Whether or not an individual sees this as necessary will vary from person to person and we are yet to see whether this kind of ‘in situ’ measurement approach will really take off.  If it does it is likely to be in the Asia-Pacific region initially which is a hot-bed of personal care innovation and one in which the ‘quantified self’ approach to wellness is taken very seriously.

Personal care diagnostics are also vitally important if a product formulation company is perfecting a new topical product, they may only need just a small percentage of improvement in hydration, elasticity or barrier function which can be imparted to the skin to make the claims that will ultimately differentiate them from the competition.  These parameters and can be easily measured in controlled trials by corneometry, cutometry and trans-epidermal water loss respectively, e.g. with devices developed by Courage & Khazaka.  

Recently developed techniques also measure the depth, number and distribution of wrinkles and other aspects of the skin’s topography such as photography (e.g. Canfield Scientific), Primos 3D (fringe projection) or older techniques such as optical profilometry of physical silicone impressions of the skin’s surface.  Such information can make or break new formulations and combinations of active ingredients entering the market.