Sensitive skin: Intrinsic and extrinsic contributors

Abstract

A majority of consumers in industrialized countries today, when surveyed, report unpleasant sensations related to the use of consumer products, despite extensive premarket testing confirming a lack of irritant effect. Called sensitive skin, this phenomenon's understanding has been hampered by the diversity of sensory perceptions and signs reported and by a lack of correlation between the two. Once thought to be a princess and the pea cultural complaint, sensitive skin is now known to be a genuine irritant response, although cultural factors do appear to play a role in consumer perceptions. Improved testing methods are now revealing the underlying physiological mechanisms of sensitive skin, which may ultimately prove to be comprised of subgroups of exaggerated sensitivity stemming from different physiological mechanisms.