Unexpected Elements is all about finding the surprising science angles to everyday news.

Mind absolutely blood.

Amazing to me.

That's Unexpected Elements from the BBC World Service.

Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Hi there, I'm Maddie Savage.

I cover stories from Scandinavia for the BBC. And if today's

business daily sounds a bit echoy, that's because I'm inside my bathroom in Stockholm. I'm here

because many of us have drawers or boxes full of beauty products that we never end up finishing.

So I've got a moisturiser here that I don't

really like the smell of. A couple of dark lipsticks that just don't suit me. And some shampoo

that seems to make my hair greasyer than before I washed it. In this program, I'm meeting

some of the Nordic startups trying to cut this sort of cosmetic waste by changing the way we shop for beauty products.

Shoppers that don't know which products match them well resort to experimenting, and that contributes to the accumulation of waste.

We see that accurate personalisation guides consumers to the right product.

Well, I've left my bathroom and I'm now on campus at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology,

Sweden's biggest technical university.

It's also home to a yellow-bricked co-working space for tech startups,

including one founded by a former student, Seller Lee.

Hi, Seller.

Hey, Mendy, you welcome.

Nice to meet you, thanks very much.

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