MediQOL is produced by Nano Egg in Japan, and has been marketed for sensitive skin since 2018.
The MediQOL branded products include a facial cleansing powder, skin water and a skin lipid said to contain components to imitate the ratio of intercellular lipid and sebum in healthy skin to help improve skin barrier function.
This study was conducted by the R&D team at Nano Egg Research Laboratories, where researchers said the MediQOL products also helped balanced water and oil levels in subjects with dry skin.
The findings were published in the Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology journal.
Study design
For this study, researchers enrolled 20 subjects living in Japan, with dry skin as identified by a dermatologist. Subjects ranged from 21 to 63 years old.
The MediQOL products were applied on the face and forearm/lower egg on one side of the body. The other side was the control where subjects used their existing cosmetic products.
Subjects were tasked to use the MediQOL products twice a day (morning and evening) for four weeks.
Subjects first washed their face with MediQOL washing powder, then conditioned with MediQOL skin water before moisturising with MediQOL skin lipid. Only MediQOL skin water and MediQOL skin lipid were applied to the forearm or lower leg.
A skin evaluation was performed by a dermatologist, and each subject completed a questionnaire at baseline, week two and week four.
Researchers also used instruments to measure erythema (redness) and skin moisture and oil levels.
Moisturising capacity
At the start of the study, about 5% of subjects were deemed to have severe dryness on their face, and 15% on their forearm/lower leg. However, these ratios reduced to 0% at week two.
At week two and four, researchers observed there was decreased erythema and improved water and oil content than at baseline.
Subjects also reported relief in redness, itchiness and dryness by week four as reported in the questionnaires.
These improvements may be due to the suppression of acute inflammation by the anti-inflammatory agents included in MediQOL such as dipotassium glycyrrhizinate and stearyl glycyrrhetinate in MediQOL skin water and skin lipid respectively.
Researchers explained: “It is predicted that MediQOL washing powder, which contains ingredients similar to sebum, forms a sebum barrier to clean and smooth the skin.”
“MediQOL skin water, which promotes keratinocytes proliferation in vitro, replenishes the skin with nutrition and natural moisturising ingredients to induce the skin regeneration.”
“MediQOL skin lipid, which includes fatty acids, ceramides, and cholesterol, recruits lost intercellular lipids to restore barrier function and moisturise the skin.”
These results indicate that the moisturising capacity of MediQOL is equal to or greater than that of other cosmetics routinely used by subjects with dry skin.
Future improvements
There were some adverse events in this study. Nine subjects experienced skin roughness and redness (n=1), acne (n=1), folliculitis (n=2), redness, itchiness and acne (n=1), tenseness after washing powder use (n=1), itchiness after skin water use (n=2), and irritation and redness after skin water use (n=1) between week two and four.
However, none of these events were serious and all subjects were recovered by week four.
Researchers wrote: “As the adverse events were transient and not serious, they may have been due to the subject’s health, the climate, or the skin condition on that specific day.”
MediQOL products do not contain surfactant, alcohol, preservatives, perfume, colouring matter, or mineral oil.
“Our study results, which demonstrated the effect of humidity retention in subjects with dry skin using cosmetics consisting only of imitated components of the healthy skin composition, are promising and we believe that MediQOL meets a demand for people with impaired skin barrier function, although MediQOL leaves room for some improvement for reducing irritation to the skin.”
“We expect that MediQOL will also be useful for the skin care in people with skin diseases. At present, there are many people who are troubled by skin conditions and seek ideal cosmetics which have low irritancy to the skin. We hope to continue to develop and provide cosmetics that hardly cause skin irritancy and ameliorate skin conditions.”
Researchers said MediQOL products may be effective for people with various skin types including dry, oily, as well as combination skin.
Source: Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology
https://doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S277569
“Clinical Trial of Low Irritative Skin Care Cosmetics in Japanese Subjects with Dry Skin”
Authors: Tanaka K, et al.
