In this work, we have investigated the effect of polyoxyethylene alkyl ester nonionic surfactants on percutaneous permeation enhancement of a model drug, ketoprofen. We also investigated the mechanism involved in the enhancement using impedance and solubility measurement. Three groups of nonionic surfactants with different ethylene oxide content were studied. The permeation results showed that all surfactants enhanced the percutaneous absorption, irrespective of the molecular weight. The permeation results from PEG-45 monostearate (PEGMS45) were rather unexpected. Impedance and solubility results indicate that the mechanism involved in the enhancement of permeation by PEG-10 monooleate (PEGMO10) and PEGMS45 is rather different. The results from PEGMS45 suggest that it could be a potential candidate as a skin penetration enhancer with high molecular weight, which may poses less skin irritation and systemic side effect than the smaller surfactant molecules. Overall, this work provided some useful information on percutaneous transport enhancement and the mechanistic insights involved in skin permeation for these nonionic surfactants.