH from PIE, differentiates vascular signs across all tones, and is free on iOS today.

200-word company description

Lumière Skin is the AI skin coach built for every skin tone. Founded in 2026, the company addresses a well-documented gap in dermatology AI: training datasets that over-represent Fitzpatrick I–III and under-represent IV–VI, which causes consumer skincare AI to perform measurably worse on darker skin. Lumière's approach anchors every analysis to a tone classification first — Fitzpatrick I–VI plus the Monk Skin Tone scale (1–10) — before interpreting pigmentation, vascular signs, or barrier health.

The iOS app delivers single-photo face scans with structured findings (PIH vs PIE differentiation, GAGS acne grading, mMASI for melasma, dehydrated-vs-dry barrier distinction, tone-aware vascular detection), weekly Journey tracking with milestones at 4, 12, 26, and 52 weeks, personalised AM and PM routines, a peer community with Skin Twin matching, and weather-aware daily skincare guidance. Lumière is free to download on iOS, takes no affiliate commission on product recommendations, and sustains itself through Lumière Pro, a $9.99/month or $69/year subscription billed via Apple In-App Purchase (no trial). The full methodology is published openly at lumiere-skin.us/methodology.

Founder bio (3 lengths)

20 words

Solo founder of Lumière Skin, the AI skin coach built for every skin tone. Based in the United States.

50 words

Founder of Lumière Skin, the AI skin coach built for every skin tone. After being repeatedly let down by skincare AI that misread or under-read deeper skin, founded Lumière in 2026 to build a tone-first analysis the rest of the industry was missing.

120 words

The founder of Lumière Skin built the app after years of frustration with skincare AI that returned generic or incorrect results on Fitzpatrick V and VI skin — experiencing first-hand the same dermatology-AI bias problem documented in research literature. Trained as an engineer, the founder spent 2026 architecting Lumière as a tone-first system: every scan must commit to a Fitzpatrick and Monk classification before interpreting pigmentation, vascular, or barrier findings, the inverse of how most consumer skincare AI is structured. The full methodology is publicly documented; the app is free on iOS; the goal is to make tone-aware skin analysis the default, not the exception.

Note: founder name and pronouns intentionally not listed here — please ask in your initial email so we can confirm which version you'd like to use, and we'll send a high-res headshot to match.

Product fact sheet

• App name: Lumière: AI Skin Coach
• Platform: iOS 15.0+ (live on US App Store, App ID 6762242747). Android in closed testing.
• Launch: April 2026 (App Store)
• Pricing: Free to download on iOS. Lumière Pro available at $9.99/month or $69/year (saves 42%) — billed via Apple In-App Purchase, no free trial.
• App Store URL: apps.apple.com/us/app/lumière-ai-skin-coach/id6762242747
• Marketing site: lumiere-skin.us
• Methodology: lumiere-skin.us/methodology
• Region: United States (worldwide expansion planned)
• Headcount: Solo founder, no investors, no advisory board
• Revenue model: Subscription via Apple In-App Purchase ($69/yr or $9.99/mo, no trial). No affiliate commission taken on product recommendations.

Talking points (verifiable, on the record)

• The bias problem is documented. Multiple audits since 2018 have shown consumer and clinical dermatology AI underperforms on Fitzpatrick IV–VI skin. We did not invent this critique; we built around it.
• PIH and PIE are clinically distinct findings with distinct treatments. Most consumer skincare AI returns "hyperpigmentation" as a single bullet. Lumière's output schema requires the analysis to differentiate them every time.
• Tone-first ordering is the architectural difference. Lumière commits to Fitzpatrick + Monk classification before interpreting any other finding, which is the inverse of how most consumer skincare AI is structured.
• The app is free on iOS today, with no commission on product recommendations. The recommendation engine is independent of any commercial signal.
• Lumière is solo-built. One person, one mission, no investors. Both a real story and a real limitation we're transparent about.

Brand assets

• Logo: logo.svg (vector) — clearspace 1× the brand mark on all sides; minimum size 32×32 px.
• Brand mark: ✦ (four-pointed star, U+2726) in the rose accent on warm-cream background.
• Brand colours: warm cream #fdf8f4, rose #b07585, champagne gold #d4be97, ink #3a2a26.
• Typography: Playfair Display (headings), Inter or DM Sans (body).
• App screenshots: high-resolution screenshots available on request — email support@lumiere-skin.us with the subject "Press screenshots" and we'll send a zipped folder within 24 hours.

What we'll talk about, gladly

• The dermatology-AI bias problem and what we do about it
• The Fitzpatrick-vs-Monk-vs-ITA stack of skin tone classification (with diagrams)
• PIH vs PIE: what they are, why most apps confuse them, why it matters
• The decision to fund Lumière through subscription rather than affiliate commission
• Building consumer health software as a solo founder — the constraints, the trade-offs, what we deliberately won't do
• How calibration differs from training, and why that matters for what users get

What we won't talk about

• The specific underlying AI provider — that's an implementation detail we don't discuss publicly
• Acquisition rumours or fundraising
• Other companies' methodology — we comment on the published research literature, not on competitors by name
• Medical claims — Lumière is not a medical device and we will not be quoted as if it were

Quotes you're free to use

"We can't fix the upstream training data of dermatology AI as a whole. But we can build our analysis to commit to a tone classification first, every time, and interpret findings in that context — rather than against a default assumption."

— Founder, Lumière Skin

"Most consumer skincare AI returns 'hyperpigmentation' as a single bullet. The treatments diverge: PIH responds to brightening agents and sun protection, PIE responds to vascular-targeted ingredients. Collapsing them is how deeper-skinned users end up with the wrong protocol."

— Founder, Lumière Skin

Direct line

The fastest path to the founder for press is a single email with your outlet, deadline, and angle. There is no PR agency, no media-relations layer, and no gatekeeper.

support@lumiere-skin.us