Driving the Future of AI-Powered Skincare Customization

The skincare industry stands at an inflection point driven by escalating consumer demand for personalized products and custom skincare routines matched to their unique skin needs. While sales accelerate across specialized skin care, existing “custom skin care”players like Curology and Proven lack flexible customization models that accurately diagnose skin type. This creates sizable opportunity for an innovative disruptor to reshape skincare commerce.

Spearheading Flexible Customization Through AI

Skin Type Solutions has emerges as a leader in leveraging artificial intelligence to deliver medical grade custom skincare routines to patients of dermatologists and consumers. Originally created by renowned dermatologist Dr. Leslie Baumann at the University of Miami in 2005, the Baumann Skin Typing System serves as the clinical cornerstone. This research-backed methodology categorizes individuals into one of 16 Baumann Skin Types® and is used as the skin typing diagnostic standard by dermatologists around the globe.

Skin Type Solutions has a scientifically validated skin type quiz that is the gold standard for skin type diagnosis. The highly structured binary hierarchy and strict definitions of what ingredients can and cannot be in the skincare product formulations for each skin type is the foundation used to recommend a custom skin care routine to patients. The skincare product recommendations draw on immense datasets compiled from over 20 years of skin research and collaboration with over 100 dermatologists. Advanced algorithms match consumers to hyper-customized product regimens tailored and tested by doctors to their specific Baumann Skin Type profile.

Dec 2008 Skin and Allergy News

AI Requires Good Data To Successfully Prescribe Skincare Routines

We have all heard the term “garbage in and garbage out.”  Most skincare recommendation platforms are working with “garbage data” because the skin type diagnosis is not accurate.  For example, photos only tell the condition of the skin at that point in time and tell nothing about historical reactions of the skin in various situations.  Many of these custom skincare companies base their skin care recommendations on demographics, skin color, previous shopping patterns, income level, and other data that has nothing to do with the scientific condition of the skin and its scientific needs. To match the diagnostic accuracy of a consult with a dermatologist, historical data must be gathered.  The way questions are asked also impacts the accuracy of the result.  Questionnaire science provides guidance on how to scientifically validate a questionnaire and most skin type quizzes have not been validated to make sure they measure what they set out to measure. Starting with the wrong skin type data can result in incorrect skincare recommendations and bad advice.

The Baumann Skin Type Quiz, also called the Baumann Skin Type Indicator, has been validated in various studies around the world. (1,2,5,8,9,10) Researchers license the use of this skin type quiz for their research studies. Only Skin Type Solutions has the most recent validated quiz which is constantly updated as new studies come out.

The Baumann Skin Types are characterized by the presence or absence of 4 barriers to skin health:

• Dehydration
• Inflammation
• Hyperpigmentation
• Agin

Here’s a breakdown of the 16 Baumann Skin Types®:

Skin Type 1- DSPT – Dry, sensitive,  hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 2- DSNT – Dry, sensitive,  no hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 3- DSPW – Dry, sensitive,  hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 4- DSNW – Dry, sensitive, no hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 5- OSPT – Oily, sensitive,  hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 6- OSNT – Oily, sensitive, no hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 7- OSPW – Oily, sensitive, hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 8- OSNW – Oily, sensitive, no hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 9-OPRT – Oily, resistant,  hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 10-ORNT – Oily, resistant, no hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 11- ORPW – Oily, resistant, hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 12- ORNW – Oily, resistant, no hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 13- DRPT – Dry, resistant, hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 14- DRNT – Dry, resistant, no hyperpigmentation, tight

Skin Type 15- DRPW – Dry, resistant, hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

Skin Type 16- DRNW – Dry, resistant, no hyperpigmentation, wrinkle-prone

A Well Defined Binary Hierarchy Is Critical For Accurate AI Based Skincare Product Recommendations

The strict hierarchy of data, product classification, skin type matching and years of research have resulted in a robust skincare recommendation system that is the perfect foundation for machine learning and AI customer support. This fusion of flexible customization, vast computation power, and consumer empowerment underpins Skin Type Solutions’ unprecedented skincare routine personalization model. Users gain clarity on their skin needs while retaining preferences and budget-based choices across many brands – marrying flexibility with clinical credibility.

Overcoming Limited Consumer Self-Knowledge

Enabling such personalization first requires accurately diagnosing skin type – which studies show 80% of individuals guess incorrectly without an accurate diagnostic tool. Skin Type Solutions overcomes this through a scientific skin type quiz grounded in peer-reviewed validation. (refs 1-11) Sophisticated algorithms categorize users into one of 16 skin profiles with 4 sensitive skin subtypes. The user is then matched to one of 40,000 skin care routine templates that have been tested by dermatologists on their patients over the last decade with Dr. Baumann’s oversight. This clinical baseline then personalizes product suggestions aligned to addressed skin goals.   The user can then choose from a list of products from many medical grade skin care brands for each of the skincare routine steps.

Is a Dermatologist’s Advice Better than AI?

AI is a huge advance in the skin care recommendation space, but for AI to give good skincare advice it needs to be based on a solid, factual, and scientifically validated infrastructure in addition to a proper skin type diagnosis. By integrating big data resources with measured human wisdom, precise logic, and decades of testing, Skin Type Solutions has set up the perfect infrastructure and hierarchy for AI skincare advice.  Skin Type Solutions aims to change the way you shop for skincare. Imagine a future where you would not dream of shopping for skincare without knowing if the product is right for your Baumann Skin Type.  Well- that future is here as evidenced by the meteoric rise in sales at SkinTypeSolutions.com over the last year. Watch this space as over 60 brands are collaborating with Dr. Baumann.

References:

1. Baumann, Leslie. “Validation of a Questionnaire to Diagnose the Baumann Skin Type in All Ethnicities and in Various Geographic Locations” Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications 6 (2016): 34-40.
2. Baumann, Leslie S., et al. “A Validated Questionnaire for Quantifying Skin Oiliness” Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications 4 (2014): 78-84.
3. Lee, Y. B., Park, S. M., Bae, J. M., Yu, D. S., Kim, H. J., & Kim, J. W. (2017). Which Skin Type Is Prevalent in Korean Post-Adolescent Acne Patients?: A Pilot Study Using the Baumann Skin Type Indicator. Annals of Dermatology, 29(6), 817.
4. Choi, J. Y., Choi, Y. J., Nam, J. H., Jung, H. J., Lee, G. Y., & Kim, W. S. (2016). Identifying skin type using the Baumann skin type questionnaire in Korean women who visited a dermatologic clinic. Korean Journal of Dermatology, 54(6), 422-437.
5. Cho, S. I., Kim, D., Lee, H., Um, T. T., & Kim, H. (2023). Explore highly relevant questions in the Baumann skin type questionnaire through the digital skin analyzer: A retrospective single‐center study in South Korea. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.
6. Lee, Young Bin, Sung Ku Ahn, Gun Young Ahn, Hana Bak, Seung Phil Hong, Eun Jung Go, Chang Ook Park et al. “Baumann Skin Type in the Korean Male Population.” Annals of Dermatology 31, no. 6 (2019): 621-630.
7. Ahn, S. K., Jun, M., Bak, H., Park, B. D., Hong, S. P., Lee, S. H., … & Goo, J. W. (2017). Baumann skin type in the Korean female population. Annals of dermatology, 29(5), 586-596.
8. Kanezawa, S., Zhu, Y. B., & Wang, Q. (2020). Correlation between Chinese medicine constitution and skin types: a study on 187 Japanese women. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 26, 174-179.
9. Efata, R., Loka, W. I., Wijaya, N., & Suhartono, D. (2023). Facial Skin Type Prediction Based on Baumann Skin Type Solutions Theory Using Machine Learning. TEM Journal, 12(1).
10. Oliveira, R., Ferreira, J., Azevedo, L. F., & Almeida, I. F. (2023). An Overview of Methods to Characterize Skin Type: Focus on Visual Rating Scales and Self-Report Instruments. Cosmetics, 10(1), 14.

Park, K. Y., Hong, J. K., Shin, S. H., Koh, Y. G., Han, H. S., Moon, N. J., … & Seo, S. J. (2022). A Study on the Correlation of Skin Types with Genetic Factors and Environmental Factors in Koreans. 대한피부과학회지, 60(4), 242-253.