Dermatological products are first judged, by touch, while a patient applies the product on the skin. During product application, positive skin feel plays a key role, as it contributes significantly to whether a product is accepted and consequently used. Any subtle variation in product composition can potentially enhance or diminish the actual response made by an active pharmaceutical ingredient. Understanding the impact of compositional differences between topical formulations on their physical and structural properties or their critical quality attributes (CQAs) and, in turn, on a patient’s perception of therapeutic effect could be very beneficial to the industry and to regulatory authorities. This would allow integration and predictions in both therapeutic and sensory equivalence to be made about topical products from instrumental data only. Measurement of attributes such as rheological, tribological and textural parameters can therefore save time and money.