Japanese beauty company Shiseido has taken the wraps off Shape-Shifting HA Technology, which is claimed to control the volume of hyaluronic acid (HA) to increase skin moisture.
HA forms a water retention film on the skin surface and exerts a high moisturizing effect, but at the same time, its very large molecular size hinders penetration into the stratum corneum after application.
With the new technology, says Shiseido, HA shrinks via the addition of magnesium ions and dramatically increases its penetration into the stratum corneum compared to normal HA.
In addition, this technology re-expands the shrunken HA via the addition of sodium metaphosphate, a type of chelating agent, resulting in restoration of the original properties of HA and increasing the water content in the stratum corneum.
Some of these research results were presented at the 142nd Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.
“We at Shiseido have been conducting this research under the Inside/Outside approach of our R&D philosophy, Dynamic Harmony,” the company said in a statement.
“We aim to realize soft and dewy skin through the application of the Shape-Shifting HA Technology, the most advanced technology that controls the volume of high molecular HA to enhance its penetration and function in the stratum corneum,” it added.
In a related development, Shiseido has published the results of a study in collaboration with Professor Akira Ikari of Gifu Pharmaceutical University, which has discovered that magnesium ions (Mg2+) act on epidermal cells to promote cellular hyaluronic acid production and induce spermidine production, protecting the cells from oxidative damage such as UV rays.
“We will widely apply these results to our skincare product development,” it said.
“We will also continue our research on minerals, which are widely present in nature and play an important role in maintaining human health, and apply these findings to beauty innovations that help people realize healthy skin.”
