Objective: Skin hydration is the crucial indicator in both pathological skin diseases and in cosmetic field for maintaining proper skin barrier function. Present study evaluated test product (Venusia Max cream-paraben free) for its skin surface hydration and Trans- Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL) in healthy women compared to the control site as well as the initial state.
Materials and Methods: Thirty healthy women of mean age 34.17 years were enrolled in randomized, evaluator-blinded, comparative study conducted in January 2020. The primary end points were the skin hydration and TEWL, evaluated and compared to the control site and baseline reading (0 hour) at 4 hours, 10 hours, 24 hours and 36 hours after test product application on the volar surface of the forearm using Moisture Meter SC and Vapo Meter device in standardized conditions.

Results: Skin hydration was measured as mean skin hydration readings (MMSC) was significantly increased at all time points after the application of test product as compared to the control site (p<0.001; Student‘t’ test). Further, the MMSC value at the test product site demonstrated a significant increase of 92%, 48% and 34% at 10, 24, and 36 hours respectively when compared to the baseline (0 hour) data (p< 0.001). Besides, a significant reduction in TEWL values at the test product site was observed at all the time periods (p<0.001) as compared to the control site. Similarly, as compared to the baseline data, a significant decrease of 17.1%, 15.7%, 10.3% and 5.6% was observed in TEWL values at 4, 10, 24 and 36 hours respectively after the application of test product (p<0.001). No adverse effects were reported due to the test product.

Conclusion: Venusia Max cream is a plant-based paraben free moisturizer which improved skin hydration and reduced moisture loss providing a long lasting effect.