HISTORY

Left: Spots Cover at its launch
Right: The feature published in Shiseido’s corporate culture magazine, Hanatsubaki

It began in 1956. Eleven years had passed, yet many people in Japan continued to live with burn scars from those wartime years. We asked ourselves: Is there a way to help with the feelings people had about their appearance? Guided by a spirit of support, we began research and development that led to the creation of Shiseido Spots Cover.

At the time, visible scars and burn marks—on the face, hands, feet, or chest—often heightened people’s self-consciousness. Spots Cover was created with the hope of helping people feel more at ease with their appearance. A sales manual published then described it as “the first and only specialized cosmetic in Japan,” marking the birth of a product designed to address such concerns.

As time passed, this pioneering product evolved into today’s Perfect Cover. Its creation stands as the very beginning of Shiseido Life Quality Makeup.

Kimiko Oshiro and her handwritten message, “Makeup has the power to transform a life” (photo courtesy of Gendai Shogyo Kai).

Kimiko Oshiro, one of Shiseido’s leading hair and makeup artists, began promoting Care Makeup* in 1992. Having long worked at the forefront of fashion, she spoke about what first moved her to this work:

“Have you ever imagined what it’s like to have a large birthmark on your own face?
I once met a woman in a hospital, a young person with a prominent birthmark on her cheek. When we first met, she looked down, trying to hide her face. I could sense how heavy her feelings must have been.
But after I covered the birthmark with makeup, her face gradually lifted. And when the doctor told her she looked beautiful, she smiled. Seeing that made me truly happy.”
(Company newsletter, 1996)

Experiences like this renewed her belief that the power of beauty can transform a life, and she continued to dedicate herself to this work as her calling.

Photo courtesy of Magazine House.

*A beauty consultation with cosmetic expertise focused on enhancing quality of life.

About Kimiko Oshiro
One of Shiseido’s leading hair and makeup artists. From the late 1970s through the 1980s, she worked across a wide range of fashion shows, Shiseido advertising posters, and TV commercials. She played a key role in establishing the Shiseido Life Quality Beauty Center and in the development of Perfect Cover.

Perfect Cover products from past generations

In 1995, Shiseido introduced a groundbreaking foundation, Perfect Cover. It was built around two functions that were once difficult to achieve together: a natural-looking finish and effective coverage for dark spots, blue birthmarks (nevus of Ota), and red birthmarks (hemangiomas).

The development began in 1992, when Shiseido hair and makeup artist Kimiko Oshiro visited a medical institution. She learned that many patients were dissatisfied because the coverage foundations available at the time could not provide the desired finish with ease. Motivated by these voices, Oshiro began working with the institution (now Showa University Hospital), and research on makeup effects and finish satisfaction drove the product’s creation.

Perfect Cover incorporates technology* that applies the properties of light, offering a new approach to diminishing the appearance of discoloration on the skin. This technology continues to be used in today’s products.

*This technology applies the principle of additive color mixing, in which combining complementary colors of light produces white, unlike pigment mixing. By directing light in the complementary color of a skin discoloration onto the area, it makes the discoloration appear diminished.