In this study, the performance of a portable NIR system and a FT NIR spectrometer were compared to determine water content of hairless mouse skin. The stratum corneum parts wer e separated from the epidermal tissues by trypsin solution. NIR diffuse reflectance spectra of hairless mouse skin were acquired using a fiber optic probe. In the near infrared, water molecules show two clear absorption bands at 1450 nm from first overtone of O-H stretching and 1940 nm from the combination involving O-H stretching and O-H deformation. It was found that the variations of O-H absorption band according to water content. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied to develop a calibration model. The PLS model showed a good correlation between NIR predicted value and the absolute water content of separated hairless mouse skin, in vitro. For both the portable and the FT NIR spectrometer, These studies showed the possibility of a rapid and nondestructive skin moisture measurement using NIR spectroscopy. The portable NIR spectrometer with a photodiode arrays-microsensor could be more rapidly applied for the determination of water content with comparable accuracy with the performance of a FT spectrometer .