Impact of long-term exposure to anti-age Q10 creams on sensory perception and emotional response
Consumers highly value cosmetic products and see them as key to improving quality of life, well-being and self-esteem, by evoking positive emotions. Most of the nonfood products are intrinsically complex. They can be used in diverse ways, often in strong interaction with context and – unlike food – over several hours, days or months, such as beauty and skincare products.
This work aimed to compare the impact of a long-term exposure to anti-age Q10 creams on consumers’ liking, sensory perception, and emotional response. A panel with 100 female participants (aged between 30 and 65 years), blindly evaluated five commercial creams. First, five commercial creams were tested at consumers’ home, to use each during one-week periods. Then, three were chosen and were tested once again for a maximum period of twenty-eight days, as recommended for most of the brands to reach the anti-aging effect. For each sample, consumers were asked to rate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale and assess the sensory (23 terms) and emotional (10 terms) attributes using a Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) ballot. The terms were pre-defined based on the team experience, a literature review, and a pilot test with the five Q10 creams.
Based on their overall liking, significant differences were found after one-week of exposure (p=0.027), increasing the significance after one-month of exposure (p=0.005) for the three products common to both evaluations. At sensory profiling 19 significant attributes were significant after one-week of exposure, with the ‘firm skin sensation’ attribute emerging as significant only after one month of exposure. Major differences in both exposure times were observed in terms of the evoked emotional profile, with only five significant attributes at one-week of exposure and 9 emotional terms becoming significant after one-month of exposure. This study reinforces the importance of the exposition time to ensure that the consumer has the whole picture of the product.
Publish date 2024-09-07
Author(s) Célia Rocha, Ana Catarina Pinto, Miguel Arcanjo, Bruna Barbosa, Rui Costa Lima, Luís Baião, Luís Miguel Cunha
