The present study examined the effect of self-administered facial massage (“Shiseido Home Massage”) on psychophysiological states. Twenty healthy females, age 19 to 48, served as subjects. Prior to the experiment, subjects learned the technique of self-administered facial massage by watching a video on skin care and by receiving direct instruction from a beauty specialist. To master the technique, subjects were asked to practice self-administered facial massage everyday for a two-week period. During the experiment, frontal EEG (Fz) was recorded during pre-rest, self-administered facial massage and post-rest conditions. Before and after recording in each condition, subjects estimated their own psychological states (mental arousal level and “feeling-refreshed” level). The frequency-fluctuation of α-waves in the EEG record was extracted using an F-V conversion system and analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Self-administered facial massage was found to increase the subjects' sence of well-being and the estimated level of feeling refreshed. In addition, self-administered facial massage was found to reduce mental arousal during post-rest in subjects who reported a high arousal level in the pre-rest condition, whereas it increased the arousal level during post-rest in subjects who initially reported low arousal. Also, the power spectrum of α-wave fluctuations during self-administered facial massage is of the 1/f type which can be described by a curve approximately inversely proportional to the frequency over the low frequency range. This powerspectrum relation did not hold for states of higher or lower arousal. The results suggest that the 1/f type of α-wave fluctuations in the frontal area are correlated with a feeling of wellbeing and mental arousal and that self-administered facial massage results in an improved self-assessment of psychophysiological states.

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Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight is known to play an important role in cutaneous aging. Solar UV radiation doses irradiated onto a horizontal surface at 9 cities (Naha, Miyazaki, Osaka, Yokohama, Matsumoto, Akita, Asahikawa in Japan: Milano in Italy: Taipei in Taiwan) were measured continuously for 2-9 years, using an Integrating Actinorecorder (Suga Test Instruments, Co., Ltd.).
Japanese MED (minimum erythema dose) from sunlight was measured on healthy 89 Japanese in order to discuss skin damages by UV rays. The average Japanese MED from 6 runs was 2.2cal/cm².
The mean daily UV doses of 3 cities (Yokohama, Milano, Taipei) were caluculated from the 5 highest daily doses throughout a month. These values were referred to as daily intensity. This daily intensity through one year was generally inversely proportional to latitude. The highest daily intensity was 43.41cal/cm²/day at Taipei, which was 19.7 times dose of Japanese MED.
Annual total UV dose was 8320cal/cm² at Matsumoto, 5663cal/cm² at Milano and 6965cal/cm² at Taipei. The highest UV dose in Matsumoto was caused by high altitude and long sunshine hours. Weather affects UV dose, We searched the relation between weather and daily UV dose. UV dose in a cloudy day was 54-73% of a clear day, while that in a rainy day was 16-24%. UV radiation dose was proportional to sunshine hour in each month.
The effect of altitude was investigated by measuring UV radiation dose in high regions. In March, UV dose at Lukla (2800m height) was 20% more than that at Taipei (9m height) on the same latitude.
Considering the recent worldwide attention towards UV radiation in relation with environmental pollution, it seems extremely important to measure UV radiation in various places of the world.

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The characteristic differences between skin and lip surface and the age associated alterations on lip surface were studied in this experiment.
Transepidermal water loss (TWL) value of lip surface was significantly higher than that of skin surface, And parakeratotic cells of corneocytes obtained by tape-strip method were also significantly more numerous in lip than in skin. These results indicated that the barrier function of lip surface is lower than that of skin, The characteristics between inside and outside of lip corneocytes were remarkably difference on the number of melanin granules and the intensity of DACM (N-(7-dimethylamino-4-methyl-3-coumarinyl) maleimide) fluorescence. The melanin granules stained with Fontana, silver ammonium solution were hardly observed and almost corneocytes were not stained with DACM in inside of lip surface. These phenomena suggested that the lip is more affective regions against environmental stimulation factors; dryness, ultraviolet rays and so on.
Age-associated alterations of lip were studied on 101 healthy women (20-58 years old). TWL value of lip was decreased accompany with aging. Parakeratotic cells were observed most numerous in third decade and after that those were decreased with age. The number and depth of sulcus cutis were decreased with age by analyzed with image analyzer from replica of lip surface. These findings were similar to the skin alterations associated with age.

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Skin sensory irritation is one of the safety evaluations of cosmetic Products. This irritation problem seldom gives rise to consumer complaints, because it is the passing and subjective stimulation without objective responses. However, in our opinon, the irritation problem is very important, because it will influence cosmetic selection and usage. Accordingly, we investigated an objective measuring method of the skin sensory irritation induced by application of chemical agents.
We used an electricencephalograph in our measuring method for the pain-related positive component (P250). All our studies were performed after obtainning the imformed consent from volounteers. Primarily, 45 subjects were screened by means of investigation for sensory sensitivity against the application of chemical agents. Then two groups of five each were selected, one group was composed of hypersensitive subjects and another group was composed of low sensitive subjects.
Secondly, the electric potential evoked by electric stimulation on the skin of the middle finger was measured as a reference without any application of a chemical agent. It showed a positive variation approxymately 250msec after electric stimulating, which is so-called P250 and is the exact represented intensy of sensory irritation. Then the intervention against P250, only of the electric stimulating, was investigated with an application of a 3% citric acid solution, which is the causative agent of chemical sensory irritation. In results, two findings were obtained as follows.
1) Amplitudes of the hypersensitive subjects were significantly smaller than that of the low sensitive subjects at 1% confidential level.
2) In the hypersensitive subjects, when the citric acid solution was applied on the skin of the face, the amplitudes of “P250” decreased significantly at 5% confidential level, resulting in the intervention against the electric stimulating.
The abovementioned two findings suggest that this measuring method is useful for objective evaluation of the sensory irritation induced by application of chemical agents.

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In order to maintain good health of human skin and hair, moisture contained in them is indispensable. In the same manner moisture in nail is considered to play an important role.
Thus, using human nail sections, a series of model experiments was performed, which clarified that moisture in nail has a great effect on its physical properties. As the result it was confirmed that supplement of moisture to nails is an essential condition to keep nails in good health. Therefore, the authors have started development of a nail enamel containing moisture, which has never been brought into the market.
The W/O emulsion-type nail enamel, in which a new mode of emulsification has been employed, not only contributes to keep nails in good health but it is also equal to conventional solvent-type nail enamel in every respect.

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