Picking the right skin care products can be a challenge, from knowing what your skin needs to the hundreds of choices. The process can be overwhelming, but there’s something you should be looking for when shopping for your skin care products: liposomes.
What are liposomes?
Simply put, liposomes are a newly popular transportation method for the ingredients in skin care products. More technically, they are unique phospholipid structures. They are manually agitated to form a structurally supportive vesicle. With at least one lipid bilayer, they hold on to active ingredients, nutrients, drugs, and more to bring them past the intestinal membranes into the tissues being targeted.
So what does that all mean?
Basically, their chemical structure is such that when used in skin care treatments and products, the valuable ingredients are transported better through the skin, making the active ingredients more potent. This is primarily possible because, unlike non-liposomal formulas, the nutrients and ingredients aren’t partially destroyed by digestive enzymes. This partial destruction keeps the ingredients from reaching the cells or blood vessels in their complete form. Liposomal products, on the other hand, help to keep the ingredient in tact and protected until they reach their intended target.
Liposomes are becoming an ever-more widely used additive in the pharmaceutical industry and supplements. Their popularity comes in the resulting effects of liposomal products. Because they hold on to these key nutrients and ingredients, they make a product more effective, an especially desirable quality in skin care products.
The Benefits of Liposomes
Aside from the general benefit of liposomes making ingredients and nutrients able to make their full impact, there are several other benefits to incorporating liposomes in your skin care products.
Ingredients Go Deeper
Part of the reason liposomes are becoming so popular in skin care products is the protection they offer to ingredients. Tangential to that is their ability to allow the product and the active ingredients to penetrate deeper into the skin. Rather than simply sitting on the surface of the skin, liposomes make it possible for a product’s active ingredients to get to the deeper layers of the skin. And because liposomes have an affinity for water, that means your skin will be moisturized from the inside out as they hold on to more water than non-liposomal formulas.
Slows Things Down
An effect of the protective nature of liposomes is their ability to contribute to a slower metabolism in the bloodstream. This has nothing to do with your body weight and everything to do with how the product is retained in the body. By slowing down the blood stream metabolism, ingredients are afforded a longer course so the benefits of the products are greater.
Less Is More
There are actual financial benefits to choosing liposomal products, namely because they allow a product to last longer in your skin, so you can apply the product fewer times. Even as you use the product less, you will get the same benefits because of the protective nature of liposomes and their ability to slow the metabolism of the blood stream.
What To Look For
Now that you’re convinced about using liposomal products, you need to know how to find them. The big indicator will be the packaging. While companies aren’t required to refer to liposomes in their ingredient list, there are some ingredients that will be listed that will give you an indicator that the product has liposomes in the formula:
- Phospholipids
- Phosphatidylethanolamine
- Phosphatidylinositol
- Lecithin
If you see any of these products listed, there’s a good chance liposomes are incorporated in some part of the formula. You can also search for liposomal products.
While skin care products can lead you into a confusing world of bottles and creams and serums, there’s one thing you can count on: liposomes. They will give you the assurance that your product is going to have a better result and a longer lasting impact. You might also find yourself saving some cash along the way.