Evaluation of Cosmetics by Sensory Assessment

Abstract

Cosmetics are used to provide external body care or to change the external appearance of the body in a decorative way in order to achieve a positive impact on our senses. This “impact on our senses” is a highly complex matter. It encompasses a variety of processes—physicochemical, chemical, physical, and/or physiological. It is also linked to a spectrum of phenomena that can best be subsumed under the heading “psychological” or “mental.” This means that sensory assessment is an aspect of objective natural science on the one hand, but on the other also has to do with subjective perception and thus with the humanities. This gives it a dual assignment, a twofold goal, and that is what we want to examine more closely here, with examples taken from the field of cosmetics