Evaluation and Control of Skin Appearance for the Development of Cosmetics

The appearance of skin is one of the critical research targets in cosmetology since cosmetics are key items for improving or controlling skin appearance. Therefore, a lot of studies on skin appearance have been carried out for the development of cosmetics. Such previous cosmetic studies are roughly subdivided into several approaches: psychology-based, optics-based, and image-based ones. An approach based on visual information processing is also important, especially when the mechanism of the appearance perception is investigated. In these approaches, the optics-based one has the advantage of identifying the skin optical properties (e.g. reflection, translucency, and spectral properties) that relate to the features of the targeted appearance. The image-based approach has the advantage of identifying visual cues that induce the features of the targeted appearance. Since such optical properties and visual cues are crucial information for designing formulations and ingredients of cosmetics, studies on the skin appearance based on optics and image have been frequently carried out. In this paper, to begin with, the above-mentioned approaches are overviewed. Then, more details regarding the optics-based and image-based approaches are argued. Finally, some of the previous studies on the development of cosmetic ingredients for controlling the skin appearance, which employed opticsand image-based approaches, are reviewed.