The Structure of Consciousness and the Physiological Characteristics of the Skin regarding Skin Transparency-Comparison between the Young and Middle-Aged and Elderly Women-

Abstract

Transparency of the skin is an important keyword that is frequently used in questionnaires related to the female skin condition and skin consciousness, as well as an index for "before and after" comparisons of the effect of cosmetics. However, the concept of "transparency" has not been concretely defined. In the present study, we investigated the importance of "transparent skin" and the relationship between transparency and other expressions for skin condition comparing the young with middle-aged and elderly women. Furthermore, we also analyzed the correlation between the subjective assessment score of transparency of panels made by evaluators and the skin physiological parameters of those panels, and compared the difference of their relationship when the young and middle-aged and elderly women were employed as evaluators. Regarding the consciousness of the young women, the importance of "transparent skin" was ranked in the top position while "skin roughness" was the chief worry of the middle-aged and elderly women. On the other hand, both age groups indicated that trans parent skin is a complex concept composed of skin texture, color, and moisture. Analysis of the relationship between the subjective assessment and the skin physiological parameters showed that the uneven dispersion of b in the skin color (standard deviation), the water content of stratum corneum, and the skin surface configuration (depth of furrows, amount of furrows) closely correlated with the judgment of skin transparency in the young group, in contrast to the uneven dispersion of L and a in the skin color (standard deviation) in the middle-aged and elderly women. These results suggest that there may be no differences between the different age groups in the linguistic concept of transparency, while there may be differences in the physiological characteristics of skin that are utilized in making the judgment of transparency.