Enhancing skin-body-mind: Shiseido unlocks ancient “wakan ingredients,” creates beauty algorithm

20 Sep 2023 --- Global beauty company Shiseido and traditional Japanese medicine (kampo) manufacturer Tsumura have found herbal wakan ingredients, natural substances derived from traditional Eastern medicine, to improve skin and cognition. The ingredients boost blood circulation, skin elasticity and collagen production while reducing mental slumps.

Wakan ingredients have been used for centuries to balance physical and mental health. Now, the research has “connected the pieces of knowledge in the two companies.” 

The results of the research will be used in Shiseido’s products, including inner beauty care, which also accounts for its range of food products and supplements. The company will also propose a wide variety of functionality connected to mental and physical conditions such as food, exercise and sleep, in addition to its conventional cosmetics.

In further developments, Shiseido has revealed the results of its collaboration with science institute Riken on predictive models. The business has created its own beauty algorithm that contains more than 2,000 types of skin-body-mind synergies.

The advancement will help create new ways to improve the skin, body and mind with lifestyle habits and cosmetic products. The goal is to help everyone achieve their ideal skin and state of well-being.

Both projects follow Shiseido’s R&D philosophy of ‘dynamic harmony’, focusing on the connection of skin, body and mind. 

Wakan ingredients and skin
The business explains that wakan ingredients are known to balance mental and physical conditions. However, the influence on skin and the functional mechanisms had not been previously explained. 

Shiseido merged Eastern medicine concepts with Western scientific know-how to find the root of skin problems.“More people have been pursuing ‘well-being of body and mind’ and become conscious about inner beauty to draw out beauty from inside the body, which leads to further promotion in the fusion of beauty and wellness,” explains the business.

The company has found that by combining ginger and jujube, for example, you can improve blood flow and reduce neuroinflammation – which are assumed to be underlying causes of skin problems.

Through a placebo study, the company also found that the group treated with wakan ingredients combined with fruit-derived ingredients (lingonberry and Amla fruit) found improvement in their blood circulation and mental slump, and in mental concentration.

Moreover, the group treated with wakan ingredients showed better skin conditions, such as skin elasticity and the stratum corneum water content. The best results were found when wakan ingredients were combined with the fruit-derived ones. 

In related news, Shiseido recently found that the hardening of the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of skin, is a major cause of wrinkle formation and can be treated with pure retinol.

Merging Western and Eastern knowledge
Shiseido merged the Eastern medicine concept that each person has a different cause and treatment for these ailments with Western scientific know-how to find the root of skin problems such as poor skin firmness, moisture and translucency.

“Even if a ‘skin problem’ looks the same on the surface, each person has a unique cause inside the body and needs a different treatment,” says Dr. Manu Chinatsu and Dr. Todoya Masahiko, researchers at Shiseido.

Shiseido has conducted research and obtained knowledge not only on skin surfaces but also on the influence of blood vessels, lymph vessels, immunity and the intestinal environment. 

It also confirmed that wakan ingredients activate the G-protein-couple receptor. This receptor recognizes various substances ranging from peptides, proteins, ions and amines to lipids and is essential to the physiological function of humans, according to the company.

On the other hand, Tsumura has clarified the action mechanism of individual crude drugs inside the body not only by the traditional Kampo drug prescriptions but also through the perspective of Western medicine.Traditional wakan ingredients have been used for centuries to balance physical and mental health.

Skin-body-mind-beauty 
In its predictive models study, Shiseido made “full use” of data science to capture people in their totality. This helps with the understanding of the relationship between skin, body and mind – a concept of Eastern philosophy that the business wanted to study scientifically. 

“When I am emotionally depressed, my skin condition also deteriorates, and everything goes wrong. We think not a few people have had similar experiences to this. The skin, body and mind are connected in a variety of ways, and we have been researching this topic suspecting that we may be able to think more broadly about solutions to beauty issues than we do now,” says Chieko Okamura, group manager at Shiseido.

“The results of the present study have led us to visualize connections that had not been considered relevant until now, such as that between grip strength and skin,” she explains.

To carry out the study, Shiseido measured skin conditions in healthy Japanese women in their 20s to 40s, such as age spots and dullness, wrinkles and moisture, as well as physical shape and composition, blood components, lifestyle habits and psychological indicators. With these data points, they created a mathematical formula to explain the measured skin indices, such as moisture in the skin’s stratum corneum. 

The results showed that the amount of moisture was related to the body’s oxidative stress state, physical constitution, electrolytes (minerals) in blood and grip strength.

“The results of the present study have led us to visualize connections that had not been considered relevant until now, such as that between grip strength and skin,” Okamura explains.

Shiseido highlights that this is a novel study since “very few attempts have been made to reveal the physical and psychological conditions that are related to skin conditions comprehensively and quantitatively.” 

By Marc Cervera

This feature is provided by Nutrition Insight’s sister website, Personal Care Insights.

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