World's First Spray-On Skin Unveiled By Japanese Company

A Japanese cosmetics company, Kao Corporation, unveiled its latest product that will aid in the quest for perfect skin or at least the appearance of it. The product is a moisturizing face mask that is sprayed on the skin with a handheld “diffuser” and looks like natural skin. The spray-on epidermal layer is made of fibers and when applied, is 1/100^th the thickness of a human hair.

The two technological breakthroughs for the product are the handheld diffuser that took 10 years to develop and the formula for the fibrous material sprayed through the diffuser.

Masayuki Uchiyama, a skincare researcher at Kao, told the South China Morning Post, “This is the world’s first cosmetic product using such technology.” He said the exact materials used were still a secret and admitted that using ultra-thin fibers was at first not the preferred choice to create the skin-like layer.

Uchiyama elaborated, “But we learned that the skin can still breathe under the thin fibers for many hours” that he compared to a greenhouse. As to the diffuser, Uchiyama said, “We struggled to make the device small.”

The product is used by first applying an absorbent lotion and then spraying the fibers onto the skin to form a thin translucent sheet. Oxygen, which makes up 21% of the atmosphere and is known to promote bodily healing, is able to pass through the layer, creating the greenhouse effect along with moisturizing water. The second skin layer can be worn for a few minutes or overnight. It is removed by simply peeling it off.

Currently, the spray-on-skin is used only as a cosmetic product to correct minor acne or perhaps cover an unsightly mole or birthmark, but the possibilities of medical applications are on the minds of Kao researchers. Uchiyama said its future use could be to create an invisible medical patch or a cover for wounds and scars.

Victims of severe burns would benefit the most as a spray-on-skin treatment would make a drastic improvement over painful skin-grafts that are slow to heal and prone to complications like infections or graft failure.

The only other spray-on treatment for burns is the SkinGun by RenovaCare. which shoots a liquid mist infused with human stem cells directly on the burned area to speed up the healing process. Kao predicts sales of its product could reach 100 billion yen ($9.2 million) if the technology is applied to the medical field.

The diffuser will sell for about 58,000 yen ($530) with one application of the secret potion included. Diffuser refills will be priced at about 8,000 yen ($73).