SKINSCOPE SKIN ANALYSER

The SkinScope is a LED-UV light device that illuminates skin imperfections (damage) caused by environmental factors.

Developed by SkinCeuticals, part of L’Oréal Paris, for skincare professionals to perform consultations with clients and document digital images.

While some skin concerns and imperfections are visible in everyday light, some will only be visible under UV light which highlights damage beneath the skin’s surface by detecting skin’s fluorescence.

The SkinScope LED has two light modes: simulated Daylight mode for reviewing visible skin conditions and concerns, and a LED-UV light mode for reviewing skin fluorescence (emitted at 320- 365nm). Both lights are produced by solid-state UV emitters dispersed by six polished chrome mirrors. It reveals visible and underlying skin imperfections including accumulated sun damage (lentigines), oily skin and congested pores, dehydrated and thinner skin areas, uneven texture, and poor desquamation.

The SkinScope LED allows for the use of a smartphone camera to document the consultation thereby providing an evidence-based means of diagnostic evaluation. We will follow the SkinCeuticals Diagnostic Worksheet which maps out your health, lifestyle, skin care routine, and procedure history, includes an area where you can express your skin care expectations and goals, and allows us to note down the products we would like you to incorporate in your skin care routine in order to help you meet your expectations and goals. We will recommend a course of treatments, products and regimens and you can see the improvement over time.

THE SCIENCE OF FLUORESCENCE TECHNOLOGY

Fluorescence is caused when one radiation wavelength is absorbed by a compound which is reflected back at a different wavelength. Certain compounds excite electrons in molecules that change the wavelength energy such that it converts from shortwave UV light to longer wave visible light. When a very specific range of UV light (320-365nm) illuminates skin it reacts in different ways based on what it comes in contact with. Melanin absorbs the light showing as an absence of colour, but other compounds ‘excite’ follicular fluorescence in the skin, changing the wavelength to colours visible to the human eye. Based on the visible shades that are reflected back from the skin, characteristic diagnoses can be made. Propionibacterium acnes, for example, are a bacterium implicated in acne causation which always glow an orange/pink colour. Drier skin flakes from poor desquamation will fluoresce a bright white colour. Healthy skin will fluoresce a homogenous light blue, while lipid deficient or thinner skin areas will be indicated by darker shades of blue.

LED-UV

DIAGNOSTIC MODES

DAYLIGHT

The simulated Daylight mode provides the perfect starter setting for identifying visible skin concerns and conditions before transitioning to the LED-UV mode. In this mode we can pinpoint visible surface level indications of;

• Fine lines and wrinkles

• Uneven skin tone

• Visible lentigenes, brown spots, and natural pigmentation such as freckling

• Redness/blotchiness/flushing (indications of rosacea or sensitive skin)

• Oily/acneic skin

• Dry/flaking skin

• Wrinkling, creping, and other indications of skin laxity and loss of firmness

LED-UV light mode detects fluorescence in the skin for clearer visibility of skin concerns and conditions not visible in everyday light, pinpointing unwanted pigmentation, poor desquamation, dehydration, congested pores, and skin oiliness.

COLOUR GUIDE

While healthy skin reflects back UV light creating a blue glow, melanin in the skin absorbs the light showing as dark spots on the surface of the face. Similarly, congested pores give off pink or orange fluorescence, oily skin is visible in a yellow colour, and dry flaky skin shines as bright white fluorescence. Large patches of darker blue indicate areas of thinner, dehydrated skin