Calm the itch for sensitive skin products

Sensitive skin care is a win-win for consumers and brands, so what’s with the lack of new product launches?

Like a perfect date or the secret ingredient in grandma's pie,
sensitive skin is hard to define

Often, it's a subjective sensation that we self-report, because we know our bodies better than any clinical test. Some people are more prone to it if they suffer from a condition like rosacea or dermatitis.

Since we rely so much on self-diagnosis, rather than something objectively measurable, it’s difficult for skincare product formulators to meet our needs. Sensitive skin is now accepted as a major dermatological problem with physiological origins — and we're still totally mystified by it.

Sensitive skin is more commonly found in the face, but it also crops up in the hands, scalp and body in varying degrees. It often reacts more strongly to cosmetics and environmental factors like cold, sun, wind and pollution.

A study on a representative sample of the American population found little relation to geographic location, age or ethnicity, but subjects with sensitive skin were more likely to have fair skin phototypes — a term referring to the amount of melanin pigment in the skin — and dermatological disorders (Misery et al., 2011).

Can you guess what skin types they are more likely to have?

Thanks to all those intertwining factors, a sensitive skin claim for one person looks completely different on another.​​

Where are all the sensitive skin products?

A huge chunk of the population has sensitive skin. It manifests in so many ways for so many different reasons — but we have such limited choices when it comes to finding the right skin care products.

A Google Trends analysis by BASF shows that in the last five years, interest for the term “sensitive skin cream” more than doubled.

51% in the  U.S. 56% in  Japan. 59% in  France.

Women across the globe live with sensitive skin.

What's a girl to do? Despite all the buzz about sensitive skin, there has been a distinct lack of launches for products making that claim.

Check out the graph:

Of all the products launched in the U.S. in 2018, fewer than 10 percent of those have specific sensitive skin or redness claims.

(Source: Mintel 2019)

It's all about the money, honey

How do you know sensitive skin claims really matter to us as consumers? Here's a little secret: we're willing to pay more for them.

See this next graph? An analysis by BASF shows the price a specific product application can fetch when it has sensitive skin claims associated with it. Serums with sensitive skin claims top the list at around $100, followed by treatments, eye care and face moisturizers, which all sell for more than $50.

Make your formulations werk, werk, werk

Now that you know what we consumers want (and the prices we'll pay to get it), here's the real challenge: formulating products that soothe, repair and protect sensitive skin.

It starts with fabulous ingredients. Your supplier should be an expert in selecting and sourcing gentle, high-quality ingredients that offer the benefits your customers crave — and they should know which ones to avoid.

Because sensitive skin problems are so subjective, it's important to choose the right test methods for each product. You should also keep an eye on new science and changes in your industry — just like you're doing now (keep up the good work)!

In case you're wondering, BASF Care Creations is here for all that. Our portfolio is a big, beautiful rainbow of products that help you formulate for sensitive skin claims in whatever fun and quirky formats you need.

We've got your back, babe.

As your partners in the formulating process, we're serving up the hot industry tea and technical advice you need to brew up gorgeous new sensitive skin products.

Click through our catalogue of sensitive skin products or have a chat with our friendly team to learn more.