Nothing says “I love you” like your detailed mug rendered in delicious chocolate. At least that’s what the Japanese at 3D-printing firm KS Design Lab and FabCafe, in Tokyo, are hoping you’ll think, as they offer patrons the chance to “chocolatize” their faces as gifts for Valentine’s Day.

Valenntine’s is big business in Japan. As we previously reported, a lot of Japanese chocolate companies record half their annual sales in the days before the romantic holiday. In the Land of the Rising Sun, only women offer gifts to men, usually in the form of chocolate sweets. Trying to stand out from the competition, 3D-printing firm KS Design Lab and Tokyo’s FabCafe, in the Shibuya district, have teamed up to offer a very original service to a group of women attending their workshop – 3D printed models of their faces in chocolate, to be given as presents on Valentine’s Day. Some of you may find them oishii (delicious), but I think they qualify more as kimoi (creepy). “We were brainstorming together about how the 3D-printing technology could appeal to consumers, when we hit on the idea of Valentine’s Day chocolates,” PR rep. Kazue Nakata explained.

Techno-chocolatiers who attended the two-day workshop at Fab Cafe had had to undergo a full body 3D scan which captured the expression they wanted to immortalize in chocolate. The data was then used to make 3D images of the head on a computer, and then carved into a soft silicone mold. Then, guests were invited to fill the molds with chocolate which hardened into  incredibly realistic models of their heads. It might be the ultimate in personalized Valentine’s Day gifts, but it’s way to creepy for me, and priced at $65, it’s not the cheapest gift you could get, either. I think I’d go for the chocolate Christian Louboutin high-heel shoes, instead. You can never go wrong with designer shoes, never!

Photos © FabCafe

 via CNet