These days, you can digitally track everything from your sleep to your meditation goals. But what if we told you there’s even a cool new way to track the health of your skin?
That’s the thinking behind the new Neutrogena Skin360™ app, which taps into dermatologist-grade technology (think: a 30x magnification lens, LED lighting and a moisture sensor) to analyze your face, show how it’s changing over time and help ensure your beauty regimen is achieving results—all via your smartphone.
“This is the first product of its kind to offer you an at-home lablike environment for assessing your skin, enabling you to actually see how it changes day in and day out,” explains Molly Garris, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Neutrogena, part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies.
So instead of just hoping you’ve chosen the right skincare products—and eyeballing your skin to determine if they’re getting the job done—the Neutrogena Skin360 software, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), will track your skin’s progress over time to give you deep information about your skin’s actual needs and health.
Expert skin analysis in just a few minutes
There are two parts to the innovation: the Neutrogena Skin360 app and a tool called the skin scanner. Neutrogena worked with technology start-up FitSkin to create a system that can analyze several components of your skin: moisture, pores, fine lines and wrinkles.
You slip the skin scanner over the top of your smartphone (it’s currently available for iPhones, but the company is exploring Android options for a future release).
The skin scanner magnifies your phone’s camera lens, then enhances the magnification with eight high-powered LED lights. It also has a “moisture meter” in the form of a ring around the lens that reads hydration levels below the skin’s surface.
You then hold the lens against different areas of your face, as instructed by the app. It captures data and high-resolution images, which are then transmitted via Bluetooth from the skin scanner to the Neutrogena Skin360 phone app.
Using your dermatological data, the app produces an analysis of your skin and ranks it on a scale of 0-100, taking into consideration factors like your age and geographical location. It then further breaks down your score into these core focus areas: moisture, pores, fine lines and wrinkles. And all of this takes just a few minutes!
A unique map of your skin
You will see a digital representation of your wrinkles overlaid on an actual picture of your skin. Neutrogena Skin360 analyzes how many you have, how long and deep they are and how much they branch off. The tool maps out your pores in a similar way.
And while it can be an eye-opening experience to see so much data about your skin, remember that knowledge is power. “Neutrogena Skin360 makes the invisible visible, so you can get ahead of your skincare, instead of waiting until you already have a lot of wrinkles,” Garris says.
If the weather shifts or you start using a new product, those changes will be reflected in your Neutrogena Skin360 selfies, which the app can use to help guide you to tweak your skincare regimen based on how your skin reacts to different environments and treatments.
Once you’ve received your stats, Neutrogena Skin360 also delivers targeted lifestyle suggestions to help you take better care of your skin. So if your assessment reveals that you have dry skin, you might see such tips as lowering your shower temperature or incorporating more moisture-rich foods, like lettuce and melon, into your diet.
You also have the option to complete a survey about your skin concerns and lifestyle to help further ensure that tips and suggestions are highly relevant. For example, if you share that you wear makeup, the app will overlay this data with your skin analysis to deliver tips that relate to both dry skin and makeup.
The app will also recommend a personalized skincare regimen, explaining why particular products and ingredients can be effective for improving your skin. For those with dry skin, for example, the app may recommend a hyaluronic acid cream, which helps replenish moisture continuously throughout the day.
The AI way to personalize skincare
Perhaps the coolest thing about Neutrogena Skin360 is the AI factor.
“Skin is dynamic and can sense shifts in the environment very quickly,” says Michael Southall, Global Beauty Category Platform Leader, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. “So the more you use the tool, the more it learns how your skin responds to changes over time.”
For example, if the weather shifts or you start using a new product, those changes will be reflected in your Neutrogena Skin360 selfies, which the app can use to help guide you to tweak your skincare regimen based on how your skin reacts to different environments and treatments.
If you scan your skin on a regular basis, the app will also render a graphic timeline to show how your scores change and how they compare to others like you.
“It’s hard to notice tiny shifts in your skin’s appearance with the naked eye,” Garris explains. “Dermatologists can see these details, but consumers don’t normally have access to the high-powered tools they use.” Being able to go back and look at your high-tech skin selfies over time, she adds, can help you test your skincare regimen and then course correct if you’re not seeing the results you desire.
And according to Southall, there’s more in store for this AI-fueled innovation. “Neutrogena Skin360 is intended to be a living technology,” Southall says. “We plan to continue adding new functionality, bringing other skin measurements and expanded indications into it.”
One possible upgrade: the ability to sync the app to your calendar for even more customized readouts based on the weather in your geographic location. Talk about the future of skincare—today.
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