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Let's talk skincare ingredient trends. What
do they do and which ones actually work?
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I'm Michelle - my PhD is in medicinal chemistry,
which is really useful for this sort of topic. I
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recently wrote a journal article about skincare
ingredient trends with my friend Hannah English,
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but we did have a word count, so we're
going into much more detail now. I'll
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be covering half the ingredients. Check
out Hannah's video for the other half.
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Starting with advanced delivery systems. Now,
these aren't active ingredients themselves,
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but they're technologies that you can use with
tons of active ingredients. It's all about getting
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them into your skin so they can actually do
something. And there are two main parts to this.
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First off, absorption. The top of
your skin has a bunch of dead skin
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layers that act as a really effective
barrier. It's called the stratum corneum. So,
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most things do not get through skin easily,
and this includes skincare ingredients.
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Delivery systems - they can disrupt these layers
and help the ingredients absorb. The second part
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is stability. Some ingredients break down in the
bottle or on your skin, and once they do that,
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they can't work. And on top of that, the stuff
that they turn into, that can also be irritating.
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So, delivery systems can help ingredients
stay more stable. Most delivery systems
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were originally developed for drug products. I
actually looked into making one during my PhD,
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but now they've made their way into regular
skincare products. You can find them even in
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really budget friendly products. So, you
might have noticed that I've been talking
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less and less about active percentages and
delivery systems are a big part of why.
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Okay, so these numbers are purely theoretical, but
let's say we have a product that has 1% retinol,
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but then half of it breaks down in the
bottle before it even gets near your skin,
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and then 95% of it just doesn't absorb. So that
only leaves us with 0.025% getting into your skin.
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Let's say we have another product that has 0.3%
retinol, but it's in a good delivery system. It
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stays stable. So only 10% of it will decompose.
And again, because of the delivery system,
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only 80% of it stays on top of skin. That means
that we end up with 0.054% getting into skin.
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And so that's actually more than twice as
much as our original one. But if you were
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just looking at the percentage on the label, then
you would have picked the less effective product.
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I mentioned this in my body products video. The EU
has lowered the retinol allowed in products. And I
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think this is probably one of the reasons delivery
systems are really trending. Delivery systems
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mean that you can still get the same or maybe even
better results even with lower active percentages.
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Now, the umbrella category of delivery system that
I've just been seeing everywhere is encapsulation.
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And basically this means the active ingredient
is wrapped in a shell that protects it. It's a
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bit like popping boba. There are lots
of different types of encapsulation.
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Liposomes are one of the big ones. They're
tiny balls made of phospholipids. And these
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are like the chemicals that are in your
cell membranes. They look like this.
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With the older type of liposomes, the main
way these seem to get things deeper into
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your skin is by merging with stuff in
your skin barrier at the top of it and
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just disrupting that barrier. sort of like
how a cleanser would, but on a much smaller
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scale. But there are also newer liposome
types that can actually travel deeper.
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Cyclodextrins. These are one of my favorite
types of encapsulation because I think it's
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really neat and it's also kind of sentimental for
me because I did a bunch of experiments with them
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for a summer research project. These are sort of
like microscopic donuts made of sugar molecules,
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like a ring made out of rings. I guess the super
cool thing is that the outside likes water,
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but the inside likes oil. So, you can actually
use cyclodextrins to get oily ingredients into
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water-based formulas. They come in lots of
different sizes, so you can encapsulate a
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lot of different ingredients in them. And at the
moment, they're used in lots of retinal products.
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Retinal is super unstable, but the donut bonds to
it, and it actually gets in the way, so it can't
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break down. So, if you know organic chemistry,
it's basically acting like a protecting group.
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Then after you've put it on your skin, enzymes
come in and chew up the donut. It breaks it down
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and the retinal gets released and can start
working. Cyclodextrins are also in odour
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neutralizing sprays like Febreze. The donuts will
actually catch the scent molecule and so the scent
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molecule can't get into the nose and bind to the
receptors that make a smell bad. It's really neat.
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One of the questions I always ask
about encapsulated products is - it's
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not like if you wrap an ingredient that is
automatically going to work better. Whether it
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works will also depend on things like if the
formulation is appropriate. So for example,
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if the capsules release that active ingredient
too early while it's still in the packaging,
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then you don't get those delivery and stabilizing
benefits of encapsulation, you just end up back
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at a normal product. Or on the flip side,
if the active ingredient really likes the
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capsule and it doesn't release fast enough after
you've put it on your skin, then you just kind
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of end up washing off that unpopped boba or the
unpopped boba just sheds with your skin cells.
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Then we have more micro needling
type delivery systems. Starting
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with dermarollers and dermastamps. These
are tools with tiny needles. It's kind of
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medieval. They basically just poke tiny
tunnels into the skin. So potentially
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ingredients can get deeper with these. This
doesn't always happen. It's not like having
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holes is a magic way for anything to go in,
but it is promising for some ingredients. So,
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for example, tranexamic acid - that
doesn't get into skin very easily,
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but some studies have used micro needling with
it. But you can get longer needles that go into
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the living epidermis for even deeper penetration
or even into the dermis. And that means you can
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do controlled damage and that stimulates your
skin's healing response. This creates more
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collagen and plumps up your skin. It can even
smooth out old acne marks and stretch marks.
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Now, there are risks with these. Obviously,
you are poking holes into your skin,
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so we have the risk of infection. You can
sanitize the tool and the surface of your skin,
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but you can still spread things like warts
across your skin. The other risk I don't see
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people talk about is with what products you're
using with these tools. Now, most products are
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not designed or tested for getting directly
onto your living cells. They aren't sterile.
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Their safety is basically calculated based on
the fact that your skin is going to block out
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a lot of the ingredients and all the other stuff
in the product. It's kind of like how if you wash
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a cucumber, you can safely eat it, but that same
level of washing isn't going to make the cucumber
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safe to inject into your bloodstream. I mean
micro needling is a lot less extreme but it is
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the same concept. If you dermaroll the wrong
product into your skin that can backfire and
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make your skin really irritated and inflamed
and that could actually lead to less collagen
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and more pigment which that's probably
the opposite of what you were going for.
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There is a new trend of micro infusion and this
is where you have products that come with hollow
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micro needles and so these are usually half a
millimeter long. They stay in the epidermis. Now,
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in theory, this should be safer than using
other products because the serum should
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be specifically designed for this. They
are usually sterile. But looking at the
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ingredients in some of these products, there
are a lot of choices that I would question,
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some of them have natural ingredients,
and for something that you're injecting,
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that is not a good thing. Nature is full
of allergens. And I've seen dermatologists
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doing sponsored posts promoting these. I would
think that they would be a bit more cautious.
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Now, I actually tried to give one of these
systems the benefit of the doubt. I don't
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react to that many skincare products, but
after a few days, I broke out in lots of
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tiny fluid filled bumps in the pattern of the
needles. Like, it was literally in the shape.
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I actually sanitized my skin more than they said
to. And I also tried the serum just on my skin
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without the needles. And that was fine. I
tried it a second time because, you know,
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for science and the same thing happened.
So, it was definitely the product. Luckily,
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I didn't seem to have any permanent scarring,
but each time it did take about 2 weeks to
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stop being bumpy and then a few more weeks
for the pigment marks to actually go away.
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So, in my opinion, for micro needling, it's
just much safer to go to a clinic. If you
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want to do it at home, then you should be
really careful. either go with the short
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needles if you want to use them with products
or if you want the benefits of deeper needles
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and you are okay with the risk. I would do
it on bare sanitized skin, no products. Make
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sure you sanitize everything properly. There
are tutorials online and don't do too much.
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Onto products that have microneedles in them.
One version I've talked about before are
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microneedle patches. These have little spikes
that stab a little bit into your skin and then
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dissolve. And these spikes are usually made
of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is fine,
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by the way, my theory for why some people get
irritated skin from it is that it's actually
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really good at delivering other ingredients.
It's used in drug delivery systems and it's
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actually in a lot of tretinoin formulas and we
know those are really well clinically tested.
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Anyway, some brands do put other ingredients
in the needles and they are water-free which
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helps keep whatever actives more stable.
The downside is that these do need a lot
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of packaging to stop the needles from like
wilting or getting crushed before you use
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them. The needles are short enough that you
don't have to worry about infection. There's
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also usually a lot less going on with
the ingredients. They also do not hurt,
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and some brands actually started trying to call
these micro darts to make them sound less hurty.
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There's just generally not a lot you can do
to mess these up. The main risk is that the
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needles will get the ingredients deeper and
the patch also seals the ingredients into
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your skin more. So any sort of skin reaction
is probably just going to be a lot bigger.
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Spicules are the newest trend and these
are essentially micro needles inside the
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product. I've talked about them in other
videos before. They are usually listed as
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hydrolysed sponge or silica. When you rub them
on, they either exfoliate your skin a bit so it
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gets rid of some upper dead skin layers or
they stick into your skin and create micro
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channels so ingredients can potentially
get deeper. The main benefit seems to be
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just smoothing out your skin texture and
making pores look smaller. So like a lot
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of other micro needling, the ingredient
delivery that is more of a question mark.
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The next trend is derivatives. These are
almost like a delivery system. They have
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a lot of similarities with encapsulation. It is
kind of the same basic idea. So, you use existing
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active ingredients, but you modify them in some
way so that they penetrate better into skin or
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they're more stable or ideally both. The main
derivatives you'll see are vitamin A or C, and
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that's because retinol and ascorbic acid, which
are the most proven versions of these vitamins,
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they are pretty unstable and irritating.
Plus, there's also been that lower EU limit
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for retinol and two retinyl esters. So, a lot
of derivatives have gotten a lot more popular.
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With derivatives, it's the actual molecule
that's modified. They aren't just wrapped up
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in something, but they have similar issues to
encapsulation. So, sometimes, depending on the
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formula, they aren't actually more stable.
Some of them aren't active on their own,
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and the evidence that they turn back into some
sort of active form after you've put them on your
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skin, that is sometimes a bit questionable. But
derivatives are a well-known strategy with drugs.
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They are called pro drugs. And again, it's
something that's made its way into cosmetics.
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I know I keep saying I'll do proper videos
going through vitamin A and C derivatives,
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and I swear I'm trying. I have about 20,000
words of notes on them. But the thing that's
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making it really difficult is how spotty
all the data is. I keep on like hoping
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that there'll be better data coming out, and
sometimes it does, which makes this worse.
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A lot of the info that you see comes from
ingredient companies and whether or not you can
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actually trust them is largely based on vibes.
If any brand wants to share more info with me,
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please hit me up. But for now, my
favourite vitamin C derivatives are
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3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid, ascorbyl glucoside,
and THDA, which is a bit more of a risky pick,
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but there were new studies that
came out that were really promising.
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For retinol derivatives, my favorite is retinal,
which is probably one of the most active ones,
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assuming it hasn't broken down and it still
absorbs. I also quite like retinyl propionate,
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acetate, and retinoate. There's
also a new adapalene derivative,
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but I don't really see the point
in that one. There is barely any
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data on it, and adapalene is already an
over-the-counter drug in tons of places.
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A little rant/tangent on "retinol alternatives".
This is a trend that's linked to clean beauty.
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Somehow retinol is like, dirty for some reason.
The main one is bakuchiol. I wrote an article
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on bakuchiol back in 2019, but I don't think I
ever talked about it properly in a YouTube video,
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so people keep asking me about it. Bakuchiol
is not a retinoid. It doesn't work at the same
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receptors. It does do some of the more like
general same things to skin, but so do tons
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of ingredients that we don't think of as retinol
alternatives like glycolic acid. So this is mostly
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just bakuchiol like hitching a ride on retinol's
coattails because of I guess clever marketing.
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People just think bakuchiol is like retinol now.
But the amount of evidence for bakuchiol is just
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tiny compared to retinol and also compared to
tons of ingredients like poor glycolic acid.
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There is a clinical trial where bakuchiol was
compared with retinol but it wasn't very good.
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Plus bakuchiol was actually used twice a
day. Retinol was only used once a day. I
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also see people saying bakuchiol is like
retinol but without any of the downsides
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and that's just not true. The whole "it's
safer if you're pregnant". Bakuchiol has
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not been tested for pregnancy. So you cannot
make that claim and all the evidence points
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towards retinol being safe for pregnancy anyway.
Now your own risk tolerance might be different.
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I go through the EU risk assessment on it
in my body care video. Also like "natural
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retinol" - retinol is natural. It's in eggs,
it's already naturally in your skin. Anyway,
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this marketing was so successful that
there are now a whole bunch of other
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"retinol alternative" ingredients coming out
and they have even less evidence. And sometimes
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I feel like ingredient manufacturers
are specifically trying to piss me off.
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Microbiome. I feel like this trend
has been going on for a while and it
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hasn't really taken off, but there is
really interesting science behind it.
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Maybe the reason is because
the science is pretty messy.
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Basically, the skin microbiome is the community
of microorganisms on your skin. There's been
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tons of research on it. It seems to be involved in
lots of skin functions. It is super fascinating,
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but the research isn't quite at the point where
scientists can confidently say this is what a
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healthy skin microbiome looks like. So, it's
even harder to confidently say what products
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you need to use to make your microbiome more
healthy. At the same time, it does seem to be
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one of the reasons that giving your skin a break
works so well for some people. It's just maybe
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they're letting their microbiome recover. So, I
think there is a lot of promise with microbiome
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supporting products, but it is just really
difficult to recommend anything specific.
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There's actually been deceptive advertising
complaints with claims like "microbiome gentle"
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and "nourishing the microbiome" because
the evidence just isn't really there.
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So if you do want to try it out, I recommend
looking for clinical testing evidence, things like
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"90% of people saw" whatever. Otherwise, track
how your skin responds to that specific product.
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There are some microbiome like adjacent
claims. So probiotics, for example,
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these are living microbes that are meant to
be beneficial. They don't actually work in
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standard skincare products because those have
preservatives to keep them safe and they would
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kill any living microbes. So instead, a lot
of products have what are called postbiotics,
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and these are sometimes called probiotic
extracts. Basically, these are dead or broken up
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microorganisms or like the stuff that they poop
out. They're also called ferments or lysates.
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And there is this myth that fermentation will
always make any ingredient more powerful and
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better for your skin. No, the effects depend on
the microorganism and what it is you're feeding
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them. But there are specific ferments that have
benefits. There are a whole bunch in really cult
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skincare products. Prebiotics are basically
food for microbes and a lot of them in theory
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could feed beneficial microbes more and there is
cool research on this. But again, it's hard to
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say how well they work and I forgot to mention
this earlier. There's also probably a lot of
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individual variation in what your microbiome
is and how to get it back to, I don't know,
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healthy. So again, I would just say look for
clinical testing and reviews and just see how
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they work on your own skin in general at least.
They tend to be good humectant moisturizers.
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Now hypochlorous acid, I talked about
this in my body care products video,
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but essentially it might work just by
wiping out surface microbes. And from
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the research on microbiome, this is probably
not a great thing to be doing too regularly.
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It's probably not as extreme as constantly wiping
out your gut bacteria with antibiotics, but it is
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a similar concept. You have good microbes that
keep the bad microbes in check. And if you keep
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wiping everything out, the bad microbes can
take hold and your microbiome goes out of
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whack. Quite a few people have had irritation
from hypochlorous acid and maybe disrupting the
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microbiome could be why. The evidence for
hypochlorous acid and acne is pretty weak.
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Benzoyl peroxide does a similar thing, but it
is just much better tested. Some people have
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found it helpful for eczema and rosacea. Those are
linked to specific microorganisms, but I do really
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question whether it is good to be like using these
long-term and relying on wiping everything out.
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The next trend, menopause skincare.
People on average are getting older,
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so there's been a massive boom in menopause
products, especially supplements, but also
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skincare. Dr Jen Gunter is a gynecologist
who's talked about how predatory a lot of
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these products and marketing are and it is
a really familiar story. We have a condition
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that mostly affects women. There aren't
a ton of menopause informed doctors. So,
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people end up desperate and they
want solutions. And unfortunately,
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there are a lot of very shady people who are
really happy to give you a fake solution.
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Now, during menopause, your hormones change
and the big one for skin is estrogen.
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It decreases a lot and it means that your
skin will lose collagen. It gets thinner.
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It goes drier and it becomes more sensitive.
Now, these things do happen as you age anyway,
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but it speeds up a lot of menopause. So, a
lot of menopause skincare is just standard
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anti-aging products. Maybe they are a bit more
moisturizing. But there's also a few products
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that specifically work on hormones,
and the main ones are estrogen creams.
00:19:06
You might have seen viral videos where
people are like rubbing vaginal estrogen
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onto their faces. Now, a few things to know
before you start doing that. First off,
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if you aren't at menopause yet, these
are probably not going to do much. There
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are a few clinical studies on supplementing
estrogen around menopause, and they notice some
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skin benefits. But the big issue is that some
estrogens, they absorb into your bloodstream,
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and estrogens are linked to some cancers. If
you're applying on two areas instead of one,
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then the risk is going to be different.
So talk to your doctor. Don't just start
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slapping it on. Prescription drugs are
prescription because of potential risks.
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There are also a lot of teladerm companies
that have started marketing estrogen
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face creams. And from the reports,
technically you do talk to a doctor,
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but the actual supervision and screening just
seems kind of halfarsed. If you have melasma,
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then yes, there is a good chance that
estrogen will make your pigment darker,
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but the risk might be worth it for you.
Again, you need to talk to your doctor.
00:20:08
There are a few estrogen related active
ingredients that might have similar benefits,
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but with less risk. Phytoestrogens, these are
plant compounds that tend to bind to the beta
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estrogen receptor better than the alpha
receptor. Beta is the one in your skin.
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Alpha is the one that's more closely
linked to ovarian and uterine cancers.
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So far, these don't seem to work as
strongly, but they are promising.
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There's also a really cool ingredient called
methyl estradiol propanoate. Basically,
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this is an estrogen that is active in the skin,
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but if it gets too deep and gets to
your bloodstream, it gets metabolized
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into an inactive version. And this at the
moment, it's only in a handful of products.
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But overall, I think all of these ingredients are
just less reliable. and some are also riskier than
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so many standard anti-aging ingredients.
So, those are really worth trying first
00:20:58
and also just getting a basic skincare
routine in order. I have an eBook on that.
00:21:03
Hannah covers the other trends
like exosomes, anti-pollution,
00:21:06
and new permitted ingredients in her
video. Make sure you check that out.
00:21:10
I also have a playlist of skincare
science videos. See you next time.
