ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the most used and promising neurosensory assessment tests for diagnosing and quantifying sensitive skin. Initially, studies dealing with sensitive skin used open questionnaires to collect information as exhaustive as possible on self-perception of sensitive skin. To select people with sensitive skin, it is generally recommended to add a positive result to a relevant psychophysical test to the self-reported sensitive skin statement. Although very useful for assessing the product safety, the lactic acid stinging test (LAST) does not fully render the complexity of self-assessed sensitive skin, as illustrated by the discrepancy between lactic acid response and self-perception of sensitive skin. Capsaicin detection threshold (CDT) is certainly the most pertinent method linked to self-declared sensitive skin. The initial capsaicin test was very promising as it presented a stronger link with self-declared sensitive skin than the LAST. In a more recent study, the link between current perception threshold (CPT) and the response to the LAST has been established.
