Sederma launches skin brightener approved for Japan

02-Feb-2011 - Last updated on 02-Feb-2011 at 12:05 GMT

Related tags Melanin

A new skin brightening ingredient approved for Japan can help reduce pigmentation irregularities, France-headquartered company Sederma claims.

The ingredient, Wonderlight, works on both the melanocytes and the keratinocytes to help lessen pigmentation disorders such as freckles, lentigines (sun or age spots), inflammatory pigmentation and melasma, Sederma claims.

According to the company, Wonderlight helps to block the signalling pathways involved in melanin synthesis as well as reducing the epidermal melanin unit cross-talking.

“An epidermal melanin unit is considered to consist of one melanocyte surrounded by about fourty keratinocytes,” a spokesperson for Sederma told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.

“The epidermal melanin unit cross talking consists of the signalling pathways between keratinocytes and melanocytes that conduct to the melanin synthesis,” the spokesperson added.

Equalise skin pigmentation

In addition, the ingredient has an intelligent mode of action, according to the company, that allows it to exhibit a stronger effect on hyper pigmented areas. In other words, it can work to equalise the skin pigmentation.

The company has been quick to highlight that Wonderlight is approved in Japan, where the regulations for such products are strict.

“Japanese regulations are very strict with whitening cosmetic products which are categorised as quasi-drugs. Ingredients included in this category of products should be listed in the CLS or JCIC, which is the case for Wonderlight,” the spokesperson said.

Although the company has specifically highlighted Japan, the ingredient can also be used in other Asian markets where the regulation is not so strict and approval of the same kind is not needed.

Sederma’s in vivo tests confirm the efficacy of the ingredient, it claims, with two clinical trials conducted on Asian volunteers with classical pigment disorders.

Similarly, in vitro tests were performed in which the ingredient was shown to inhibit the UV-induced secretion of the melanocyte stimulator GM-CSF, in addition to tests on human skin cultures that illustrated the inhibition of the UV-induced increase in melanocyte number.