L'Oreal wants to start 3D printing SKIN: Cosmetics firm has teamed with bio-engineering experts to develop tissue By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline Published: 13:07 GMT, 20 May 2015 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 20 May 2015 Cosmetics giant L™Oreal is joining forces with a bio-engineering firm to print human skin.The multinational firm plans to use the synthetic skin to test make-up and skincare.But there is no timescale for when this may be possible and some experts are questioning why a beauty company wants to use such cutting-edge technology.Scroll down for video L™Oreal USA announced the partnership with San Diego-based company Organovo, which creates functional, 3D human tissues such as liver, for use in medical research.˜The technology will leverage Organovo proprietary NovoGen Bioprinting Platform and L™Oreal expertise in skin engineering to develop 3D printed skin tissue for product evaluation and other areas of advanced research,™ the companies said.Guive Balooch, global vice president of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator said: ˜Our partnership will not only bring about new advances in vitro methods for evaluating product safety and performance, but the potential for where this new field of technology and research can take us is boundless.™Â Experts have said that while the science may be possible, it is unclear why a beauty firm would want to print its own skin.The French cosmetics company currently grows skin from 100,000 tissue samples measuring 0.5 square centimetres, donated by plastic surgery patients.Adam Friedmann, a consultant dermatologist at the Harley Street dermatology clinic, told the BBC: ˜I think the science behind it - using 3D printing methods with human cells - sounds plausible.™Â ˜I can understand why you would do it for severe burns or trauma but I have no idea what the cosmetic industry will do with it.™The printing process aims to automate the creation of living human tissues that mimic the form and function of those naturally found in the body, such as skin.The 3D-printed tissue is made from tiny building blocks that make up living human cells, so they share features with native tissue, such as cellular density and the presence of multiple cell types.