What Happens To All Of The Moisturizer Absorbed By The Skin

Despite what you may accept heard, you lot tin can't set up split ends, and antiperspirants don't cause cancer. In Myth Busters, nosotros debunk common beauty misconceptions and ready the tape direct.

Myths about dazzler and skincare are inevitable. Some of these rumors are harmless—like shaving makes our hair abound back faster, which, spoiler alert, it doesn't. Nonetheless, when lies about dazzler products impacting our health go thrown effectually, we need to take them seriously and investigate whether they're truthful or not. Now, there's a popular myth going around Instagram, Reddit, and popular blogs that advise that sixty% of your skincare ingredients become absorbed into your bloodstream. That's a very scary statistic when you recall about everything that'due south in your skincare products.

Licensed esthetician and famous skincare TikToker Charlotte Palermino said it best when she explained that if this were true, we'd all be heavily intoxicated from hand sanitizer, as about formulas include 60% booze at the minimum. Jokes bated, though, the truth is that the skin'due south main function is to protect us, so the notion that a large portion of our skincare ingredients gets absorbed into our blood simply isn't true. In that location are some exceptions, but we'll get into that subsequently.

To assist usa set up the record straight, we tapped two cosmetic chemists to learn more about how the skin functions, how it absorbs skincare products, and the truth about whether it can get into our bloodstream.

How does the skin function?

To understand why this myth isn't true, nosotros need to know how the skin works. Our skin is our largest and heaviest organ, and information technology has multiple functions. It consists of several different layers, and each one plays a particular function in protecting the body, explains Shuting Hu, P.h.D., a corrective chemist and founder of Acaderma. "The outermost layer of your skin, called the epidermis, works as a barrier, and information technology consists of strong pare cells called corneocytes," she says. She further explains that this layer of your skin is crucial to your overall health as it defends your body from any environmental threats while maintaining wet and hydration past protecting the water in your trunk.

How does the peel absorb skincare products?

The fashion your skin absorbs skincare ingredients depends on many factors, including the type of ingredient used. "Biologically, the skin's outermost part is a phospholipid bi-layer (aka fabricated of oils)," explains Krupa Koestline, clean cosmetic chemist and founder of KKT Consultant. Since oil and water don't mix, she says, "oil-soluble products and emulsions accept an easier fourth dimension penetrating than h2o-based ingredients."

Molecular size likewise plays a part. "Ingredients with a larger molecular size tend to stay on top of the skin while the smaller molecules can penetrate deeper," says Koestline. Ingredients such as vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B3, and hyaluronic acid all accept relatively pocket-sized molecular structures, says Dr. Hu. Similarly, certain oils tend to blot easier while waxy substances sit on elevation of the peel.

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Credit: Percutaneous Assimilation

Despite all of the different contributors that can impact how the skin absorbs ingredients, Koestline explains that the skin is not a sponge. Information technology doesn't just blot everything because it has a small molecular size, or is applied on a more permeable area. "For transdermal assimilation to occur, information technology's a complicated process," she says. "It'southward not equally like shooting fish in a barrel to merely put something on your pare for it to penetrate, it takes a lot of testing, research, and evolution to develop transdermal drugs and cosmetics."

So, does skincare get into our bloodstream?

As with all things in scientific discipline and skincare, there is no simple yeah or no answer. Is it possible for skincare to become absorbed into your bloodstream? Yes. Is it likely—let alone a sixty% gamble? No.

The main part of the skin is to go along the bad things out, plus, skincare products are designed to be applied topically, so they don't even reach the deepest layers of our skin, writes Michelle Wong, a blogger, chemistry Ph.D. graduate, and Australia-based science educator who started the website Lab Muffin, which breaks down the scientific discipline of beauty in simple terms.

For your skincare to absorb into the bloodstream, it would demand to undergo several processes and layers of the body, explains Dr. Hu. "Later information technology passes multiple layers of the pare, including the dead surface peel cells, which acts as a barrier, the ingredient has to get past your metabolic functions before information technology can attain the bloodstream," she says. "If threescore% of skincare ingredients were absorbed by the bloodstream, I'd be rubbing salad and fe on my skin every 24-hour interval."

And so, what well-nigh transdermal medications and patches, such every bit nicotine patches? These are formulated differently than skincare cosmetics, and so it'south possible for an ingredient to reach the bloodstream from topical application, explains Dr. Hu. However, studies bear witness that 10 to 95% of the drug remains on the surface of the skin with the transdermal drug products currently on the market. So, the amount of ingredients getting absorbed into the skin isn't excessive or harmful.

"There's a lot of fear-mongering and misinformation about the dangers of skincare assimilation," says Dr. Hu. "Information technology takes a high dose and years of consistent assistants for the near intense ingredients, like steroid hydrocortisone, to enter the bloodstream through the skin." Skincare cosmetics, like the serums, cleansers, you utilize on your skin aren't formulated in the same manner, meaning it's very unlikely for it to go into the bloodstream.

Koestline says our skin is our biggest defence force weapon. "It's designed to keep things out of our body and out of our bloodstream. Information technology'southwardvery hard for skincare products applied topically to make it pass the several layers of pare."

Ultimately, Dr. Hu says you can assume that your skincare products are being properly absorbed into the peel when practical correctly because that's what they are designed to do. And then, you tin can comport on with your 10-step skincare routine and multi-masking—rest bodacious that information technology's not going anywhere except your pare.