Could music affect your skin care experience? Shiseido thinks so…

By introducing this sound when treating the skin, the Japanese firm says it will deepen the hospitality and experience provided by its beauty consultants.

The Shiseido Omotenashi Sound is composed based on the movements of touching the skin by combining ‘comfortable rhythms’ with ‘the sound of water droplets, and will be available on mobile tablets used by the firm’s consultants when treating customers

At present the option is only available at sales counters in Japan, but further roll-out is expected with Shiseido’s general beauty website ‘Watashi +’ distributing the sound for consumers to use at home too, along with tips and know-how on beauty in the form of a video.

Shiseido says that by enhancing hospitality through sounds, this music software allows the customer to appreciate the comfort of skin care techniques or feel of cosmetics even more keenly

Developing the ‘sound’​

In developing the ‘sound’, muscle potentials were measured of the arm when Beauty Specialists performed skin care techniques.

The company then selected the optimal tempo when skin care was performed based on that data.

With this tempo as an image source, using the sound of water droplets, Shiseido co-produced this sound with music composer Junichi Kamiyama.

The sound of water droplets conjures up a feeling of hydrating the skin while the comfort of touching the skin gently is represented through smooth melody.

The Tokyo-headquartered firm claims that when skin care treatment was given to 20 women for 20 minutes with the ‘sound’ on, in comparison with an ambient environment at a shop counter, feelings of the effects on the skin, psychological effects, and effects on the whole body, were identified.