With the rise of the ingredient party, the cosmetic concentration of in recent years has been soaring. If you add 1%, you will add 3% . But Have you ever thought about the active substances that you feed to the skin yourself, Does the skin really absorb ?
You should know that in order to resist foreign enemies, the skin has built itself into a tight wall, and it is not easy to enter. If cannot penetrate or absorb it, the amount of skin care products added is useless!
For this reason, should the formulators rack their brains , should they find a more reliable "porter" or increase the "appetite" of their skin? is all for the purpose of allowing the active substance to truly penetrate into the skin.
Finally, my hard work pays off. I really found a group of down-to-earth brick-moving people. Today we will see their true faces and how they help the active substances enter the skin! (Remember to check the summary picture at the end of the article)
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How difficult is it to penetrate the active substance?
substances need to penetrate into the skin, there are three main channels: intracellular, intercellular and vesicles.
Intracellular pathway is of course the most direct and fast method of penetration, however, this path is challenging.
Because the active substance must overcome the hydrophilic structures in the skin cells of lipophilic (cell membrane and lipid matrix). It is difficult for simple fat or pure hydrophilic ingredients to pass through , and only a small number of "amphiphilic" ingredients can be unimpeded.
The path between cells is relatively common. Active substances are spread through diffusion. In this way, the size and structure of molecules are factors that affect permeability. Therefore, we often say that the smaller the molecular weight of , the better the permeability .
Another type is to penetrate through vesicles, but because hair follicles only account for 0.01% of the total surface area of the skin, the scope of action of this method is very limited. Generally, only some scalp care ingredients will penetrate through this method.
Therefore, it is not easy to penetrate and absorb the active ingredients in skin care products. Many active ingredients are wasted in vain in the process of trying to break through layers of obstacles!
In order to make skin care products better , the formulators searched and looked for it, and finally set their sights on the set of drug carriers. Since the active ingredients are not easy to enter, wrapped it and “disguised” it and sent it quietly. There are many types of carrier forms of drugs, including nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) , carbon nanotube (CNTs) , nanogels, etc., and these are classified according to different nanocarriers or carrier coating structures.
And when they are derived into skin care applications, the commonly used wrapping techniques of are usually these four types: liposome , microcapsule , nanostructured lipid carrier, and polymer nanocarrier . Next, let’s talk about their advantages one by one.
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Cleansing and rejuvenating
Liposomes are bimolecular layer structures composed of phospholipids and cholesterol . The hydrophilic components can be encapsulated in the aqueous vesicles, and the hydrophobic components can be trapped in the phospholipid bimolecular layer. Relying on phospholipid components similar to the cell membrane, liposomes carry the "pass" to enter and exit the cells with the "active private goods" wrapped.
▲Left: Liposomes Right: Non-liposomes
In addition to relying on this "relative" relationship, liposomes can also form a uniform film on the skin surface when they contact the skin, effectively reducing percutaneous moisture loss (TEWL) .The unlost moisture of
increases the distance between the skin lipid membranes, and the fluidity of sebum increases , which is equivalent to opening the "channel" for the active substance reception, making skin lipids more easily receive more oil-soluble active substances. This also facilitates the penetration of the active substance .
▲Liposomes under cryo-electron microscopy
This technology is commonly used to wrap unstable components such as VC/VA and . The raw material manufacturer Clariant uses liposome technology to upgrade to "solid liposomes" to wrap A alcohol, achieving the stability of the active substance and the effect of skin melting and sustained release. This technology is also widely used in cosmetics. In
, 986, Dio developed the first liposomal cosmetics . Deco 's muscle source repair cream also uses micron liposome technology in size of about 0.1-0.4 to achieve a gentler and more efficient skin care effect.
▲Daico's muscle source repair cream
Reference price: 630 yuan/50g
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microcapsules (microcapsules)
microcapsules may be easier to imagine. is simply the wall shell of a polymer and a micro container. uses granulation technology to embed and seal solids, liquids and even gases.
This benefit is mainly to "isolate" , isolate easily inactive ingredients in microcapsules, and play the effect of protecting stable and effective ingredients; can also wrap bad odors and colors , and even wrap the originally incompatible ingredients separately through microcapsules to isolate , thereby achieving "compatible" .
Another advantage is to achieve the effect of " sustained release " , for example, the wrapped deodorant ingredients are used for antiperspirant products. When the human body sweats, the microcapsules are destroyed and the active ingredients are released. This release rate can be controlled according to the amount of sweating.
flavor company Chivaudan is a masterpiece of microcapsules research. It not only wraps the fragrance, but also uses the unique Mechacaps fragrance locking technology to wrap specially designed fragrances with polymer polymer to lock the fragrance.
is used for laundry detergent . This microcapsule is attached to the clothing fibers. When drying, rubbing or folding, the microcapsule is broken, releasing the fragrance and bringing a long-lasting fragrance.
In addition to flavor, also uses microcapsule technology to wrap hyaluronic acid . The hyaluronic acid wrapped in is more permeable, and can penetrate deep into the epidermis and gradually release hyaluronic acid. fills with full wrinkles or folds, which is very effective in anti-aging and lip augmentation.
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Nanostructured Lipid Carrier (NLC)
To understand NLC, Let’s first learn about SLN (solid nanolipid particles) . As the name suggests, it is solid-type lipid particles . embeds the active substance in this solid oil and fat species and saves it. The disadvantage of is that the load capacity is small and the lipids are prone to lose stability in the storage process of (crystalline transformation) .
NLC is a particle structure prepared by mixing solid lipids and liquid lipids. It retains the advantages of SLN while optimizing the disadvantages.
can be divided into three types of according to the coating method, namely: amorphous lipid, incomplete crystal lipid, and multiple structural lipid.
NLC has better sealing and skin adhesion , and at the same time, the crystal structure is more stable, the wrapping amount is higher, and the active substance is more stable.
IOPE, the Supervital series that is mainly promoted in the entire line, uses this technology . Although there is no promotion on the shopping details page, you can still find promotional animations specially produced at that time on a small broken site.
But it may be because the technology is too profound, and the brand has changed its way to tell the product story later.
▲IOPE muscle activity smart beauty repair cream
Reference price: 460 yuan/50ml
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Porous polymer microspheres
Different from the first three structures, Porous polymer Microspheres is a polymer material with loose and porous surface and interior. When
is used as a skin care raw material, it is mainly by adsorbing active ingredients, adsorbing for a long time, and then slowly releasing them, thereby avoiding the irritation and discomfort caused by rapid and direct contact with the skin.
But this porous material cannot enter the skin, but only sends the active substance to the skin surface, so this material will not promote penetration.
Another advantage is that the porous polymer itself has an oil absorption effect, so will bring a dry, silky velvet soft feeling.
American Rohm&Haas company once used to use acrylic polymer to adsorb sunscreen , which can help increase stability , and at the same time reduce the greasy .
United Liver also has a similar sun protection technology . It uses the effect of polymer adsorption to apply two sunscreens that were originally incompatible to the same formula, increasing the light stability of the sunscreen, extending the sunscreen effect, and using microspheres to bring a good skin feeling.
However, in recent years, the incidence of this polymer microsphere has become increasingly low.
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Microfluid
Although the above 4 types are all wrapped technology, however! They are all "invisible to the naked eye" in skin care products, and are not the small particles like "million porridge" you see in some products!
Then what exactly are the "millet porridge" particles that are visible to the naked eye and melt when touching the skin, and what is the use?
In fact, small particles such as are made through a "microfluidic" technology.
When using micropipe (sizes tens to hundreds of microns) to process or manipulate tiny fluids, fluid will perform differently in such very tiny devices than in macro devices.
For example, : When the two phases are insoluble in liquid (oil and water) flows in the microfluidic channel, under the action of the liquid/liquid interface tension and shear force, one of the fluids will form a highly uniform intermittent flow, i.e., droplets, and then stabilize this droplet through a special method, then we can get the "small particles" we see.
The color of small particles is adjustable in transparency, and the active substances wrapped in small particles can also be customized. The biggest benefit of this product is "visualization of the effective ingredients", and it can also protect the active substances of the package.
In recent years, many brands have launched similar appearances. contains microbeads , such as Dior's Flower Secret Rose Micro-Closing Bead Essence, L'Occitane revitalizing microcapsule bottom essence, Chanel Camellia moisturizing micro-element.
Dior Flower Secret Rose Micro-Closing Bead Essence Reference Price: 1320 yuan/15ml
L'Occitane Revitalization Microcapsule Bottom Essence Reference Price: 578 yuan/30ml
Chanel Camellia Moisturizing Micro-Essence Reference Price: 578 yuan/30ml
Chanel Camellia Moisturizing Micro-Essence Reference Price: 578 yuan/30ml
Reference price: 880 yuan/150ml
is similar to the polymer porous carrier mentioned above. It is just a loading technology. itself does not have the effect of promoting penetration ; however, has the benefits of protecting actives, sustained release, and mild.
Thanks to these good technologies that benefit the skin care party, so that our skin can better obtain the nourishment of skin care products. Remember to click "reading" for this article, encourage every worker working hard in the beauty industry, and look forward to better technology emerging in the future!
Planning: Kelp Producer: Phyllis
Typesetting: Xiongzai
Review: Yan'antang Research Institute
This article was originally created by Yan'antang content team, and some pictures are from the Internet
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