In today’s world, washing the skin plays a significant role in everyday routine. While conventional washing solutions are really good at getting rid of dirt, makeup, oil, and sunscreen, they may also damage natural skin barriers like vital skin lipids that keep our skin from drying out too much and becoming overly sensitive to the environment.
Natural moisturizing factors (NMF) can be diminished by this rigorous scrubbing, which could be problematic for sensitive skin. Mild face cleansers have so gained enormous popularity in recent years. For a study, researchers sought to describe lab assessment techniques that show how well commercial facial cleansers remove surface oils. On PDMS substrates, synthetic soil was applied as a model, and the soil was then treated with four different cleaners.
The cleaning effectiveness of the products was assessed using image analysis by calculating the percentage of fake sebum eliminated. After cleaning, there was a range in the quantity of fake sebum left over, from 17% to 92%. A similar effectiveness trend was seen using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Artificial sebum comprises a variety of oils and waxes that mimic skin lipids. Two fatty acid and fatty ester carbonyl bands may be seen in the sebum’s FTIR spectra.
It was noted that all tested cleansers were better at removing fatty acids from the body than fatty esters. By measuring IL-1a, the risk for irritation was also assessed, and the connection to cleaning effectiveness was examined.
Reference: jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(22)01201-4/fulltext
