Active ingredients in cosmetics: can they penetrate the skin?

Among the hundreds of thousands of various cosmetic products that exist today on the beauty market, it is surprisingly difficult to choose a truly effective drug. The fact is that the mass of the declared funds does not always correspond to what the manufacturers say about them. The active ingredients in the composition of cosmetics, according to advertising, can work real miracles, but knowledgeable people, who are cosmetologists, are interested in the most important question: can they penetrate the skin? Read the answer to this question on estet-portal.com in today's article.

How active ingredients in cosmetics work

Over the past few decades, aesthetic medicine has taken a special place among all medical specialties. People want to keep not only their health, but also youth and beauty as long as possible, and cosmetics manufacturers provide them with this opportunity.

If the average consumer is far from always able to understand how most of the components of a particular tool work, the specialist simply must have this information.

And the most important thing to understand is whether the active ingredients of creams, serums, emulsions and other cosmetics can penetrate the skin? Read about it in today's article.

Active Ingredients:

• mechanism of action of active components of cosmetics;
• methods of penetration of the active components of cosmetics into the skin.

Mechanism of action of active ingredients of cosmetics

According to international law, all cosmetics that are certified not as drugs, but as cosmetics, affect only the surface layer of the skin. This means that, regardless of their composition, active ingredients, class or price, all cosmetic products work only at the level of the epidermis, moisturizing it and creating a protective film on its surface. But deeper into the skin than at the level of the epidermis, the active ingredients that make up cosmetics simply cannot penetrate, since a cosmetic cream or emulsion is not a medicine. And cosmetologists must remember this.

Methods of penetration of active ingredients of cosmetics into the skin

Despite the fact that cosmetics can only work at the level of the epidermis, cosmetologists have several effective methods that ensure deeper penetration of active ingredients into the skin:

• destruction of the stratum corneum – the method involves treating the skin with a special substance with anionic surfactants, which allows you to remove the entire fat layer and increase the flow of active ingredients into the skin by 20%. Chemical peels are also capable of destroying the hydrolipidic mantle and improving the penetration of active substances into the skin;
• creams with essential oils – essential oils have the ability to quickly penetrate the stratum corneum, dragging other substances with them. But it is important that the essential oils are natural, otherwise they simply will not work;
• hardware techniques – iontophoresis, galvanotherapy, microcurrents, ultrasound and other hardware methods contribute to a deeper penetration of the active components of cosmetics into the skin;
• peptides – Today, cosmetic products containing peptides are the most effective, because, due to their structure, peptides can penetrate the skin, start regeneration processes, activate fibroblasts and promote the production of new collagen and elastin fibers;
• nanotechnology – this is a theoretically effective method, since nanoparticles in the composition of cosmetics can change their structure and interact with other particles, but in practice it is very difficult to achieve the stability of nanoingredients;
• injection techniques – with the help of modern effective methods, it is indeed possible to deliver the active components of the drugs deep into the skin, but it should be noted that for injection, agents are used that are specially designed for this method of delivering substances.

The active ingredients in cosmetics work only at the level of the epidermis, but the use of several effective methods, such as the destruction of the stratum corneum, hardware or injection techniques, can provide deeper penetration.

Beauticians should understand how cosmetic products work in the skin and explain to their patients what maximum effect can be expected from their use. estet-portal.com thanks you for your attention.

See also: “Preservatives in cosmetics: a reasonable balance of harm and benefit”.