Texture contributions of cosmetic active ingredients
Résumé
Nowadays, the objectives of the research in cosmetic are obviously to create products always more successful and more innovative, and above all to perfectly come up the sensory expectations of consumers. Indeed, consumers generally choose a cosmetic cream for its functions, or its promise of efficiency, but are mostly seduced by the pleasure it brings to them, especially in terms of texture. As a consequence, over the last few decades, different methods have extensively been developed and used to describe and quantify texture characteristics of cosmetic products and ingredients1-4. Among these methods, it is possible to distinguish, on the one hand, instrumental techniques (rheology, texture analysis ...) that can be used as predictive tools and, on the other hand, sensory approaches including objective analysis as well as consumer’s preferences evaluation.
Four cosmetic grade active ingredients were selected for this study. These ingredients act as hydrating or skin protecting and are obtained using sustainable sourcing and green chemistry. Additionally to their efficiency, they have original texture properties and contribute to the skinfeel properties during and after application.
The purpose of this study was to develop a methodological approach to characterise these four actives using both instrumental and sensory measurements. The contribution of each active ingredient to the texture was investigated and a comparison was done with two widespread ingredients namely hyaluronic acid, used as active, and xanthan gum, used as texturizing agent. Finally, consumers’ opinion was taken into account in order to explain texture consumers’ expectations.