Taking part in a cosmetic-product study could mean photographing skin at home instead of visiting a test site for every measurement. Trade publication Cosmetics Business describes Dermaself’s AI skin-analysis platform as a way for testing laboratories to collect these photographs and track changes over time. Cosmetics Business (source, opens in new tab)Cosmetics BusinessDermaself takes its AI skin analysis into remote clinical studiesOpen source (opens in new tab)
In the workflow described by the report, volunteers photograph their skin before using a product and again at checkpoints set by the laboratory. The platform is said to measure selected visible skin characteristics and compare them with each person’s starting measurements. Laboratories decide what to measure and when, then interpret the results and write the study’s conclusions.
This could let laboratories collect repeated measurements without volunteers visiting a test site. The available reporting describes how the service would work, but does not independently establish how reliably it measures changes in remote studies.
Cosmetics Business reports Dermaself’s claim that a study could include up to 10,000 volunteers. That is a claimed capacity, rather than the size of a study shown to have taken place.
The report also attributes a repeatability figure of 0.92–0.93 to Dermaself’s skin-image measurements. Repeatability concerns how consistently a method measures the same thing under specified conditions. But the available material does not define the metric or provide the underlying validation methods and data. The figure therefore cannot establish how dependable the measurements would be in an at-home study.
The available evidence also leaves open how well the measurements hold up across different devices, lighting conditions and groups of users.
Consistency is only part of the question. A photograph may record a change in skin during product use, but that comparison alone cannot establish that the product caused it. The study’s design determines what can be concluded from the measurements. EUR-Lex (source, opens in new tab)EUR-LexCommission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 of 10 July 2013 laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic productsOpen source (opens in new tab)
EU rules require cosmetic claims to have adequate, verifiable support, with studies relevant to the product and claimed benefit using valid, reliable and reproducible methods. The service described by Dermaself would help laboratories collect data remotely; those laboratories would still need to establish what the data show about the product.
- Cosmetics Business · News reportDermaself takes its AI skin analysis into remote clinical studiescosmeticsbusiness.com · opens in new tab
- EUR-Lex · Regulatory recordCommission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 of 10 July 2013 laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic productseur-lex.europa.eu · opens in new tab
