Soft-focus agent

As light impinges on any surface, it is broken into two components: transmitted and reflected. Further, reflection is comprised of a scattered and specular component. A scattered component is one in which light is reflected through all angles. A specular component is reflected in a single direction, such as the reflection from a mirror.

Transmitted light is also comprised of two components. The direct component is light passing directly through a material at a single angle. The term for the remainder of the transmitted light is diffuse transmission. All powdered materials exhibit different relative amounts of scattered and specular reflection and direct and diffuse transmission depending on factors such as the chemical makeup, particle size, particle shape, and alignment of particles on the skin. The cosmetic ingredients with a soft-focus effect would have high direct transmission, high scattered reflection, and low specular reflection.

When light shines on the face, some light is adsorbed, and the remainder is reflected from the skin. Due to the depth of fine lines, light is trapped, and the intensity of reflected light is lower than that of the surrounding skin. This makes the lines appear darker to the observer. Increasing the intensity of light coming out of them is necessary to hide the lines.

One obvious method of hiding the lines is to fill them with a cosmetic preparation containing soft-focus agents. These ingredients are designed to hide fine lines while providing a natural look, preventing an unnatural mask-like appearance.

Soft-focus agents are fillers and formulation enhancers with a high transmission to maintain a natural look while supporting high diffuse transmission, spreading the transmitted light across fine lines. In this way, light travels through the particles and reflects from many points on the underlying skin. This light component reaches the observer from all angles, smoothing the skin's appearance.