Modulation of the Emotional Condition in Human Beings via Application of Emollients and Skincare Formulations:A Psycho-physiological Study

摘要

As a consumer's decision to buy a personal care product is to a large extent based on subconscious factors, classical claim substantiation therefore should be extended to include the decisive emotional components. Consequently, a tailor-made technology based on the measurement of involuntary psycho-physiological parameters was developed. Introduced as "Objective Emotional Assessment" (OEA), it has proven suitable for obtaining psycho-physiological profiles of consumer products.The present paper describes an experimental setting where the OEA methodology was applied to cosmetic emollients in a pure form as well as to emollient-containing formulations. In the first part of the study, a variety of light emollients of different chemistry was applied to the volar forearms of panelists and rubbed into the skin. During this procedure psychophysiological responses were recorded. To prove that the effects found are still present in formulations, in a second stage of the study a base cream formulation was prepared into which selected emollients from the first stage had been incorporated and was subsequently tested likewise using OEA. In both parts of the study, a very good differentiation of the various emollients was achieved, with the panelists showing a clear preference for a newly designed branched ester, pro-pylheptyl caprylate, which proved to elicit an overall very positive emotional response.It thus could be demonstrated via the OEA methodology that emollients both as single ingredients and as components in a skin care frame formulation are able to act as positive emotional stimuli and can elicit an overall enhancement of the physiological condition in terms of "wellbeing". OEA has proven again to be a highly suitable approach to detect involuntary, subconscious consumer responses, and is able to find subtle effects of selected cosmetic ingredients even against the strong background of a base formulation.