Raylene really needs to know…I don’t like the idea of chemicals in cosmetics getting into my body. Is there anyway to block this?
The Beauty Brains respond:
Since most ingredients don’t penetrate skin this isn’t really an issue. That’s because most chemicals are too large to diffuse through the skin. (Read this post on how much chemical exposure do you really get from cosmetics.) In fact, you need special dermal patches, formulated with penetration enhancers, to get things like nicotine and sea sickness drugs through your skin and into your blood. But I did find one interesting example of a skin lotion that is designed to STOP chemicals from entering your body.
Anti-snake venom cream
Thankfully this isn’t an issue everyone will have to worry about but if you’re ever bitten by a snake you can take comfort in the fact that scientists have developed a new skin cream that slows down the absorption of venom. Interestingly, snake venom enters the blood through the lymphatic system because the bite penetrates tissue not blood vessels. Researchers at the University of Newcastle at Callaghan, Australia developed a cream containing nitric oxide cream which stops the lymphatic system from pumping. The result – it takes almost twice as long for the venom to kill you, hopefully giving you time to seek medical treatment.
Reference: New Scientist
Image credit: http://fc06.deviantart.net/
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
To add to this, coming from a 100% non-cosmetic chemist or scientist, it’s not necessarily bad for “chemicals” to penetrate into your skin; active ingredients in a formula sometimes need to do this in order to achieve real effect on our skin; e.g., retinol. Between the EU, FDA and other governing bodies, the safety of ingredients are verified and regulations set to ensure the safest, most effective production formulations. I’m grateful for the advances in product safety and cosmetic chemistry in the last several decades ; )
I’ve never thought about this for makeup, but have always wondered how many chemicals penetrate the skin when using chemical sunscreen.
Summary: Dont worry about it.
Skin care is a funny creature. Half of us are concerned our actives aren’t penetrating *enough* and the other half are worried about the things that *are* penetrating.
The fear-mongering “naturalists” (EWG anyone?) have created so much false hype around the word ‘chemical.’ Everything is made of chemicals. Chemical does not mean some horrible substance that will damage your body. There are dangerous chemicals in the world, but they are not in your skin care or makeup.
I am much more concerned over if I am getting the max effectiveness out of my beauty products.
{ 1 trackback }