Kitanotatsujin's microneedle patch cosmetics products / Courtesy of Kitanotatsujin

By Kim Jae-heun

Despite Japan being the largest market for microneedle patch products, application of the technology in the cosmetics field is still uncommon, something that Kitanotatsujin is looking to take advantage of and develop further.

"Beauty products adopting microneedle patches may not be a strange thing in Korea, but it is very new in Japan. Japanese customers are conservative with cosmetic products and we were worried some might find it uncomfortable to be sticking microneedles patches to their bodies," Kitanotatujin Vice President Asako Horikawa said. "However, it was interesting how molten microneedles molded with polymeric hyaluronic acid can solve skin problems and we paid attention to this technology."

Kitanotatsujin cares a lot about customer satisfaction and after conducting a blind test for product quality, the company decided to sell cosmetics with microneedle patches.

"We launched the Hyalo Deep Patch product that helps with wrinkles around the eyes in Sep. 2016. It is the first needle-type hyaluronic acid cosmetic product that was introduced in Japan and it became a mega-hit with us selling one product every four seconds there," Horikawa said.

Kitanotatsujin then introduced Miken Deep Patch and Odeko Deep Patch in July and September 2019, respectively, and Cheek Pore Patch in March 2020.

"Instead of simply changing the shape of patches or increasing the number of needles on it, we adjusted cosmetics ingredients and the shape of needles as well as the distance between each of them according to the facial area it will be applied to," Horikawa added. "Kitanotatsujin will not rest on its laurels and we will continue to improve the products by discovering what our customers are looking for."

The size of the microneedle patch market in Japan reached 8 billion yen ($66.42 million) as of 2021 and every year new products are introduced by newcomers in the industry.

Kitanotatsujin has strong faith in the market potential of the patches and believes local consumer demand for cosmetic-based products with microneedle patch technology will continue to grow.

"We are not thinking of entering a medical business with microneedle technology yet. But if customers want it, we can review the possibility of starting it," Horikawa said.