Use of Redness Assessment in Melasma Lesions in Skin Whitening Evaluation

Abstract

: Melasma has several well-recognized etiologic factors, but most researches focus on melanogenesis. The purpose of this study is to show improvement of melasma by reducing vascularity distinguished from melanogenesis. We examined 20 Korean women with both melasma and solar lentigo that were visually assessed by a dermatologist. The volunteers applied functional cosmetics for 8 weeks. We analyzed the results obtained using the chromameter, evaluating the skin color of three areas (melasma lesions, solar lentigo lesions, and non-lesional skin) on the face of volunteer. There was a statistically significant improvement in the brightness and redness of melasma lesions compared to those of non-lesional skin after 8 weeks. Also, we observed that the improvements in the brightness of melasma lesions and solar lentigo lesions were similar. However, the redness of melasma lesions improved more than that of solar lentigo lesions with statistical significance after 8 weeks. In this study, we have shown that brightness and redness in melasma lesions can be improved by functional cosmetics. Thus, we suggest redness to be an additional suitable parameter for the evaluation of melasma lesions.