Dermaviduals delivery system

The dermaviduals range contains over 35 different active serums that are encapsulated in liposomes or nanoparticles. These fuse with the barrier layers of the skin enabling penetration of the active ingredients. Once released, these agents permeate through the skin barrier, in a pure manner, providing an accurate and responsive delivery system. dermaviduals also offers a specialty product line for dermatological skin correction.

Liposomes

Liposomes are the vehicles which take the active ingredients past the stratum corneum into the stratum spinosum. Due to their mimicking ability of the core component of the liposome- phosphatidylcholine- they merge easily with the skin’s natural barrier layers, allowing the active ingredients to penetrate effectively. The liposome protects the active agents from any possible breakdown before entering the bilayers of the skin.

 

Fusion of a liposome with skin barrier…release of actives by fluidising the skin barrier allowing the actives to penetrate…the skin barrier reseals itself. Active ingredients work from within.

Nanoparticles

A nanoparticle is very similar in composition to that of a liposome in that they are also spherical membranes made to mimic the skin’s natural barrier. dermaviduals employs liquid biodegradable nanoparticles that are encapsulated in bodies of phosphatidylcholine – a natural ingredient found within our stratum corneum. These nanoparticles provide an excellent delivery system for essential fatty acids. The nanoparticle opens onto the skin, allowing only the active ingredients to penetrate through the lipid bilayers; leaving the nanoparticle itself behind.

Nanoparticles – good or bad?

From time to time you may read articles criticising the use of nanoparticles. Generally these articles are poorly researched and can create confusion in the industry and with members of the general public. How can nanoparticles be misconstrued? Media and those cosmetic companies not utilising nanoparticles in their products, tend release information that is designed to disingenuously or mischievously mix the affects of potentially harmful nanoparticles with the non-harmful nanoparticles. They always fail to include information on the chemical composition and the biodegradability of safe nanoparticles, but instead focus only the word “nano”. This is why we emphasise again that solid nanoparticles in the pharmaceutical field can have undesired effects. Whereas fluid nanoparticles cannot penetrate through the skin, because they dissolve upon contact with the barrier layers of the stratum corneum.

Nanoparticles have a longer history than many would suppose. Since human beings have inhabited the earth they have been exposed to small particles from a variety of sources. Aerosols (small airbound particles) have always been with us. Some examples include smoke and soot developed from fires, dust from deserts, which travel over hundreds of kilometres, microscopic seeds, grains and pollens are also always in the air in some form. Soil blown by wind from the fields contain mineral particles. Volcanic ash is capable of (as was evidenced by the recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Iceland) soaring and floating high into the atmosphere’s upper air layers of the planet, staying there for months.

Any friction of natural or synthetic solid bodies generates tiny visible bodies but also miniature particles that cannot be detected by the human eye. Among aerosols and dusts, therefore, nanoparticles are omnipresent. Dermaviduals delivery system easy

Some can have adverse effects on the human body. Examples include: diesel dust (lungs), hard coal dust (lungs), asbestos particles (lungs), anti-cancer nanoparticles (injected medical iron particles; liver) and other insoluble powder-like technical nanoparticles (lungs). All the components of these nanoparticles are non-biodegradable. They behave in the body like foreign matter. Others are shown not to be harmful.

In the skin care industry two kinds of nanoparticles are used – non-biodegradable and biodegradable.

Biodegradable means the components of the nanoparticles are metabolized in the same way as other compounds contained in creams, lotions etc. But how is the biodegradability of the components recognized by the consumer? In principle that’s very easy to understand if you are familiar with the INCI declaration. However to the layperson, it’s difficult to conceptualise so here are some examples:

• Non-biodegradable components include:
  • Metal oxides like titanium dioxide (INCI) which are used for mineral sun protection. Titanium dioxide is a component of solid nanoparticles.
  • Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) contain high melting hydrocarbons and waxes. They combine on the skin into a surface film from which the active agents are released – similar to an occlusive mineral wax containing W/O-system. Currently there are no conclusions that they are able to cause any harm.

• Biodegradable components include:
  • Phosphatidylcholine (PC; INCI: Lecithin) forms membranes around mostly vegetable oil bodies. With reference to liposomes these “fluid” or “liquid” nanoparticles are sometimes called nanosomes or nanodispersions. Other components can include physiological ceramides, phytosterols, fatty acids and vitamins.
  • Liposomes differ from fluid nanoparticles by encapsulating water soluble active agents like vitamin C; their structure is derived from natural cells.

The advantage of all these systems is the fact they don’t need any emulsifiers. Emulsifiers and the tensides are not tolerated by many consumers particularly with problem skin because of their irritation potential and their known wash-out-effect of skin components when cleansing.

Down to the present day there are no empirical findings that cosmetic non-biodegradable nanoparticles like titanium dioxide embedded in the matrix of sun protection creams can penetrate into the skin. This also applies for diseased skin, e.g. psoriasis. Nanoparticles based on solid hydrocarbons, waxes (SLN) are also blocked off by the horny layer. They aggregate to form superficial films and then release their active agents into the skin.

Quite different are fluid nanoparticles and their hydrophilic relatives, the liposomes. They penetrate into the barrier layers of the horny layer where they dissolve immediately due to their specific composition. During this process a fluidization of the skin barrier layers takes place and the encapsulated active agents are released and can pass through the skin barrier. A specific advantage of fluid nanoparticles is that besides lipophilic active agents, natural oils can be forced into a sensorial agreeable aqueous dispersion without adding synthetic or barrier disturbing emulsifiers which easily penetrates into the skin.

With all the commotion about small particles it should always be kept in mind that the skin is continuously exposed to substances of the size of molecules. Depending on their size and polarity they more or less pass through the skin barrier or are completely retained. Small molecules occur in sizes less than 1nm. Atoms and ions with about 0.1 nm are even smaller. In water dissolved table or sea salt is about in the same order. In this context however nobody would argue that skin contact with saline is really dangerous – in fact saline is widely recognised in medical fields as a perfect rinsing solution. Hence the considerations that apply for molecules should also apply for nanoparticles. easy way dermaviduals delivery system

We recommend looking only at the composition (INCI) of cosmetics to be sure about the tolerability. The skin (…and the body) is unconcerned whether cosmetic formulas consist of emulsions, nanodispersions, micro emulsions or solutions. The skin (… and the body) reacts only on the quality and quantity of the ingredients which are listed as components in the INCI. Dermaviduals strives to provide the highest quality of ingredients (INCI) from around the world to bring you safe, effective and avant guard skin care.