Measure what your customers feel
We help CPG companies predict human sensory perception from lab measurements -- reducing reliance on costly consumer panels while maintaining scientific rigor. We design tests, build custom instruments, and deliver statistical models that connect lab data to real human experience.
Finger-Like Precision
Probes that emulate the mechanical properties of human fingers, producing data that correlates directly with consumer perception.
Custom Built
Purpose-built instruments for specific measurement needs. Not general-purpose lab equipment adapted to the task.
Published Science
20+ peer-reviewed papers establishing statistical relationships between lab measurements and human sensory scores across food, personal care, and household CPG categories.
From sensory question to lab workflow
Perceptometry Lab helps CPG R&D teams design the test, build the right measurement workflow, and connect instrument data to human perception.
Test design
We design emulative and tribo-rheological protocols calibrated to the sensory attributes your team cares about -- mouthfeel, spreadability, stringiness, shape retention, and more.
Custom instrument development
When no existing instrument captures what you need, we build one. Our devices are designed around specific sensory hypotheses, not general-purpose measurement.
Statistical modeling
We build regression and machine learning models that predict panel scores from instrument data -- validated against your existing sensory data or alongside a calibration panel study.
Panel cost reduction
Once predictive models are established, routine reformulation checks can be run entirely in the lab -- reserving expensive consumer panels for final validation only.
Quantifying what only humans could judge
For decades, the only way to evaluate how a sunscreen spreads, how a toothpaste squeezes, or how a lotion feels on skin was to ask people. Sensory panels are slow, expensive, and inherently subjective.
Perceptometry Lab builds custom-made devices that emulate human perception -- spreading, squeezing, pulling, touching -- and produce quantitative data where only qualitative assessment existed before. Nobody else does that.
The difference between "feels smooth" and a coefficient of friction.
Peer-reviewed methods, instrument output, and a device you can evaluate
For CPG R&D buyers, the question is not whether a product feels different -- it is whether the difference can be measured repeatably, defended in a claim review, and tied back to sensory perception.
Sunscreen sensory attribute prediction via textural, rheological and tribological tests
G. Nabiyeva, B. Teoman, A. Potanin, G.Y. Gor. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2026. DOI: 10.1111/ics.70021
Spreader / Tribometer
A finger-like probe spreads topicals (e.g., sunscreen) over artificial skin (PMMA sheet) while measuring coefficient of friction. Our research found that COF is critical for human perception of sunscreen efficiency.
Inspired by the Spreadmaster by Weneos -- but built as a configurable platform for labs that need custom probes, custom substrate handling, and data outputs aligned to their formulation workflow.
Custom instruments typically range from five-figure to low six-figure depending on configuration. Start with a discovery engagement to define your requirements.
Review the spec frameworkWe interpret data from instruments already in your lab
Not every engagement starts with a new machine. We help teams extract sensory-predictive signals from existing viscometers, rheometers, tribometers, and texture analyzers, then define where a custom fixture or instrument is truly needed.
Viscometer
Flow resistance and apparent viscosity at defined shear rates.
Example: Brookfield DV seriesRheometer
Full flow curve -- viscosity, viscoelasticity, yield stress, thixotropy.
Example: TA Instruments DHR, Anton Paar MCRTribometer
Friction and lubrication -- closely linked to mouthfeel and skinfeel.
Example: Mini-Traction MachineTexture analyzer
Force-displacement of solids and semi-solids. The closest standard emulative tool.
Example: Stable Micro Systems TA.XTApplications
How CPG R&D teams use emulative testing instruments in product development.
Reformulation Validation
Confirm that ingredient reductions or substitutions do not shift texture perception below consumer-acceptable thresholds. Get objective data before committing to a full sensory panel.
Shelf-Life Benchmarking
Track firmness, moisture migration, spreadability, and viscosity changes across accelerated aging studies with repeatable instrumental measurements.
Competitor Benchmarking
Objectively characterize competitor products and map them to your own formulation space without relying on panelist availability or subjective language.
Sensory Panel Correlation
Build regression models that predict trained-panel scores from instrument data, cutting the cost and time of repeated sensory sessions.
Domain credibility before instrumentation
Andrei Potanin leads Perceptometry Lab as Chief Scientist. He is a retired Sr. Director at Colgate-Palmolive who has published extensively in rheology and tribology, with a focus on connecting lab measurements to human sensory perception.
The company is designed for R&D directors who need a custom emulative instrument -- not a catalog accessory, not another six-week sensory panel, and not a generic rheometer workflow forced into a sensory question.
Ready to measure what matters?
Bring one application: sunscreen spreadability, toothpaste squeezability, lotion after-feel, food mouthfeel, package dispensing, or another sensory attribute your panel can describe but your instruments cannot yet quantify.
Book a 30-min discovery call