Instrumental and clinical studies of the facial skin tone and pigmentation of Shanghaiese women. Changes induced by age and a cosmetic whitening product

Abstract

The pigmentation patterns of facial skin of 354 healthy Chinese women aged 18-80 years were investigated clinically and instrumentally. Chromasphere(®) was used to acquire pictures from the cheeks of subjects. Facial skin tone was described by L* parameter from the L,a,b system as well as Individual Typology Angle (ITA). Results show that skin tone becomes significantly darker along the life span. Both size of hyper-pigmented spots and their contrast with surrounding skin were found increased with age. As additional study, 40 women from these 354 subjects were asked to apply daily a whitening cosmetic product for a 2-month period. Such application led to a significantly lighter skin tone, although this study was not vehicle controlled and we cannot exclude that the increase in L* observed was in some part because of cumulative effects of previously used whitening products, there was an association with lighter skin tone as assessed through both instrumental measurements and self-perception by most subjects.

Seasonal skin darkening in Chinese women: the Shanghaiese experience of daily sun protection

“…The selection of the same group of Chinese women in the winters of both 2008 and 2011 allowed us to assess the possible interaction between a 3-year period of skin “aging” and skin tone, to determine more precisely the impact of daily sun protection on skin tone, and to analyze the present findings in light of our previous research 3,4Figures 6–8 indicate a slight but not statistically significant 0.1 unit decrease in L*, a statistically significant increase in b* ( P = 0.049), and a statistically significant 1.0 unit decrease in ITA ( P = 0.04) between the winters of 2008 and 2011.…”

“…The sun-protected group included 40 women aged 35–65 years who were selected from our previous 2008 study 3,4. These volunteers were recalled to meet our secondary aim of identifying any changes in facial skin tone over a 3-year period.…”

“…Climatic conditions in Shanghai are such that the city has relatively short springs and autumns, with summer rapidly giving way to winter and vice versa, which enabled us to focus on the possible structural and functional changes occurring in the skin of 354 Shanghaiese women aged 18–80 years during these two successive periods 3,4. Signs of aging and clinical features were shown to be unaltered over a 6-month period, whereas some functional criteria appeared to be affected, in particular skin pigmentation.…”

“…The association between seasonal skin darkening and the natural increase in daylight and ultraviolet irradiance from winter through summer led us to evaluate the possible effect of a commercial whitening product on a subgroup (n = 38) of this cohort of women over a 2-month period (from January to March) 4. The tested product contained both a whitening active ingredient and sunscreens of a SPF18 and PA+++ protection level, which was applied to facial skin once daily.…”

Skin complexion and pigmentary disorders in facial skin of 1204 women in 4 Indian cities

“…Skin darkening with age has previously been described in various populations, for example, a Chinese group living in Chicago as reported by de Rigal et al, [7] However, such age-related changes were not observed in African-Americans, Caucasians, and Mexicans. A recent study on Chinese women living in China [8] showed progressive darkening of the complexion with advancing age. A more recent study conducted in eight Asian cities found that Asian skin is generally darker with age.…”