Complementary approaches to understand the spreading behavior on skin of O/W emulsions containing different emollientss.

The human skin is a very complex living tissue, in a permanent evolution and self-renewing by constant lipids secretion. The characterization of this biological material is a major concern in dermo-cosmetic and pharmaceutics fields. Understanding the skin interaction with its environment, during application of skincare products, is consequently of genuine interest to better control the different phenomena occurring. In sensory language, the application of products on the skin is defined as the spreading behavior. Five O/W emulsions were formulated with different ratios of two emollients (isohexadecane and stearic acid). Complementary instrumental and sensory analysis of spreading behavior was carried out in vivo on human skin as well as in vitro on non-biological skin surface in order to investigate the impact of two emollients, and their mixtures in the spreadability and penetration of O/W emulsions. A first screening was made to link the physico-chemical properties (polarity, physical state and ratio) of emollients with the spreading behavior on human skin. Then, interesting parameters (the plateau value, its length and the increase of the friction value) from the tribological study on skin were considered to allow deepening the product/skin interactions after application of different emulsions and over time. In the last part of the study, an original method, using non-biological surfaces mimicking the human skin, was successfully tested with very good reproducibility of the spreading behavior. This original tool is of great interest to study the efficacy of new formulas on skin, but also for fundamental research and help performing standardized measurements as well as solving the logistic and safety problems of in vivo studies.