Link between "skin and mind"

In our modern society with ever increasing stress factors, women have known intuitively from the "real feeling of the skin" that mental stress affects their skin adversely. However, scientific inquiries into why stress produces such an effect did not begin until the 1990s.

In 1993, the MGH/Harvard Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) published in the well-known British scientific journal "Nature" their study showing that "Langerhans' cells" that control the skin immune system are in contact with nerve fibers in the skin. Around this time, it was pointed out at the Shiseido Science Symposium that the relationship between the skin and mind needed to be explored, and Shiseido started a study of the skin which focused on the link with the mind.
Subsequent research revealed relief of stress to improve the condition of the skin.

Establishment of NICE theory - "qiora" helps the skin from within the body

To gain clues to utilizing the NICE theory in skin care, Shiseido has collected data from aromachology (physio-psychology of aroma) studies for more than 20 years. Shiseido has extracted from naturally occurring scents ingredients that calm or uplift the human mood, and has accumulated data on these ingredients. While these data have been utilized mainly in fragrances, we have started to apply them in the field of skin care as well, with attention to the link between fragrance and the skin. In the process of conducting joint studies with CBRC, Shiseido discovered a psychosomatic network connecting the brain to the skin through the nervous, immune and endocrine systems, and presented the results of this study as the "NICE theory (physiology of the skin related to internal activities)". Based on this "NICE theory", "qiora" was born from our collection of diverse scientific data. "qiora" relieves stress and improves the skin from within the body by 3 mechanisms, "aromachology", "homeostasis", and "beauty treatment".

With deep breathing and visual blocking incorporated into 4 steps, i.e. wash, smell, supplement and deepen, the relaxation effect is heightened.

Shiseido will continue to study the link between "skin and mind" in depth.

New slimming theory to "burn" neutral fat based on the effect of fragrance

Deterioration of the body contour is caused by increased neutral fat in subcutaneous fat cells. To reduce this neutral fat, it is necessary to break down neutral fat into free fatty acids, and then "burn" the excess via muscle metabolism by exercising, etc. If free fatty acids are not "burned", they are re-converted to neutral fat and restored to subcutaneous fat. "UCP" is a protein that "burns" free fatty acids, and is expressed abundantly in response to the activity of the physiologically active substance "noradrenaline" secreted in response to activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Shiseido has promoted research in aromachology for more than 20 years, and has discovered yet another new effect of fragrance. The scents of "grapefruit", "pepper", "fennel" and "tarragon" activate sympathetic nerves to stimulate secretion of "noradrenaline" which in turn increases expression of "UCP". As a result of this research, which shows that smelling a particular fragrance can stimulate secretion of "noradrenaline", a physiologically active substance inducing the expression of fat-burning protein "UCP", while caffeine, an ingredient that promotes "disintegration" of neutral fat to free fatty acids, acts synergistically with these scents to burn neutral fat in subcutaneous fat cells, the "new slimming theory (UCP theory)" was established for the first time on a global scale.