EVER considered eating your face, your partner’s face or even better Tom Hiddleston’s face? Well now you can because the world’s first 3D printer for gummy sweets has opened up right here in Essex.

Customers crushing on candy can literally turn a selfie into a three dimensional sweet creation thanks to Katjes Magic Candy Factory which has just opened its flagship UK store at the Intu Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock.

Sweet-toothed customers will be able to design their own gummy delicacy that will then be printed off onto an A5 sheet base in front of their eyes - all in under five minutes. And pretty much all edible shapes go. Customers choose from pre-loaded designs, like a pizza, a heart, a butterfly or even an octopus and add their own message to it.

They can also draw their own design or upload their own image, choosing a selfie of themselves or a company logo.

Everything in this very 21st century high-tech process is vegan, completely allergen free and Halal and Kosher friendly and all sweets cost £10 a go.

The machine has been invented and developed by managing director of Katjes Magic Candy Factory Melissa Snover, an all American girl turned Brummie.

Originally from New York, Melissa settled in England 13 years ago after coming to the UK to study at the Lancaster Business School. She now lives in Birmingham: “The machine really is at the forefront of innovation in the 3D printing and confectionary world,” she explained.

“We started out with an idea that I had last year and it’s incredible to see it here in real life printing out sweets. It really is a magical experience.

“Feedback has shown us that families come together and create some cool memories printing out their sweets. It’s about more than just the end product, in fact we find many people don’t even eat their sweets as they don’t want to ruin them!”

The success of the enterprise has been staggering. Melissa only set up her first printer outlet in January in New York. Now there are 40 in shopping centres and leisure centres scattered around 14 different countries, including the famous Dubai Mall in the Middle East. Fans of the brand are said to include model Heidi Klum and actors Elijah Wood and Tom Hiddleston.

“It proves you can accomplish a lot in a year if you work hard and have a great idea,” added Melissa.

When thinking of where to open up in the UK first, Essex was top of the list and Lakeside in particular was the first choice.

“We did a lot of research when it came to deciding where to open and we felt Lakeside was the best fit. We deliberately came up with some flavours for the UK market that we thought were pure ‘British’, like ‘elegant elderberry’ and ‘beautiful blackcurrant’, we also have traditional flavours like strawberry, mango, lemon, apple, tasty tropical and raspberry.

The 3D printing industry has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Boffins have come up with ways to print off everything from 3D lawnmowers to concrete castles and even a 3D bioprint of Van Gogh’s ear!

But the equipment is relatively new to confectionary world.

“We’ve found that customers see the printer experience as just that - an experience. We’ve put a lot of research into designing the printer,” added Melissa.

“For example 3D printers tend to be notoriously slow, what we can do in five minutes would take most other printers an hour.

“Also we’ve had to come up with a special fruit gum liquid recipe especially for the 3D printing process as if we used a normal recipe all you’d just get a puddles of goo coming out. In addition we’ve had to invent a mix that dries in five seconds rather than hours that sweets like this normally take. In all it’s taken a lot of time and effort to get right.”

The Lakeside outlet has four staff who take customers through the entire journey- from choosing which pattern they’d like to helping them ‘code’ the printer themselves via an interactive Ipad app, to seeing the end result made in front of them.

“We’ve found by far the most popular print choice so far has been the ‘selfie’,” said Melissa.

“Customers can take a selfie at the store or get one from their phone then the printer will copy it and print out their selfie as a sweet. So you can have anyone’s face you like as a sweet.”

Melissa and her team have also gone to extra lengths to ensure their idea is accessible to everyone.

“We’ve developed the sweets to be vegan, vegetarian and suitable for Halal and Kosher diets,” she said. “The sweets are also all made with natural colours and flavours from real fruit and vegetable extracts.

As well as the 3D printing experience Katjes Magic Candy Factory are launching their ‘Magical Mix and Make’ which offers 40 ready- made sweets which are also free from gelatine and made from natural ingredients.

Although only aged in her thirties, entrepreneur Melissa has already won numerous awards and prizes for her business engagements and featured in a list of the 100 Most Influential Woman.

And it seems her grandiose gummy empire will reap her even more rewards.

She said: “We are so excited to start inspiring the UK with our magical creations. We’ve spent many months developing this technology to be fast, educational and fun.”

The Magic Candy Factory is located on the lower level near to the Disney Store. magiccandyfactory.com