SELF-PERCEIVED SENSORY RESPONSES TO SOAP AND SYNTHETIC DETERGENT BARSCORRELATE WITH CLINICAL SIGNS OF IRRITATION

Background: Epidemiologic studies indicate that after using soaps and other personal care products, many consumers experience irritation. In 50% of the cases the feelings of skin dryness, itching, and stinging occur in the absence of visible signs of irritation. Objective: We sou ght to determine the relation between self-perceived sensory responses of panelists to cleansing products and clinical signs of irritation.M ethods: A combination of exaggerated arm-washing methods was designed to induce clinical signs of irritation with psychometric techniques de veloped to quantify sensations. Results: Two studies demonstrated that panelists could reproducibly differentiate between products on the ba sis of the sensations they felt and that there was a significant corre lation (frequently r > 0.80) between these and the observable signs. I n the case of skin dryness panelists differentiated products several w ashing cycles before observable differences were detected. Conclusion: Sensory evaluations of irritation yield additional information on soa p and detergent irritancy beyond clinical observations and expand unde rstanding of the irritation process.