What is sensitive skin?

Previously, sensitive skin has rarely been described in scientific literature, and a physiological cause and recognition as a medical entity was questioned by biomedical researchers. Only a few research groups focused on objective approaches to identifying the key mechanisms underlying sensitive skin (1-10). In 1947, Bernstein already described that cleansing of sensitive skin requires extra care (11). Maibach et al. already investigated skin irritation in 1989, in order to elucidate the mechanisms of irritation and to define more predictive screening assays (12). In the latter study, it was shown that some irritants could discriminate between subjects with hand eczema and those with normal skin, while other irritants could not.