Cosmetics and the 5 senses :
Perception & Description
Agnès Giboreau
giboreau@lesensolier.com
Your contact:
Hélène AZOEUF, Sensory Dpt Director
h.azoeuf@adriant.com Tel +33 169 534 302
www.adriant.com
1
The questions addressed today
Introduction
Why controlling sensory properties in cosmetics?
Biology
How does the body reply to the cosmetic world?
Language
What kind of words are cosmetic sensory attributes?
Description
How to define attributes for cosmetics' description?
Conclusion
2
Introduction
3
Why paying attention to sensory in cosmetics?
Cosmetics
Appearance
of the pack?
Consumers are emotionally attached to
their cosmetics
Sensory characteristics could create an
emotional link between the consumer
and the product / packaging :
Material?
Optimisation of the sensory characteristics of
the product / the pack
Perfume?
Taste of the
lipstick?
Sound while
closing?
Positive stimulation of one or many senses
Increase the perceived quality of the
product and its emotional content
4
Why controlling sensory characteristics in cosmetics?
Facing the high demand of the
cosmetic industry to base
the marketing mix on
sensations…
It is necessary to know how to
control sensory
characteristics
Sensory descriptive studies represent the
most useful and the most used tool to
achieve such a control.
5
The solution: Sensory descriptive methods
Objectives :
Measuring all sensations a product provides to a consumer
at various stages of usage all along the product life
Considering the link to consumer liking,
sensory profile is used :
For a watch on competition
To know consumers’ expectations
through sensory strengths and
weaknesses
To define the sensory optimum profile
6
Biology
How does the body reply to the world?
7
How defining a sense?
A "sense" is a faculty by which
outside stimuli are perceived.
SENSE (broadly acceptable definition )
"a system that consists of a sensory cell type (or group of cell
types) that respond to a specific kind of physical energy, and
that correspond to a defined region (or group of regions) within
the brain where the signals are received and interpreted."
(Source: Wikepedia)
8
Sensory receptor
Structure that recognizes a stimulus in the internal or external
environment of an organism.
Smell & Taste :
chemical receptors
activated by interacting
with the molecule
Sight : Photoreceptors
transducing the
physical energy of light
into electrical signals.
Touch & Hearing :
Mechanoreceptors
responding to physical
stimuli when membranes
are physically stretched.
9
Sight
Certainly the most important sense as being the
source of information for most instinctive action
The most immediate sense
The one that drives all other perceptions
Appearance directly linked to symbolic interpretation
And in cosmetics?
Many visual characteristics of both
PACK and
PRODUCT are involved in consumer choice,
consumption and liking.
10
Hearing
Also a crucial sense as it is the main channel to oral
communication, essential human activity
Sound environment : central in human well-being
Acoustic stimuli perceived from their source, their
function, or a specific causal event
And in cosmetics?
The main issue concerns the PACK: Sound
produced while opening and closing
… But also the
hair or skin
PRODUCT: hand interaction with
11
Olfaction
The third distal sense
Hardly recognized by consumers and implicitly
memorised
Highly linked to emotion
Strongly influences mood and individual judgment
And in cosmetics?
Large role in cosmetics
Reinforcement of the liking level of a given product or a
given brand
In luxury brands or personal care : symbolic impact
sometimes as high as a visual property
12
Touch
Proximal sense, needing contact.
Tact
Kinesthesia
Skin
Muscles and bones
Thermal
captors
Pain
sensations
Heat transfers
Trigeminal nerve
And in cosmetics?
Major sense for cosmetics products : Graal softness,
packaging handling, skin-hair-body contact, hand
perception and so on.
13
Taste
Intimate sense
In-mouth sensations
Taste buds only responds to water soluble
compounds, salts, acids sugars, peptides..
BUT : In the consumer mind : also refers to other
sensations occurring in-mouth : aroma (through
retronasal perception : strawberry, vanilla) &
mouthfeel sensations.
And in cosmetics?
Critical for Oral care and lip sticks
14
Language
What kind of words are
sensory attributes for
cosmetics?
15
Linguistic ressources
What linguistics resources are available to
describe sensations?
-
Morphology (lexical form):
Noun, adjective, verb or constructed form?
-
Semantics (meaning)
Focus on the object or on the subject?
16
Sensory adjectives
Adjectives
A lot specific sensory adjectives
Vision : e.g. dark, small, rough, green..
Somesthesia : e.g. heavy, tough, thick,
smooth, harsh..
Less specific sensory adjectives
Taste: e.g. bitter, acid
Audition: e.g. loud
No specific sensory adjectives
Smell: No specific sensory adjectives in
olfaction.
17
Sensory nouns and verbs
Nouns :
-
Exist for all sensory modalities
- Can refer to different levels of
conceptual elaboration of the stimulation
-
e.g. lemon smell, velvet touch
Nominal adjective: e.g. fruity
Verbs :
-
Encountered in all fields
-
Related to the effect of stimuli on the subject = effect
as well as to the impact of subject actions to produce sensations
in an interactive process with the object = usage
Verbal adjectives: e.g. tingling, resistant,
18
Linguistic resources for sensory cosmetics
Morphology
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Touch
Taste
Simple
adjectives
++
color,
shape,
size,
texture
+
sharpness,
clarity,
loudness
0
++
substance,
Texture
+
Nouns,
nominal
adjectives
++
source,
concept
++
source,
concept
++
source,
concept
++
source,
concept
++
source,
concept
Verbs,
verbal
adjectives
+
light,
effect
+
effect,
sound
making
+
effect
+
gesture,
effect,
usage
+
effect
Semantics
- Object descriptions
- Subject feelings
19
What is the best form for a sensory attribute?
Its function ?
To provide a certain value (= quantification )
of a given quality (=property).
Preferred form:
Adjectives
Adjectival form constructed on nouns or verbs
20
Description
How to define attributes
for cosmetic products?
21
What does “trained panel” mean?
12 or 15 subjects
Recruitment : Recruited on
motivation, availability, logical, scaling
abilities, sensory general sensitivity
Training (10-50 hours) :
(1) General sensory knowledge
(2) Attribute generation & selection
(3) Attributes’ learning
Once trained, the panel is able to measure
sensory characteristics of products.
22
Training
A. Descriptors generation
Wide range of products representing the products on the market
Individual work : description of the perception for each product
Debriefing with all the panelists in order to group the generated descriptors.
B. Training on sensory characteristics
Once the list of attributes is worked out the group goes through:
- the recognition of the attributes,
- the quantification of the intensity of the attributes on a structured scale
At the end of this training, the panelists are able to recognize and describe the
sensations composing these products.
+ Checking of the panel performances
(sensitivity, homogeneity and repeatability)
C. Scaling : Test of the products
23
How to select attributes?
-
«discriminate
-
non redundant
-
relate to consumer acceptance/rejection
-
relate to instrumental or physical measurements
-
singular
-
precise and reliable
-
consensus on meaning
-
unambiguous
-
reference easy to obtain
-
communicate
-
relate to reality»
(Source: Lawless & Heymann, 1998)
24
How to write definitions?
-
«be lexically homogeneous (the definition of an adjective
starts with an adjective or a pronoun
-
Avoid circularity as it brings no information (same
etymological family)
-
Favor description: analogy, paraphrases, synonyms,
antonyms (explicit information, complement of the
attribute)
-
Illustrate with reference to products as a complement
and specification of the definition (example)»
(Source: Giboreau et al., 2006, Fd Qual & Pref)
25
Example of sensory attributes : Essenso Cosmetics
Attribute
Definition
Protocole
In the cup
Fluid
Which moves easily in
the cup
Bend the cup to allow the product to flow
and observe the product movement
At pick up
Threading
Producing a long and
thin ribbon
Press a small amount of sample between
forefinger and thumb and gently separate
fingers
Easy to
spread
Which does not
oppose resistance to
cover the skin
Spread a small amount of sample within a
4cm diameter area on the forearm and
evaluate while applying
Greasy
Which reminds the
texture of butter
Spread a small amount of sample within a
4cm diameter area on the forearm and
evaluate the sensation after 3 rounds.
Sticky
That needs strength to
remove fingers
Gently touch the skin with 3 fingers and
remove hand
Thick
Which leaves a heavy
residual film
Stroke the skin with the whole hand
At
application
2 min after
application
26
Sensory profile
9
Crème A
Crème B
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
fluide
ferme
filant
facile à
étaler
frais
aqueux
gras
facile à f. peau
film
pénétrer collante résiduel
27
Conclusion
28
Conclusion
The 5 senses
All 5 senses are involved in cosmetic industries.
The importance of each sense depends on the product type,
with a large impact of usage conditions.
The methods
The sensory know-how coming from Food Sciences and statistics
has been successfully transferred to cosmetic areas.
Psycho-linguistics know-how allowed fine tuning
of descriptor lists and definitions.
Current methods show good performances.
The cosmetic applications
Wide range of applications from
Quality control, to R&D and Marketing projects
29
Thank you for your attention
Any question?
www.adriant.com
30