Silicons are widely applied in haircare products as conditioning agents due to its excellent properties: high lubricity, good film forming capability, odorlessness, etc. However, they are not readily biodegradable in the environment. Although silicon-containing oil dominate the market share, silicon-free oil market is observed to grow in past 5 years globally. This study aims to understand if silicon-free can deliver comparable sensory performance as silicon-containing oil.
In this study, 8 silicon-free oil and 2 silicon-containing oil from worldwide top sellers are covered. Expert mapping, as an agile and innovative sensory method, is applied in this study. All samples are compared with the same benchmark on models’ heads with a set of fix attributes by well-trained experts. The data is statistically progressed with Multiple Factors Analysis (MFA) and Cluster Analysis. As a result, a sensory mapping with two key dimensions is generated to identify the product segmentations and sensory signatures.
The results reveal silicon-free oil shows diverse sensory signature. Some of current on market silicon-free oil can deliver similar sensory signature (high conditioning with light sensation) as silicon-containing oil. It is possible to replace silicon-containing oil with silicon-free oil.