ORIGINAL ARTICLE Ageing appearance in China: biophysical profile of facial skin and its relationship to perceived age AE Mayes, ‡, * PG Murray, ‡ DA Gunn, ‡ CC Tomlin, ‡ SD Catt, ‡ YB Wen, † LP Zhou, † HQ Wang, † M Catt, ‡ SP Granger ‡ † Unilever Discover, Shanghai, China ‡ Unilever Discover, Colworth Science Park, Bedford, UK *Correspondence: Dr Andrew E Mayes. E-mail: Andrew.Mayes@unilever.com Abstract Background Perceived age is important to women and is a primary driver for topical product use and facial cosmetic surgery. Changes in facial features and biophysical skin parameters with chronological age and their associations with perceived age have not been described in Asian populations. Objective To investigate the relationship between biophysical properties of the skin, visual features of skin ageing and perceived facial age in Chinese women. Methods Facial photographs were collected of 250 Chinese women, aged 25–70 years in Shanghai, China. The perceived facial age was determined and related to the chronological age for each participant and to a range of visual assessments of skin appearance and objective biophysical measurements of the skin. The profile of changes in these parameters with age was investigated together with the differences in those parameters for women judged to look younger than their chronological age and those judged to look older than their chronological age. Results Large discrepancies in perceived age (up to 29 years) were found in women of the same chronological age. Each objective skin measure and visual assessment parameter had a stronger correlation with perceived age than with chronological age. The strongest relationships to perceived age were for wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. Skin colour, hydration and trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL) had weaker associations with perceived age. Women judged to look older than their chronological age had significantly higher scores than those judged to look younger for coarse wrinkles and hyperpigmentation across all age groups. The appearance differences between these groups were evident in composite facial images of the same average chronological age. Conclusions We have identified the skin attributes which differ with perceived age in Chinese women. Perceived age is a better measure of the biological age of facial skin than is chronological age in this population. Received: 19 February 2009; Accepted: 8 June 2009 Keywords China, face, perceived age, skin ageing Conflict of interest All authors were employed by Unilever at the time of the study and no conflicts of interest exist. Introduction As society becomes increasingly age- and image-driven, facial appearance (principally youthful appearance) is of importance to many individuals and to women in particular. Despite many investigations over the years into the age-related changes to the physiology and appearance of Caucasian skin, there has been only limited literature in relation to Asian skin and appearance, with virtually no studies reported for Chinese skin. Age-related changes in wrinkles and pigmented spots have been described in a direct comparison of Chinese women and French Caucasian women. 1 The progression of facial wrinkling with age was found to be linear in Caucasians, but not in Chinese subjects, who showed a slower increase in wrinkle intensity until around age 50 years, followed by a rapid progression beyond this age. A 10-year delay in the onset of wrinkles in the Chinese group compared with the Caucasian group was also described. Pigmenta- tion spots were assessed on the face and hands on a 3-point scale (none, few, many) with a higher proportion of the Chinese popu- lation in the ‘none’, but also in the ‘many’ categories compared with the Caucasian groups. A vast majority of the Caucasian group ª 2009 Unilever JEADV 2009, 24, 341–348 Journal compilation ª 2009 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2009.03418.x JEADV