Editor's note: C&T welcomes this contribution by freelancer and columnist Kacey Culliney, who delves into the patent literature for recent beauty breakthroughs and connects with industry experts to decipher the real-world implications. In this edition of Decoding Beauty Breakthroughs, she is joined by Dr. Tarannum Jaleel, MD, and Dr. Katerina Steventon, PhD.
International beauty major Shiseido has developed a system to measure and support skin fluctuations during a woman's menstrual cycle – a compelling invention that could carve out a spot in dermatology, experts say.
Published in April 2026, the international patent1 detailed a “psychosomatic state evaluation device” that Shiseido said can be used to acquire information about the physical and mental state of a woman during her menstrual cycle, including any changes to skin health. The device relied on manual user input, wearables data and measurements obtained from skin testing across parameters like moisture content, transepidermal water loss, skin tone, elasticity, roughness and texture. Shiseido said this information was then used to generate “personalized skin care recommendations” or provide physical activity and wellness ideas, if skin improvements were not relevant.
“Understanding the skin condition according to the phases of the menstrual cycle is important in this field for selecting cosmetic measures, including cosmetics and treatments,” Shiseido wrote in its patent filing. The goal was to track skin changes throughout predetermined phases of the menstrual cycle, including the follicular phase and luteal phase, to deliver highly accurate and personalized evaluations.”
Shiseido said the system could be used at-home by individuals or in-store alongside trained specialists. The system could also measure hair, scalp and nail parameters, though the primary focus in this patent was skin.
Menstrual Cycles and Skin Health
Shiseido said it was widely understood that menstruation affected skin in some way and that the mental and physical state of a woman, including skin condition, “tends to change according to the phase of the menstrual cycle.” Changes, however, were highly individualized and differed from person to person, it said. It was this individualized aspect that opened up a clear need for a technology able to “more accurately evaluate” changes during a woman's menstrual cycle, the company said.
Shiseido's invention worked in several stages to better understand how skin health changed during a menstrual cycle. Firstly, manual input data was acquired on what phase of the menstrual cycle a woman was in, followed by information on the regularity of her cycle and any insights on premenstrual syndrome–tracking both “physical condition” and “mental state.” Much of this could be acquired via medical interview, with additional blood tests or ovulation tests adding more concrete data. The next stage was precise skin analysis to obtain data on “objective skin condition” via a measuring device, to gather data across several skin health parameters, including texture, oxygen saturation, redness, elasticity and glossiness. This could then be complimented by additional insights, perhaps around activity or sleep, from a wearable device, as well as “subjective skin condition” insights from users around things like blemishes, oiliness, irritation, sensitivity or pain, the company said.
All of this was inputted into an application on a user's personal computer, tablet or smartphone or could be inputted into a system that was installed in-store, in beauty stores or sports gyms, for example, to be used by individuals with the help of a consultant.
Shiseido said personalized suggestions to improve skin condition could include recommendations for use of certain products, like lotions, creams, serums or makeup, as well as skin care tools, devices and treatments. If improvements were non-skin related, suggestions on physical activities like yoga, pilates, strength training or meditation could be made, along with prompts to perhaps improve sleep.
As more data was inputted, the system would make “more appropriate suggestions,” Shiseido said.
Importantly, the beauty major said the goal was to display findings and analysis in an engaging and visual way for users, helping them better understand changes to physical and mental state throughout their menstrual cycle and the effects of any new skin care regime or product.
The Expert View: Advanced Technology Support Toward “Precision Medicine”
Two independent experts were contacted to better understand the true potential of Shiseido's invention for managing skin health changes during menstrual cycles.
“The idea of evaluating psychosomatic state is particularly compelling,” said Tarannum Jaleel M.D., dermatologist and assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine. “If done thoughtfully, this could help brands build tools that are more relevant, more predictive, and ultimately more useful for consumers.”
Taking a data-driven approach to skin evaluation by combining cycle phase, cycle regularity, PMS history, wearable data, and skin biometric measurements to estimate psychosomatic state during a phase when symptoms were likely to change was “especially interesting,” she said.
“That is particularly valuable because menstrual-related changes are cyclical, and predicting them is often more useful than analyzing them after the fact. In that sense, the concept feels less like a simple diagnostic tool and more like an important step toward precision medicine,” she explained.
And this, Jaleel said, was key at a time when we were only just beginning to understand the broad patterns of cycle-related changes in skin inflammation. “There is still a lot more to explore, especially around why some individuals have pronounced changes while others have minimal fluctuations across different phases of the menstrual cycle (…) The opportunity is not just to measure skin more accurately, but to understand skin in context.”
Technology, therefore, “has a major role to play here,” and could unlock more personalized and precise analysis–which is certainly where the field was headed, she said.
Dr. Katerina Steventon, Director of UK-based Independent Skincare Consultancy and industry networking association Cosmetics Cluster UK (CCUK), said that while technology had its strengths here, it should not take center stage.
“These tools can support pattern recognition and enable more precise and individualized insights. However, I am very clear that technology cannot replace human interpretation. It must be used to support, not substitute, professional insight. The risk, otherwise, is oversimplifying something inherently complex,” Steventon said.
Practical insights and clinic-based insights also had to go “hand in hand with the scientific literature,” she said. And while literature existed on certain aspects of skin health and skin condition during the menstrual cycle, such as skin dryness, oiliness, barrier function, and microbiome changes, she said the field remained “fragmented and significantly under-researched” – much like the wider area of women's health.
When considering the psychosomatic side of skin evaluation, there were some “early signals from emerging brands” and some “pioneering efforts globally,” but bringing psychodermatology into personal care remained at a very early stage, she said. “I have not yet seen a brand that is delivering this in a truly robust, scientifically grounded way (…) I consider psychosomatic evaluation of the skin to be extremely important but also highly complex, subjective, and sensitive.”
References
- WIPO Database (April 2026) Psychosomatic State Evaluation Device, Policy Proposal Device, and Psychosomatic State Evaluation Method. Global patent WO2026070511. Available at https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2026070511&_cid=P11-MO1HRJ-33331-1
