“There are no two identical pearls in the world, just as there are no two identical individuals. With over a billion people in China, there should be more than one whitening formula.” Recently, OSM revealed its new direction of “precise science and healthy whitening” in its latest short film, using pearls as a metaphor.
Just recently, the inaugural “China Precision Whitening Summit,” organized by OSM, was held in Deqing with great ceremony. Numerous Chinese domestic and international heavyweight experts, scholars, beauty enthusiasts, and media researchers gathered together to share the latest scientific research achievements in whitening. During the summit, OSM announced the start of a new era of “precise science, cultivating healthy and fair skin for the Chinese people” through various initiatives such as releasing a white paper and establishing a scientific skincare laboratory.
“From today onwards, OSM embarks once again to provide more precise products tailored to the whitening needs of individuals with different skin types,” said Shen Zhirong, the founder of OSM and the ‘Pearl Grandfather,’ emphatically.
With the increasingly fierce competition in the whitening market today, why did OSM choose to focus on precise whitening at this time? What scientific insights are behind precise whitening? Therefore, CHAILEEDO will thoroughly analyze OSM’s “precise science and healthy whitening” concept and explore its significant importance in the current whitening market.
OSM takes the lead in understanding the demand for personalized whitening and releases the Precision Whitening White Paper.
According to data from Tmall TMIC (New Product Innovation Center), from March 2023 to February 2024, the proportion of people purchasing whitening products accounted for 60% of the overall skincare product consumers. The enormous demand for whitening among Chinese consumers is undeniable.
However, despite such high demand for whitening, a considerable number of consumers have not been able to find suitable whitening products due to a lack of skin knowledge or factors such as sensitive skin. Some have even experienced severe skin problems due to using whitening products that are not suitable for their skin type.
Yuan Chao, a member of the Dermatology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and the Cosmetic Medicine Group, who has been engaged in clinical dermatology for over 20 years, has a deep understanding of this issue. During the summit, Yuan bluntly stated, “Skin problems caused by whitening misconceptions are common in our clinics.”
Yuan cited examples, saying, “Some patients believe in fast-acting whitening products that claim results in 7 days, but after using them, their faces become red and swollen when they visit our clinic,” and “The popular ‘Vitamin C in the morning and retinol at night’ routine doesn’t work smoothly for everyone.”
Furthermore, Yuan also cited data demonstrating that the incidence of adverse reactions caused by whitening products remains high. The data shows that among the types of adverse reactions to cosmetics, the most common is “cosmetic contact dermatitis,” with whitening products accounting for over 55% of the cases. Moreover, among this group, over 67% have a history of allergies or consider themselves to have sensitive skin. Therefore, in Yuan’s view, “precise whitening based on different skin types” is imperative, and refining skin type is undoubtedly the first step in achieving precise whitening.
In fact, a significant characteristic of advances in dermatological research is the continuous subdivision and deepening of human skin type classification. In 2006, the bestselling book “The Skin Type Solution” by renowned American dermatologist Leslie Baumann, M.D., proposed a skin typing system that classified skin into four dimensions and sixteen types, becoming a widely used skin analysis model in the industry.
Combining the latest skin typing theory to gain a better understanding of the precise whitening needs of the Chinese population, OSM, in collaboration with Tmall TMIC and Kantar Insights, released the “Chinese Skin Typing Insight Precision Whitening White Paper” (referred to as the “White Paper”). The White Paper showcases the precise whitening market and consumer demands from three aspects: whitening principles, redefining the whitening path, and precise scientific whitening.
According to the White Paper, the transaction volume of the whitening product market exceeded 12 billion yuan in the past year. Whitening products have undergone multiple upgrades, and user demands now focus more on precision and gentleness, rather than pursuing high concentration.
During the period from March 2023 to February 2024, whitening products in the Taobao ecosystem that emphasize gentleness and are suitable for sensitive or oily skin showed a year-on-year sales growth of over 20%. In a survey on changes in consumer attitudes towards choosing skincare brands, the highest proportion of consumers considered their own skin condition when selecting whitening products.
CHAILEEDO also noticed that prior to this, Chinese domestic brands’ research on precise whitening was limited to small-scale or partial product promotion. There has not been a comprehensive and systematic description of precise whitening for different skin types of the Chinese population, including scientific mechanisms, clinical trials, and consumer research. Therefore, the release of the White Paper marks OSM’s pioneering insight into the trend of precise whitening demand among the Chinese population and deepens the research depth in the industry, going beyond “internal competition” and bringing a new driving force to the current development of the whitening market.
Precision Scientific Skincare Laboratory Established, OSM Digging Deep into New Ideas for Whitening
To do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools. At the conference, CHAILEEDO noticed that in order to further deepen the research on precision scientific skincare, OSM Pearl Research Institute announced the establishment of the OSM Precision Scientific Skincare Laboratory. It is reported that the laboratory will collaborate with Chinese domestic and international research and development experts, focusing on the three-party collaboration of industry, academia, and research, leading the team to explore new areas of whitening through disruptive innovation, and exploring new mechanisms of whitening through the four major pathways of whitening.
Currently, there is a considerable amount of research on whitening by Chinese domestic and international brands, but truly groundbreaking discoveries are still rare. However, through in-depth research on the mechanism of whitening, OSM has put forward the “new perspective” that maintaining the balance of melanin secretion is the key to precise skin whitening and the true essence of healthy whitening.
In this regard, OSM’s senior scientist and expert in biometric data, Xing Ke, delivered a keynote speech titled “OSM Precision Skincare Whitening Mechanism and AI Skincare Testing Application,” providing a detailed interpretation from the three dimensions of the origin, mechanism, and application of precise skin whitening.
Regarding the origin of precise skin whitening, Xing Ke said, “The earliest concept of precise science originated from the medical field. The development of precise medicine is designed for the majority of people, which leads to problems such as discomfort, poor effectiveness, and side effects for some individuals. Similarly, cosmetics also face similar problems. Therefore, cosmetics also need the concept of precise science to solve the problem of poor product effectiveness due to individual differences.”
“Skin differentiation” refers to the classification of populations based on different skin types. According to Xing Ke, skin type is mainly influenced by genetic factors, environmental factors, and the interaction between genetics and the environment, while there is more room for interpretation behind “whitening.”
In Xing Ke’s view, technology can unlimitedly reduce or even eliminate melanin to pursue an extreme form of whitening. However, skin color is a natural evolutionary choice for humans, which means that less melanin is not necessarily better. “The premise of precise scientific whitening is to maintain the balance of melanin secretion. Properly adjusting the level of melanin secretion and pursuing balanced and healthy whitening is scientific whitening.”
Subsequently, Xing Ke conducted an in-depth analysis of the whitening mechanisms for three major groups: normal skin, sensitive skin, and oily skin. He introduced how OSM uses precise skin differentiation methods to find the mechanism of skin darkening and customize personalized whitening solutions, reducing unnecessary skin irritation and improving the effectiveness and safety of whitening.
It is worth mentioning that during the conference, OSM’s self-developed precise skin differentiation AI consultant was officially launched. By adopting AI, big data, and biotechnology, it enables intelligent and rapid precise diagnosis of skin problems, addressing the pain points of consumers seeking precise whitening.
In addition, OSM’s senior scientist, Yao Guang, delivered a keynote speech titled “Methodology: Precise Skin Differentiation Whitening Matrix,” covering the past, present, and future of whitening, showcasing OSM’s ambition in the field of precise skin differentiation whitening.
Yao Guang provided an accessible introduction to the development history of whitening products, from the past practice of stacking various ingredients for whitening to the current scientific formulation based on underlying mechanisms, which allows for more precise skin differentiation whitening, avoiding unnecessary risks caused by excessive ingredient stacking.
“The safety and credibility requirements of whitening ingredients promote the application of a multidimensional approach to inhibit melanin production. OSM has been studying pearl skincare for 57 years and successfully extracted a whitening factor from pearl components, which can intercept the signals that cause skin darkening at the source and inhibit tyrosinase activity, thus suppressing melanin production,” said Yao Guang.
“Subsequently, OSM further upgraded based on the whitening factor and combined it with pearl peptide technology to launch the enhanced whitening ingredient, Precise Whitening Factor Pro. This ingredient not only inhibits tyrosinase activity but also achieves mechanisms such as inhibiting melanin pigment transportation and promoting melanin renewal, shouldering the responsibility of whitening and brightening through self-circulation,” Yao Guang explained.
Looking to the future, Yao Guang believes that the future development direction of whitening strategies will be “healthy and sustainable whitening,” providing customized and precise whitening solutions based on the addition of continuously synergistic and gentle ingredients, refining facial skin types according to the sixteen-grid classification.
It can be seen that both the new research perspective on whitening and the further development breakthroughs in pearl whitening lay a solid research foundation for OSM’s concept of “precision science, nurturing healthy whiteness for Chinese people,” leading the scientific whitening market into the era of precision.
Precision Skin Whitening Product Series Released, Promising Prospects for Precise Scientific Skincare
At this summit, OSM provided an in-depth interpretation of precise skin whitening, covering ingredient research, technological breakthroughs, whitening mechanisms, and clinical studies from a fresh scientific perspective. The latest research findings from OSM, which are dedicated to different skin types, were also unveiled during the event, showcasing a customized product series.
According to CHAILEEDO, OSM’s newly released product series consists of three categories: the Whitening and Diminishing Series for normal skin, the Soothing and Radiance Series for sensitive skin, and the Oil Control and Translucency Series for oily skin. These three product series offer safe and effective whitening solutions tailored to different skin types, delivering results that surpass the sum of their parts.
Yao Guang explained, “To avoid conflicts between various ingredients when designing whitening solutions for different skin types, OSM conducts scientific formulation based on underlying mechanisms, allowing for more precise skin differentiation whitening and avoiding unnecessary risks caused by excessive ingredient stacking.”
While OSM focuses on innovative product development, it also places great emphasis on consumer education and scientific communication. Recently, OSM collaborated with brand spokesperson Ren Jialun to host a live stream event titled “Precise Whitening Science with ‘Jia'” at their flagship store. Together with consumers, they explored the brand’s new scientific concept of “precision science, nurturing healthy whiteness for Chinese people” and shared the latest research findings on whitening from OSM.
Notably, the live stream event attracted over 1.2 million viewers within an hour, ranking first in the Tmall live stream for Chinese domestic products and achieving remarkable popularity among consumers.
Apart from the product release, the summit also featured a roundtable forum titled “Future Trends in Precision Scientific Skincare,” bringing together leaders from renowned raw material companies, beauty KOLs, and expert scholars to provide guidance for the further development of precision scientific skincare.
During the forum, Magma, a Ph.D. in biology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an outstanding skincare expert on Zhihu, analyzed the development trends of precise scientific skincare from the consumer’s perspective. They highlighted the increased awareness of consumers about their own skin conditions, the abundance of skincare scientific knowledge, and the dissemination of scientific content by beauty companies as important factors driving the development of precise scientific skincare.
Zhu Long, Vice President and Chief R&D Innovation Officer of OSM, discussed the technological foundation that enables the popularity of precise scientific skincare from a technical standpoint. He stated, “The development and accumulation of life sciences, such as cellular biology and tissue regeneration, over the past decade have now reached a stage of knowledge explosion. This allows us to understand phenomena related to skin epidermis, such as whitening and aging, from a deeper level.”
“Furthermore, the development of life sciences enables us to produce many ingredients using more modern methods, achieving higher purity and fewer side effects,” Zhu Long added.
In addition, Ding Wenfeng, founder of Shenzhen Vicky Technology Co., Ltd., beauty KOL Huamei, and Professor Liu Wei from the National Nanomedicine Technology Research Center at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, analyzed the development and significance of precise scientific skincare from the perspectives of peptides, consumer opinion leaders, and nanocarrier technology, respectively.
Looking ahead, the whitening market is evolving towards a more scientific and personalized direction. Both brands and consumers are seeking more effective and safer whitening methods. With over half a century of experience and accumulation in the whitening market, OSM has taken the lead in understanding the demands for precise skin whitening among Chinese people with different skin types. By building a scientific research moat, OSM continues to provide strong impetus for its development in the field of whitening skincare.
