General questions on skin measurements at the point of sale

The customers normally have already care products or even make-up or powder applied when they enter a shop. On make-up and powder, it is very difficult to take measurements or camera images. If you cleanse the skin, however, it may take up to a couple of hours for the skin to regenerate the normal conditions (especially of sebum) completely. Therefore, ideally perform the measurement on skin cleansed approx. two hours prior to the measurement. In practice, unfortunately, this is impossible.

We recommend therefore, dabbing the skin with a dry cosmetic tissue at parts where you would like to measure or take images. Remove make-up from the skin gently without rubbing. Rubbing takes away the sebum and enhances the micro circulation. Should this not be possible, switch to untreated skin areas, e.g. close to the hair or the ears, under the chin or for melanin measurements to hands and arms.

Relativize, as sebum level after dabbing away the make-up is still lower than it would be without a product applied. Also relativize when performing measurements under high temperature and high air humidity (sweating). In any case, the measurement reflects the current state and needs of the skin which may be different at another time (e.g. seasonal changes).

The sebum measurement with the cartridge (Sebumeter^®-principle - photometrical) measures the sebum content quantitatively (from 0-99). The approach of the Sebufix^® and Sebu Pad where the oil on the skin leaves spots on the tape, is a rather qualitative measurement (optical evaluation how much sebum is produced by the different sebum glands). All measurements are quickly performed within 10-15 seconds.

Skin shows large pores and seems oily. The measurement results are rather moderate. What can be the reason?

The methods to measure the skin oil, measure on the surface not the oil in the skin. If skin has been cleansed or dabbed before the measurement, existing oil on the surface is removed and the results are respectively lower. The time of the day also plays a role. If you want to perform real comparison measurements, it is recommended to do that at the same time of the day.

The devices for the skin type analysis derive from the scientific measurement methods known for many years and used all over the world for clinical studies and efficacy testing. However, the skin type analysis devices have a less accurate resolution. Example: they express the sebum content e.g. in "dry", "normal", "oily", whereas the scientific Sebumeter^® shows the sebum content in a high precision figure to monitor even smallest changes in the sebum level.

Some systems for skin type analysis are available with an attractive, cosmetic software to recommend products and thus differ from the scientific measurement programmes. The cosmetic consulting devices are not used for clinical studies but for promotional use.

The software for the scientific laboratory devices possesses check calibration facilities and supports the statistical gathering of data for the evaluation of a study.