Optical properties of skin gloss and development of mizumizushii-looking makeup foundation

In Japan, the term mizumizushii is used to express beauty. This term mizumizushii is an adjective involving factors for a variety of ‘beauties full of the feeling of vitality’ such as youthful, fresh, watery, dewy and the like. The exact choice of words depends on the circumstances. Mizumizushii-looking skin represents the skin that looks wet with the moisture contained in it and that has a good gloss. However, according to our research carried out using a Corneometer, almost no relationship was found between skin actually including a large amount of moisture in the stratum corneum and mizumizushii-looking skin. We elucidated the ‘apparently mizumizushii-looking skin,’ and tried to develop makeup products having the function of making the skin look mizumizushii, which is to be one of the factors of beauty. For this purpose, what makes skin mizumizushii-looking or not had to be defined. Hence, sensory evaluations on 100 women were performed. As a result, these panelists could be classified into two groups of those having mizumizushii-looking skin (25 women) and those having the skin without a mizumizushii look (75 women). Further, it was revealed that the skin without a mizumizushii look could be classified into two groups of dry-looking skin and excessively oily-looking skin. We succeeded in qualitatively classifying the appearance of the skin of these three groups through using a value for optical properties analysed under specified conditions. Moreover, as a result of investigation of the grounds for possible qualitative classification of these groups with the value for optical properties of the skin, an evident relationship was clarified with the surface morphology (homogeneity on a micro m scale). From the findings of the optical properties of the mizumizushii-looking skin, we designed a makeup film incorporating a function for the mizumizushii look, leading to the development of a foundation.