Skin colour assessment in safety testing of cosmetics. An overview.

Few subjects are as problematical to dermatologists, cosmetologists and related experimenters involved in safety testing as the clinical assessment of skin colour. At the core of the problem is the word erythema, which does not communicate a sense for the nuance of red. In addition, light shades of red are not visible in dark-skinned people. Human assays aiming at evaluating the irritancy and allergic potential of cosmetics take advantage to use instrumental assessments of skin colour. However, there are pitfalls related to the complex biological aspects of the cutaneous reactivity, to the design of the in vivo assay, and to technical aspects bound to the principle of the measuring methods. Sound information can only be reached when these concerns are solved.