Abstract
The tactile sense of skin is one of the most important factors for cosmetics, so there have been many reports about skin softening. For example, the stratum corneum (SC) is well known to be sensitive to moisture, and the details of its mechanism are currently under investigation. Meanwhile, the word “emollient” has often been used in the cosmetics industry ; however there are very few reports on the mechanism of how oils actually work. So, this time we focused on liquid oil, and studied how it softens the skin by using a mechanical and sensual approach. The results showed that the intercellular lipid layer is softened by the application of liquid oils, and that it can also affect the SC. It was not necessarily the case that the sensory evaluation matched the physical softness, but the surface properties (like skin friction) had a great deal of effect on it. Therefore, we realized that the best way for consumers to experience the softening effect is by using both mechanical and sensual approaches.
