Patent ID: 7820972

Claim:
A method of determining at least one of a degree of skin damage caused by UV light and a degree of physiological aging of skin from a near infrared absorption spectrum of the skin, comprising the steps of: (X1) correlating at least one of the degree of skin damage caused by UV light and the degree of physiological aging of the skin with the near infrared absorption spectrum of the skin, from analysis results of multivariate analysis of the near infrared absorption spectrum in a wave number region consisting of a measurement in wave number regions of 5990 to 5490 cm −1 and 5000 to 4480 cm −1 of two or more kinds of skin in which at least one of the degree of skin damage caused by UV light and the degree of physiological aging of the skin is known; (X2) obtaining a near infrared absorption spectrum in the wave number region of the skin in which at least one of the degree of skin damage caused by UV light and the degree of physiological aging of the skin to be evaluated is unknown; and (X3) determining at least one of the degree of skin damage caused by UV light and the degree of physiological aging of the skin from the near infrared absorption spectrum in the wave number region obtained in Step (X2) based on the correlation obtained in Step (X1).