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RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1
Copyright © XXXX American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science
Letters
All rights reserved Vol. XXXXXXXXX
Printed in the United States of America
Development of Skin Care Routine Support System
Noorhuzaimi Mohd Noor1,2, Nur Jannah Muhamad2, Noor Azida Sahabudin2, Zuriani Mustafa1,2
1Soft Computing & Intelligent System (SPINT), Fakulti Sistem Komputer & Kejuruteraan Perisian, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
2Fakulti Sistem Komputer & Kejuruteraan Perisian, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak,
26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
Skin Care Routine Support System is a system to help people by giving suggestion how to take care their facial skin. There
are differences routine that needs to use based on different skin types. In order to determine the skin type, the people need to
have knowledge about the combination of skin condition. This can cause difficulty for the people to analyse their skin type if
they cannot able to determine their combination skin condition and do not have dip knowledge about skin symptom. As for a
solution, we have proposed a skin care routine decision support system using the knowledge -base. The system able to predict
the user skin type based on environment, age, gender, sleeping hour and skin conditions that will be input by the user. The
user input then will be processed by using a set of score rules to determine the type of skin based on maximum rate. The rules
are developed based on general observation from the web, journal paper, and books. After the skin type determination
process finished, the system provides tips and knowledge of common chemical ingredient that needs to be avoided by the
user. The testing process will be conducted for two types of correspondence which are public user and expert. The system
functionality and system knowledge testing will be got from the public user, while the content, rules, and output will be got
from the expert. Expected results for the feedback are the system able to support the user to determine their skin type and
give knowledge to the user in order to select correct routine and suitable product.
Keywords: Skin care Routine, Support system, knowledge based, skin types.
1. INTRODUCTION
Skin Care Routine is a process of taking care of the
skin. This process is an important task to ensure the skin
in good condition and healthy. There are different routines
that need to be considered based on skin types. The skin
type determination requires knowledge about the skin
condition and symptoms 1. Thus, this can cause difficulty
for common people to analyse their skin type if they have
limited of skin knowledge. The skin type can be
determined based on several factors such as gender, age,
sleeping time2 and skin conditions.
Skin type can be categories into four type such as dry,
oily, normal and combination 3. The dry skin is a feeling
of dryness like flaky, scaly or rough skin.
Email: nhuzaimi@ump.edu.my
Oily skin is the condition of oiliness such as shiny, greasy
or may have big pores. While for normal skin is the
condition intermediate between oily and dry types such as
balanced, clear or not sensitive. Different combination
skin with normal skin is the combination skin with
normal skin is the combination skin has dryness in some
spots, and oiliness in other spots.
There are no such support systems to help the public
user to identify their skin type. They need to go to beauty
salon to have a consultation about their skin care routine
and product. This Thus, this can cause the problem to the
public to practice good routine and to select a suitable
product based on their skin type.
This paper is organized as follows. In section 2, the
related researches about the skin care routine were
discussed. In section 3, the skin care routine decision
support system process elaborated. The experimental
results of comparing the algorithm proposed in this paper
with other algorithms are also presented in section 4.
Finally, our work of this paper is summarized in the last
Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 201X RESEARCH ARTICLE
section.
2. RELATED WORK
There are many research in skin care. Most of the
previous researchers are to overcome the problem of
determining skin diseases such as Eczema, Psoriasis,
Acne, Skin Cancer, Scabies, Seborrheic Dermatitis,
chicken pox and viral rash 4-10. The techniques used are
image processing4, 11, case resoning5, machine learning6, 11
and knowledge base10, 12. Some of the research is based on
product testimony2 and observation 3.
4 has developed an online expert system to diagnose
skin diseases. The system able to diagnose more than 13
types of skin diseases. The system that has been
developed consist of three major components which are a
knowledge-base, an inference engine, and control
strategy. Each component has a different function such as
process the input, identify the problem and symptom, and
the output that able to understand by the user.
Research in 3 is a study about efficacy and safety of
four skin care products. These products indicate for
hydration, skin ageing and sensitive skin. The experiment
has been conducted among four groups of seven
volunteers with different skin types. After four weeks
later the study has found that the significant increase in
hydration was recorded in subjects with dry skin. The
significant decrease in the modified Fitzpatrick wrinkle
scale was recorded in a subject with ageing skin. For
sensitive skin subject, the decrease in erythema and an
increase in sebum secretion were detected at the end of
treatment. As a conclusion of the study in 3 shows that the
combination of the active ingredient was clinically
effective and safe. Based on the study shows that the
correct product with specific ingredients gives good effect
to specific skin type.
13 discussed that spinal bifida is the most common
permanently disabling birth defect in the United States. It
is exposed to chronic skin complications such as wounds
on the buttocks and lower extremities. A Wellness
Program at the University of Pittsburgh in which the
coordinators supervise the care of this individual with
disease want to produce remarkably improved outcomes.
But, the time constraints and travel costs have limited its
scale. So they decided to develop and implement a novel
mHealth system to support complicated self-care tasks,
adherence to routine, monitoring of adherence. The novel
architecture of the mHealth system is called iMHere
(iMobile Health and Rehabilitation). A part of iMHere
development, the mobile health (mHealth) system is
developed for supporting self-care and management of
this skin problem called Skin Care.
Based on study and analysis that has been conducted
there are limited almost no discussion how to help the
public in order to take care of their facial skin
systematically. Therefore the development of the skin
care routine support system has been proposed.
3. SKIN CARE ROUTINE
Skin care routine is a set of process to taking care of
individual skin. Different types of skin have a different
routine and procedure to be followed. In this section will
discuss on skin type determination, skin routine and
chemical need to be avoided by the user.
3.1. Skin Type Determination
There are four types of skin that will be considered in
this project, which is normal, oily, dry, and combination.
The selection based on commonly discussed by the
cosmetic expert 1, 14-16. Sensitive skin will not be
considered because this kind of skin type closed to skin
disease and allergies 3, 17 that involve with medical factors
such as food, chemical, dust and family history.
To identify the skin type most of the researcher use
the reaction, condition, and symptom of skin1, 16.
However, another factor also can influence to determine
the skin type such as sleeping hour, environment and
exercise 2
For dry skin, there are several skin conditions that can
be considered such as skin tight, redness, rough skin, and
itching. Most of the skin care routine website agreed that
itching and rough skin are the conditions for dry skin. The
age increment can cause dry skin if the person does not
take a good care of their skin.
As for oily skin, it is characterized by an increasing
amount of lipids on the skin surface due to overactive
sebaceous glands. Skin mostly looks shiny and thick,
usually with enlarged pores. It tends to get blackhead and
other blemishes this predominantly affects adolescents
and younger persons. Another factor would because of
humid weather, stress and hormones.
For combination skin, it is either dry in some part of
the body or feels oily in other localizations. Dryness
could be on the cheeks and around the eyes while being
oily in the t-zone (nose, forehead, and chin). Different
skin care regimens need for both dry and oily part. It is
the very common type of skin.
3.2. Skin Routine
Skin routine is a process to ensure the skin is clean.
The basic routines are clean, moisturize day and night,
and weekly treatment. There are different skin routines
for a different type of skin. The difference is the
ingredient of skin product. For normal skin 13, 18, 19,
although it has a least problematic type, still it needs to do
cleansing, nourishing and moisturizing process. Cleanse
the skin in the morning with an alcohol-free astringent
tonic. Then, moisturize it using non-greasy cream without
petroleum-based products. While during at night, used a
mild soap to clean the face. For the nourishing cream, the
oil-based product is suitable for normal skin. The mask
also can help maintaining normal skin condition. The
masks can be from an egg yolk or non-drying mask for
rejuvenating the skin.
For the dry skin, moisturizer is one of the crucial
treatments. Moisturizer is best to be used when skin is
RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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still damp. So that, the moisturizer use will trap the
moisture of the skin. The suitable moisturizer is mild
moisturizer that contains no perfumes or alcohols. The
moisturizer also must be thick and greasy to seal in the
moisture needed for good dry skin care. The use of
exfoliation also suitable for dry skin because it can help
the moisturizer penetrate better into the skin. But,
abrasive scrubs can damage dry skin. Fruit type of scrub
is not recommended.
For the oily skin, the use of exfoliation in one of the
important routine. Salicylic acid (BHA) is the best
exfoliating ingredient20. It exfoliates not only skin surface
but also pore lining. In addition, regular use of BHA
exfoliate will help to calm oil production. Sun protection
is essential even for oily skin for preventing wrinkles and
reducing red marks.
3.3. Chemical Ingredient
There are a lot of chemical ingredients has been used
in skin care product. Some of the chemicals can cause bad
side effect but some good based on skin type. 21 claim that
there are thousands of chemical in skin care product but
ten chemical ingredients should highly to avoid when
buying skin care product. First and foremost is parabens.
Parabens are most commonly recommended to be
avoided because it is actually used as preservatives that
prevent the growth of bacteria, moult and yeast in the
product. Continuously used may bring to the breast
cancer 22. Thus, this is important to look at ingredient of
the product before using any product. Table 1 shows a list
of sample good ingredients for oily skin with its effect to
the skin.
Table 1 List of Sample Good Ingredient for Oily Skin
Ingredient
Effect
Salicylic and buffered
glycolic acid
To dissolve heavier fatty surface
oils and deeply cleanse the
epidermis.
Retinoids
To reduce the secretion of oils from
the sebaceous gland.
Oil-free ingredients
These attract and retain water in the
skin, which is crucial for keeping oil
production.
Sodium Hyaluronate
This is a bioactive hydrating
ingredient that can bind 1000 times
its weight in moisture to the skin. It
is one of the most commonly used
skin-hydrating ingredients for oily
skin.
Sodium PCA
a water-binding agent that helps
attract water in the skin.
This information has been used in the system as
knowledgeable information to the user. The simple
explanation also being used to ensure the audience able to
understand about the skin knowledge clearly.
There are also bad ingredients has been identified for
specific skin type. These ingredients are considered not
suitable to particular skin type that can cause the skin
become worst such as the oily skin become oilier. Table 2
shows a list of sample bad ingredient for oily skin.
Table 2 List of Sample Bad Ingredient for Oily Skin
Ingredient
Effect
SD Alcohol 40, Denatured
Alcohol, Ethanol and
Isopropyl Alcohol
This alcohol is bad for your
skin since it is drying and
irritating, even though it has
antibacterial, antiseptic, and
astringent properties.
Comedogenic products
It can block the hair pore and
lead to acne
Sodium or Ammonium
Lauryl Sulfate
It is extremely dehydrating to
the skin.
Mineral Oil and Petrolatum
It can have a pore-clogging
effect on the skin.
Isopropyl Myristate and
Isopropyl Palmitate.
It may encourage clogged
pores.
The ingredients in Table 2 show that if oily skin users
use these ingredients it can cause acne, pimple, and
blackhead to the skin. These make the skin condition
become worst.
Thus the knowledge of the ingredients is important to
ensure the user select the appropriate products that meet
their skin type.
4. SKIN CARE ROUTINE SUPPORT SYSTEM
The skin care routine support system has been
proposed to help the public to identify their skin type in
order to give them the idea to choose suitable skin
product. At the same time, the proposed solution also
provided correct skin type routine for each type skin, tips,
and knowledge of skin product chemical that need to be
avoided and good to be used. The research methodology
used for this project as shown in Figure 1. The method
has been divided into 3 phases which are literature
review, skin care routine support system (SCRSS) and
testing phase.
In the first phase, the factors have been determined
based on a literature study. The symptom, the routine, and
type of chemical have been studied.
The second phase, after the factors and requirements
have been identified and selected, the rules have been
developed and the model of SCRSS has been designed.
The final phase, the model, and the rules will be tested by
using the feedback model (survey and interview). The
survey will be conducted among the public by randomly
about 100 users, and the interview will be conducted by
an expert.
Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 201X RESEARCH ARTICLE
Start
Factors
determination
Rules
Development
Knowledge /
Model
Development
SCRSS
Development
SCRSS
Testing
Public User
Testing
Expert
Testing
End
Literature Review
SCRSS Process
Testing Phase – demo and Questioner
Fig. 1. Research Methodology
The second phase, after the factors and requirements
have been identified and selected, the rules have been
developed and the model of SCRSS has been designed.
The final phase, the model, and the rules will be tested by
using the feedback model (survey and interview). The
survey will be conducted among the public by randomly
about 100 users, and the interview will be conducted by
an expert.
The probability rule has been used to determine the
skin type. The rules have been developed based on skin
several factors, which are skin symptom, age, work
environment and gender. The review about skin type and
its factors from several websites that discuss on skin
routine have been conducted and analyst. The rules that
have been developed not only determine the skin types
but also the tips for the specific skin. Table 3 shows
examples of rules that have been used. The rules have
represented into a percentage that generates from the most
frequent symptom for each skin type1, 14, 15, 19, 22, 23. There
are eleven categories with 27 skin condition has been
used.
Table 3 Example t of rules based on skin condition
Skin
Condition
Categories
Skin
condition
Dry
Normal
Oily
Combinat
ion
Skin
complexion
Balance
( not too
oily or dry)
45
Radiant
25
Dullness
20
5
Shiny
80
Oily T
100
zone
Dry in
some part
85
Skin texture
Smooth
texture
55
Rough
texture
55
Skin tight
50
Skin Tone
Even skin
tone
35
Uneven
skin tone
15
Based on Table 3 shows that the oily T-zone gives
100% for combination skin, Rough texture contributed to
dry skin 55%, smooth texture is about 55% for
Knowledge-based skin and shiny 80% for oily skin. After
that, the score is calculated by using the equation as in
Equation 1.
ooooO SCEGAscore
Equation 1
The equation 1 shows the calculation score for oily
skin. Where
0
score
represent as a score for oily skin,
o
A
as an age for oily skin,
o
G
gender for oily skin,
o
E
working environment for oily skin and
o
SC
skin
conditions for oily skin. This equation also uses for
another skin type. After the value of each skin type has
been calculated, the maximum value will be determined
by the score for each skin type. If
o
score
get a maximum
score, then the skin type is oily.
Knowledge based has been developed based on skin
types. The contents of knowledge consist of the routines
of taking care of skins, the general product use, type of
good chemical, bad chemical and tips that useful for the
user.
The rules and knowledge that have been developed as
a proposed solution will be tested based on two types of
audience, public, and expert. In order to test the rules, the
mobile application has been developed. All the design and
propose rule has been implemented.
5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The proposed solution has successfully been
developed by using the mobile application. However, the
testing is still in progress. The testing will be conducted
into two type environment which is public testing and
expert testing. For public testing, will be tested for user
knowledge before and after use the system and the system
functionality. While for the expert, the rules and the
model will be tested. The test will reflect with the system
flow, the input, the output and the information from the
proposed solution.
Public test will be conducted from 100 respondents
that randomly select among genders and ages. The
respondent will be asked to use the system. The system
will provide a set of questionnaire that needs to be
RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
5
answered by the user. This questionnaire focuses on
collecting the user knowledge about skin type, a lifestyle
that can affect of skin type and the cosmetic ingredient.
Then, the user needs to insert information of skin
condition and their life style. After providing the input,
the skin type result will be displayed. Then, the post
questionnaire will be appeared to ask the user about their
knowledge of using the system and the system
functionality.
After public testing has been done, the expert testing
will be continued. The expert test will be tested on the
input, the proposed rules and knowledge model use, and
the output from the public testing. This testing is the main
testing to conclude the success of this research. The
expert is dermatologist from International Islamic
University Malaysia.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The skin care routine support system is a system to
identify skin type and propose suitable routine that needs
to be followed by the user. The system also provides the
knowledge about danger and good skin care ingredient
based on each skin type. The random observation has
been conducted to determine factors that can contribute to
skin type identifying. The probability rules and maximum
values have been used to determine the skin type. For the
testing purpose support system has been developed in
order to get direct feedback from public user and skin
expert. For public testing, user knowledge and system
functionality will be tested. While for expert testing, the
logical and rules will be evaluated. The expert testing
result is an important to conclude the success of the
proposed rule and knowledge model.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by UMP under Grant
No. RDU1603113.
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