Rheology, Texture Analysis and Tribology for Sensory Prediction and Sustainable Cosmetic Design

The cosmetic industry is undergoing a deep transformation driven by rapid innovation, evolving consumer expectations, and increasing demands for sustainability. Formulators are required to design products that combine functional efficacy, stability, and appealing sensory properties while adopting environmentally responsible strategies. Traditional empirical and sensory-based approaches, though valuable, are often limited by high costs, time, subjectivity and lack of reproducibility. In this context, instrumental techniques provide an objective and predictive means to optimize product performance. Rheology, texture analysis, and tribology offer complementary insights into the structure, mechanical behavior, and interfacial phenomena of cosmetic formulations, all of which are closely linked to application behavior and sensory perception. Their integration enables a quantitative correlation between formulation composition, process conditions, and tactile performance. This review critically examines recent advances in the integrated use of rheology, texture analysis and tribology in cosmetic science, highlighting their role in sensory prediction, stability assessment, scale-up and eco-design. Together, these instrumental approaches support a more data-driven and innovation-oriented formulation paradigm, enabling database development and predictive modeling. Future research should prioritize database expansion, in vivo validation and machine learning integration to further improve sensory prediction and accelerate the design of advanced cosmetic formulations.