Sensory evaluation in the personal care space: A review

Abstract

Personal care encompasses a diverse set of product categories including primarily skincare, makeup, and haircare, among others. With such varied use occasions and application styles, researchers require less traditional sensory and consumer research methods for product evaluation including a combination of interviews, focus groups, descriptive analysis, consumer research, and instrumental testing. More novel methods, such as emotion and online review research, provide sensory scientists with new avenues for describing, categorizing, and optimizing personal care products as well. Moreover, a trend of synthesizing results from multiple sources to produce more comprehensive learnings has been found to be highly valuable to researchers. This review discusses current sensory and consumer evaluation methods relevant to the personal care space and considers future opportunities for development and innovation. Practical ApplicationThis review synthesizes the available literature on sensory evaluation in the personal care space. It aims to summarize and present the main methods used in these product categories and identify the gaps in knowledge. This work provides a foundation for future personal care research to build on. | INTRODUCTIONUntil more recently, the field of sensory science has shown more emphasis in studying food and beverages with a lesser focus on personal care and other nonfood consumer good categories. However, the field is broadening and the industry is supporting it, as referenced in a talk and poster promoting nonfood research at the 2018 Society of Sensory Professionals Conference (Van Haren, Johnson, Grygorczyk, Henley, & Cummings, 2018). This announced the need for more nonfood research regarding different product categories, innovations, and methods (Van Haren et al., 2018) and led to an increase in nonfood research at the 2020 Society of Sensory Professionals Virtual Conference. Personal care is one such category that would benefit from deeper understanding of products and consumer's use experiences as it continues to see year-over-year growth in market potential (Guinaugh, 2020).The personal care space includes many product categories such as skincare, makeup, haircare, oral care, and more, lending itself to a wide range of application methods, use occasions, and purposes.Researchers must consider these differences when choosing the best methods for evaluation. Often, sensory research for these products is proprietary so the amount of available published research is less than that of food and beverage; this can be a challenge when a researcher is unfamiliar with the product category and does not have access to suitable resources. Additionally, sensory research of personal care products, specifically skincare and makeup, tends to focus on the feminine viewpoint. This leads to fewer resources and methods suitable for understudied demographics such as men or those with sensitivities who are often left out of research studies.Appearance, aroma, texture, and skinfeel are common sensory modalities in p...

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