Has Mildness Replaced Cleanliness Next to Godliness?

Abstract

Over the past 30 years we have witnessed a change in our approach to soaps. The turning point was, in fact, the publication of an article by Frosch and Kligman in 1979, in which they described a new method for assessing the irritancy of soaps. They maintained that the chief weakness of the usage tests in the past was that the reactions under normal usage conditions were weak and did not discriminate adequately between different soaps. They proposed a test, called the soap chamber test, which was conducted under extreme conditions, on people known to have a sensitive skin, thereby resulting in strong reactions that emphasized the slight differences between the various soaps. Frosch and Kligman’s work opened up a whole new era in the field of assessment of soap quality. Following their initial studies, many other studies were conducted, including the exaggerated use tests, often in conjunction with instrumental methods of evaluation, such as measurement of transepidermal water loss, electrical conductance, skin color and blood flow, and other tests designed to evaluate the irritation potential of various soaps. All those tests had a common purpose: to achieve extreme conditions which would provide greater sensitivity and discriminating power and would accentuate and emphasize the differences between soaps as much as possible: the greater the discrimination and the differences between the products, the more efficient and useful the test. The introduction and publication of tests such as those completely changed our approach to soaps. The sought-after qualities in a soap became safety, mildness, gentleness, less irritation, less drying – in particular, gentleness and mildness were emphasized. Rather surprisingly, the soap’s main purpose – cleaning the skin – was set aside; people no longer talked of the soap’s most important quality – skin cleansing. Is the above change in approach justified? What really constitutes a good soap? Which soap should we recommend to our patients? Is a soap that scored well on irritancy tests under extreme conditions really the best soap? It seems to me that it would be a mistake to ignore all the accumulated clinical experience in favor of new, modern testing methods. A balance must be found between new information resulting from modern testing methods, and clinical experience that has proven itself over years.

Soap

“…In the past, consumers' bathing habits were such (eg, once-a-week baths) that simple lye soaps were acceptable. However, it is not uncommon nowadays to shower everyday, which puts greater demands on the performance properties of a soap bar, for example, mildness to skin and prevention of bathtub ring (19). Manufacturers of bar soaps have developed a variety of formulation approaches to deliver products that better meet current consumer needs.…”

Soap

“…In the past, consumers' bathing habits were such, eg, once-a-week baths, that simple lye soaps were acceptable. However, in the 1990s, it is not uncommon to shower everyday, which puts greater demands on the performance properties of soap bar, for example, mildness to skin and formation of bathtub ring (16). Manufacturers of bar soaps have developed a variety of formulation approaches to deliver products that better meet the consumer needs of the 1990s.…”

“…There is a considerable amount of research into the compatibility of cleansing products with skin (16,30). Modern soap manufacturers improve the skin compatibility of their products through a variety of chemical testing methods.…”

“…These methods are often used to evaluate the mildness (irritation potential) of test formulations in comparison to other formulations on the basis of the dry skin and irritated (red) appearance of skin. There are many reports of comparative studies of various formulations and their mildness-to-skin; however, the results of these overly exaggerated test methods may not reflect consumer experience with products (16). Upon direct contact with other sensitive membranes such as eyes, soap may also cause irritation in the form of stinging.…”

Prinzipien der Behandlung und Schutz für empfindliche Haut

“…Diese Zahlen verdeutlichen die große Relevanz sensitiver Haut nicht nur für den praktischen Arzt und Dermatologen, sondern auch für die Industrie [15,22,33,37,43,47]. Letztere bietet als Reaktion auf die hohe Prävalenz und den hohen Leidensdruck der Betroffenen zahlreiche Produkte speziell für empfindliche Haut an, wenngleich nicht klar definiert und allgemein bekannt ist, was genau die häu-fig verwendeten Begriffe "empfindliche" oder "hypersensitive" Haut charakterisieren [30].…”