US-based Stanford University is working with international beauty major L’Oréal to investigate skin tightness, looking at how mechano-receptors send signals into the neural circuit upon application of a topical.

The collaborative research aimed to fully understand the mechanism behind skin tightness and establish if it was possible to engineer cosmetic products to reduce this sensation, instead promoting skin comfort.

Since 2014, Stanford University and L’Oréal had been conducting large-scale, multiple-year in vivo​ studies amongst women in France and China, as well as conducting various in vitro ​tests. The teams were investigating how the sensation of skin tightness occurred due to cutaneous signalling via the activation of mechano-receptors found deep in the skin.

Read more…