Cosmetics

Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) has developed into an increasingly important tool in dermatology. While new technologies integrated within laser devices are emerging, there is a lack of data on the applicability of publicly available AI models. Methods: The prospective study used an online questionnaire where participants evaluated diagnosis and treatment for 25 dermatological cases shown as pictures. The same questions were given to AI models: ChatGPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 4, Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Grok-3. Results: Dermatologists outperformed AI in diagnostic accuracy (suspected primary diagnosis-SD 75.6%) in pooled dermatologists vs. pooled AI (SD 57.0%), with laser specialists achieving the highest accuracy (SD 82.0%) and residents the lowest (SD 66.0%). There was a high heterogeneity across AI models. Gemini approached dermatologist performance (SD 72.0%), while Claude showed a low accuracy (SD 40.0%). While AI models reached near 100% accuracy in some classic/common diagnoses (e.g., acne, rosacea, spider angioma, infantile hemangioma), their accuracy dropped to near 0% on rare or context-dependent cases (e.g., blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome, angiosarcoma, hirsutism, cutaneous siderosis). Inter-rater agreement was high among laser experts in terms of diagnostic accuracy and treatment choice. Agreement between residents and AI models was highest for diagnostic accuracy and treatment choice, while it was lowest between experts and AI models. Conclusions: Before AI-based tools can be integrated into daily practice, particularly regarding diagnosis and appropriate laser treatment recommendations, specific supervised medical training of the AI model is necessary, as open-source platforms currently lack the ability to contextualize presented data.

Skin hydration is a key indicator of skin health and stratum corneum (SC) integrity, yet its relationship with multi-dimensional physiological parameters remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to investigate the association between facial skin hydration and key physiological parameters and explored the lipidomic differences between individuals with high and low hydration levels. We enrolled 60 healthy Chinese women (aged 30–55), divided into a low-hydration (LH, n = 11) group and a high-hydration (HH, n = 19) group based on Corneometer measurements. An integrated methodology was employed, including confocal Raman spectroscopy, multiphoton laser tomography, biophysical instruments, and untargeted lipidomics. Our results demonstrated a positive correlation between skin hydration and SC thickness, ceramides, and lactate levels. However, no significant correlation was identified in relation to wrinkles, color, or elasticity. The lipidomic analysis revealed eighty-three significantly upregulated lipids (VIP > 1.0, p < 0.05) in LH skin, among which ten lipids, including nine ceramides, exhibited strong negative correlations with hydration (|r| > 0.8, p < 0.05). These lipids were predominantly associated with sphingolipid and triacylglycerol metabolic pathways. Together, our findings suggest that low-hydration skin is characterized by systemic lipidomic dysregulation, rather than a deficiency of individual lipids. These findings represent novel insights into the mechanisms underlying skin hydration and identify potential therapeutic targets for addressing skin dryness and aging.

This study addresses the growing consumer demand for effective and sustainable hair care solutions by evaluating a novel bioactive crosslink repair complex designed to restore chemically damaged hair. The complex comprises itaconic acid, arginine, D-panthenol, and polysaccharides from linseed and chia, which work synergistically to promote fiber crosslinking, protein restructuring, and cuticle barrier restoration. The complex was incorporated into two formulations: a bleaching mixture as a protective agent and a leave-in conditioner as a repair treatment for chemically damaged hair. The protective efficacy was assessed through tensile strength measurements, differential scanning calorimetry, combability tests, shine evaluation, and scanning electron microscopy. The repair potential was evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry and tensile strength analysis. Results demonstrated that incorporating the complex into the bleaching mixture significantly enhanced break stress, denaturation enthalpy, shine, and combability, while maintaining improved cuticle alignment. The hair repair evaluation showed that post-treatment application of the complex successfully restored hair tensile strength and denaturation. These findings confirm the dual functionality of Bioactive Crosslink Repair Complex as both a protective and reparative agent, highlighting synergistic mechanisms in preventing and reversing chemical damage to hair fibers. This bioactive approach offers a promising alternative for hair care formulations targeting chemically treated hair.