Improving lip wrinkles: lipstick‐related image analysis

Background/purpose: The appearance of lip wrinkles is problematic if it is adversely influenced by lipstick make‐up causing incomplete color tone, spread phenomenon and pigment remnants. It is mandatory to develop an objective assessment method for lip wrinkle status by which the potential of wrinkle‐improving products to lips can be screened. The present study is aimed at finding out the useful parameters from the image analysis of lip wrinkles that is affected by lipstick application.Methods: The digital photograph image of lips before and after lipstick application was assessed from 20 female volunteers. Color tone was measured by Hue, Saturation and Intensity parameters, and time‐related pigment spread was calculated by the area over vermilion border by image‐analysis software (Image‐Pro®). The efficacy of wrinkle‐improving lipstick containing asiaticoside was evaluated from 50 women by using subjective and objective methods including image analysis in a double‐blind placebo‐controlled fashion.Results: The color tone and spread phenomenon after lipstick make‐up were remarkably affected by lip wrinkles. The level of standard deviation by saturation value of image‐analysis software was revealed as a good parameter for lip wrinkles. By using the lipstick containing asiaticoside for 8 weeks, the change of visual grading scores and replica analysis indicated the wrinkle‐improving effect. As the depth and number of wrinkles were reduced, the lipstick make‐up appearance by image analysis also improved significantly.Conclusion: The lip wrinkle pattern together with lipstick make‐up can be evaluated by the image‐analysis system in addition to traditional assessment methods. Thus, this evaluation system is expected to test the efficacy of wrinkle‐reducing lipstick that was not described in previous dermatologic clinical studies.