Acne is a common
skin disease that involves the seborrheic area of the face and results from the obstruction of hair follicles followed by
inflammation. Careful face washing helps to improve and prevent
acne; however, intensive washing has a risk of inducing skin barrier impairment and dry skin, especially in sensitive skin. We hypothesized that
skin care combining mild skin cleansing and intensive moisturizing ("combination
skin care") may be effective in the care of
acne in subjects with dry skin and/or sensitive skin. We developed a combination
skin care with a weakly acidic foaming facial skin cleanser based on a mild
detergent, an aqueous lotion with eucalyptus extract and a moisturizing gel containing pseudo-
ceramide and eucalyptus extract. To optimize an ideal facial
skin care system for mild
acne on sensitive skin, we performed a 4-week clinical trial with 29 post-adolescent Japanese women with mild
acne with dry and sensitive skin. The
acne significantly decreased after this trial accompanied by the improvement of dry skin, a significantly increased endogenous
ceramide level in the stratum corneum and an elongated alkyl chain length of the non-hydroxy acyl
sphingosine type
ceramide. No adverse events due to the test samples were observed. Based on diagnosis by a dermatologist, 97% of the subjects found the combination
skin care to be "useful" or "slightly useful". Based on these findings, the combined use of a facial skin cleanser and moisturizers is safe and effective for the care of
acne in post-adolescent Japanese women with sensitive skin.