Great expectations

Developments in the lab are crucial, but just as important is a sound understanding of what consumers expect of their cosmetics and how they experience them

Much research in recent years has concentrated on the long wearing properties of make-up, particularly lipstick. But what do users actually expect from a product claiming to be long wearing? That’s the question Coty put to 442 women and the company’s findings were presented in a poster at the US Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) Annual Scientific Meeting in New York last month: “If you purchase a lipstick that claims it is long wearing, how many hours do you expect it to last on your lips?”

Respondents to this question were spread across five US populations: the tri-state area (n = 274); North Carolina (n = 75); Canada (n = 57); Coty R&D lipstick (n = 29); and Coty non-formulators (n = 7). The majority of women from all groups expected such a product to last = 4 hours but expectations did differ. For the parameters of = 4 hours and = 8 hours expectations were, respectively: tri-state 73% and 14%; North Carolina 89% and 38%; Canada 95% and 26%; R&D 86% and 29%; and non-formulators 100% and 62%. Data also

suggested that women expect an ‘extremely long wearing’ or ‘somewhat long wearing’ lipstick to last about 4-6 hours. Based on these findings Coty suggests that only lipsticks that do actually last = 4 hours should carry a ‘long wearing’ claim and that products that last substantially longer should indicate their actual wear time.

Korea’s Amorepacific recently used 6-sigma measurement tools to analyse the gloss and gloss lasting capability of lipstick and these results were reported at the 2005 International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists’ (IFSCC) conference in Florence. This research elaborated on findings presented earlier in the year at the Asian Societies of Cosmetic Scientists (ASCS) conference in Bangkok where it was established that wax was found to be the most important factor for gloss, followed by contents of volatile silicone oil and stick hardness. Stick hardness is actually a negative factor of lipstick’s gloss as the greater the hardness the more the gloss value drops. Also, the more volatile the polymer content, the lower the gloss value of the lipstick so volatile polymer content is s negative factor of lipstick’s gloss. In terms of gloss longevity however, hardness is a positive quality. If the content of volatile silicone polymer is more than specific content, the lipstick’s gloss lasting capability is not influenced. The intention is to use the measurement system and analytical approach offered by 6-sigma as the basis of further experiments proving the effectiveness of glossy properties in lipsticks.

Sensory angles

Japan’s Kosé has conducted customer satisfaction research of sensory properties using onomatopoeic terms and this again was presented at last year’s IFSCC meeting. The aim was to establish how to find out customer’s preferences and the reasons for them and then how to conduct a survey to allow customers to evaluate ingredients for developing cosmetic products. The researchers consider the traditional sample and

questionnaire approach to be limited or inaccurate as terms may be difficult to understand and reactions hard to convey. Instead they created new questionnaires using onomatopoeic terms believed to be easier to understand than the usual sensory descriptive ones. In addition, certain powder ingredients were selected in pre-research screening and composite powders designed to have a pleasurable feeling on application were developed. These were said to have ‘suru-suru’, or a velvet feel, which consisted of platelet shape powders and sphere powders. Make-up foundations were also prepared with these powders. Kosé reported that the onomatopoeic terms were found to help avoid the common problems with understanding and clarification of terms and also helped facilitate the development of products with high customer satisfaction ratings.

Another aspect of perception is that of noise, and research conducted by Dermscan, Vibratec and Kanebo, reported at the IFSCC, addressed the noise perception improvement of cosmetic packaging, specifically of lipstick tubes.

The first part of the study involved making sound recordings of different lipsticks opening and closing, separated by one to two seconds. A consumer test was then developed on a panel of 20 lipstick users, coupling a pairwise comparison test and semantic tests. The second part of the study aimed to link measurable objective criteria to the noise perception of the product. It was based on analysis of noise

signals in the time domain, completed by time-frequency analysis. Psycho-acoustic indicator calculations were also made and a correspondence between the technical and physical characteristics of the product was then established. The amplitude of the final peak in relation to the other transient peaks and its decrease, the detailed perception of the peaks and the frequency pitch of the noise were retained as pertinent parameterproduct’s physical characteristicd the noise emitted. It is hoped that this kind of analysis will help in developing ways to improve lipstick products as well as other forms of cosmetic packaging.