Human skin permeation data taken from the literature were analyzed for quantitative relationships with physicochemical properties and structural descriptors. No correlations exist with molecular weights and solvent-accessible surface areas. In most cases, skin permeation was inversely correlated with the parameter delta log Poct-hep (i.e., log Poctanol minus log Pheptane), which is mainly a measure of the H-bond donor acidity of the solutes. Lipophilicity itself, as expressed by log Poctanol, also contributes positively to skin permeation in some cases. The results of this quantitative structure-permeability relationship study are interpreted in terms of a unified mechanistic model whereby drugs can permeate via an intercellular route (correlation with both delta log Poct-hep and log Poct) and/or a transcellular route (correlation with log Poct only).