Washing your face is an important part of many people's skincare, but it often leaves our skin feeling tight. A new study has revealed the mechanism behind this strange sensation, which may help cosmetics companies improve the cleaning experience.
The feeling of tightness after washing is probably the worst part of your evening skincare routine – sometimes it feels like your skin is getting too clean instead of feeling purified. This is because cleansers remove some of the lipids that help keep the skin moisturized, causing the outermost layer of our skin, the stratum corneum, to shrink.
But why do we perceive this tightening?
The researchers speculated that this involved a special type of receptor in the skin, called mechanoreceptors, and used a combination of laboratory experiments, computer modeling, and data from human trials to explore this theory.
First, the research team applied six different cleansers and nine different moisturizers to recipient skin samples obtained from the cheeks, forehead, and abdomen. They measured the changes in the stratum corneum after application.
This data is then inserted into a human skin model, which will predict what signals the mechanoreceptors will send to the brain – basically, it will be able to predict which cleanser or moisturizer will make people feel tight or not feel tight.
To confirm the model's findings, the study compared it to human trial data, where participants tested cleansers and moisturizers and reported how tight their skin felt.
Reinhold Dauskardt, one of the study authors, said in a statement: "We plotted our predictions that were exactly in line with what our human subjects told us. ”
This finding supports the idea that when we wash our face, the mechanical force of stratum corneum contraction is indeed detected by mechanoreceptors deep in the skin. They feed this information back to the brain, which recognizes this signal as a feeling of tightness.
While understanding the effects of skincare products on the nervous system is already interesting in itself, the results of this study may also have some practical implications for future formulations.
Dauskardt explains: "It provides a framework for the development of new products. "If you do anything about the top layer of the skin, its strain state and stress state, then we can tell you how that information is delivered and how the consumer will understand and report it.
Hopefully, this means that future cleansers won't make you feel like your skin is pinched behind your ears anymore.
The study was published in the journal PNAS Nexus.