A Study of Two Facial Sunscreens to Assess Its Effect in Improving Hydration, Skin Barrier Function, and Skin Tone Uniformity Under Controlled and Normal Conditions of Use on the Face by Adult Participants

Instrumental corneometry will be used to assess improvement in skin hydration during 12 hours of single application on one side of the face (hemi-face), in comparison with the control area (other side of face, without product application). The investigational product (IP) will be applied only once on half face, on the malar region, by a trained technician. The treated area and the control area will be tested in triplicate at each experimental time (T0h, T2h, T4h, T6h, T8h and T12h), with the corneometer instrument.

Instrumental corneometry measurements will be used to assess improvement in skin hydration at Day 28 +/- 2 of application on the face (normal conditions of use). The IP will be applied on the entire face throughout the 28 days period. There should not be any type of product applied to the evaluation area at the time of the measurements.

Skin barrier measurements (an initial measurement at Visit 2 and a final measurement at Visit 3) will be performed with the Tewameter. A single transepidermal water loss (TEWL) measurement will be taken in the nasegenian region, on the face of the participants. There should not be any type of product applied to the evaluation area at the time of the measurements.

Participant's self-perceived questionnaire to assess the clinical effectiveness of the sunscreen will be reported. It is a 9-item questionnaire and each item is rated as totally disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and totally agree. Participants will additionally answer 1 question and rate it as liked very much, liked slightly, neither liked nor disliked, disliked slightly and disliked very much.

Percentage of participants with adverse events will be reported. An adverse event is any untoward medical occurrence in a clinical study participant temporally associated with the clinical investigation, whether or not the event has a causal relationship to the participants' participation in the trial. It is therefore any unfavorable and unintended sign (including an abnormal finding), symptom, or disease that occurs during the trial. This can include any occurrence that is new in onset, an aggravation of severity/ frequency of a baseline condition, or abnormal results of diagnostic procedures, including laboratory test abnormalities.

To evaluate the parameters of radiance of the participant's skin tone, radiance/brightness/luminousness ordinal scale developed by the study site will be used. Radiance/Brightness/Luminousness scale is a 10-point system (0 to 9) that grades the intensity of these attributes, where 0 to 3: characteristic of "radiant, bright and luminous appearance" skin, 4 to 6: moderately radiant, and 7 to 9: characteristic of "dull/matte and/or pale" skin.

To evaluate the parameters of uniformity of the participant's skin tone, skin tone uniformity/homogeneity ordinal scale developed by the study site will be used. Skin tone uniformity/homogeneity ordinal scale is a 10-point system (0 to 9) that rates the intensity of these attributes, where 0 to 3 is characteristic of " even/healthy color" skin, 4 to 6 is moderately even, and 7 to 9 is characteristic of " irregular, discolored, spotted" skin.

Image analysis via Colorface will be used to assess improvement in facial skin tone. The images of the participants faces will be captured with Colorface equipment (Newtone Technology) that will be operated by a trained technician.

A testimonial regarding the experience with sunscreen will be provided by the participants through an open question at the end of the study. The purpose is to know their opinion and experience using this product during the study.

Percentage of participants with adverse events will be reported. An adverse event is any untoward medical occurrence in a clinical study participant temporally associated with the clinical investigation, whether or not the event has a causal relationship to the participants' participation in the trial. It is therefore any unfavorable and unintended sign (including an abnormal finding), symptom, or disease that occurs during the trial. This can include any occurrence that is new in onset, an aggravation of severity/ frequency of a baseline condition, or abnormal results of diagnostic procedures, including laboratory test abnormalities.

Participant's self-perceived questionnaire to assess the clinical effectiveness of the sunscreen on Day 56 will be reported. Participants will answer 12 questions and rate as: totally disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and totally agree. Participants will additionally answer 2 questions and rate them as liked very much, liked slightly, neither liked nor disliked.

Facial images will be captured with ColorFace (Newtone Technology) equipment at the baseline and Day 28 to build a facial hydration map for the in-use study.

Six areas will be marked on the inner side of the participants' forearms, approximately 5 cm from the cubital region. These areas will be randomized, with 1 area for control (without product application) and the other 5 areas for product application, being each of them for 02 IPs (Facial Sunscreen A and Face Sunscreen B) and 3 benchmarks. The products will be applied topically only once in the marked areas. The 6 areas will be tested in triplicate at each experimental time (T0h, T2h, T4h, T6h, T8h and T12h) with the corneometer equipment.