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j. Soc. Cosmet. Chem., 39, 355-366 (November/December 1988) Forearm wash test to evaluate the clinical mildness of cleansing products MICHAEL F. LUKACOVIC, FRANK E. DUNLAP, SCOTT E. MICHAELS, MARTHA O. VISSCHER, and DEBRA D. WATSON, The Procter and Gamble Company, Sharon Woods Technical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (M.F.L., S.E.M., M.O.V., D.D.W.), and Cosmetic Research, Inc., Tucson, Arizona (F. E.D. ) Received November 9, 1987. Synopsis A forearm wash test was developed to differentiate the mildness of personal cleansing products, e.g., bar soaps. The wash protocol was derived from habit information and by observation of actual wash situations. The method was found to be sensitive enough to discriminate differences in bar composition such as tallow/coconut ratio, presence of super fitting, and type of synthetic surfactant. There are design variations to accommodate paired comparisons and single product comparisons of multiple products. Dew point was a key indicator of responsiveness to soap treatment. Therefore, the number of washings was increased to allow product differentiation under conditions of high dew point. Because the method was derived from actual washing situations, it is more likely to be predictive of consumers' skin condition when using cleansing products than are the conventional chamber or patch tests. INTRODUCTION The soap chamber test developed by P. J. Frosch and A.M. Kligman (1) has been used to evaluate soaps for their effect on skin attributes such as erythema, scaling, and fis- suring. At the 43rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, Kligman et al. described an exaggerated-use face wash test to evaluate several skin- cleansing products. In a later study that evaluated several skin-cleansing products using an exaggerated-use face wash test, Kligman (2) concluded that washing tests are more relevant and reliable than the chamber test. Sauermann et al. (3) concluded that the application of soap solutions under chamber test conditions caused inflammation that was not relevant to normal regular use. Other studies (4-6) indicate that skin condition is affected by humidity, temperature, and cleanser or bar formulation, e.g., surfactant type. In this paper we describe a forearm wash test and present clinical results obtained with it. Mildness is defined by the parameters of skin redness, dryness, and smoothness. The results include evaluations by expert graders (dermatologists or graders trained and 355