Our Skintuation guide of the day talks about if less is more or if more is more in a facial routine. Does your skin really take in all the products from a 12 step routine or is it a total waste of products sitting on your skin, and potentially clogging your pores. Penetration is when a chemical makes it into the deeper layers of the skin. While a lot of factors come to play when you’re choosing skin care products, the penetration rate is really what we’re after here. The smaller the molecules of the product, the better it penetrates the skin.
Reasons to choose a simple but efficient routine?
- Molecular weight: A core factor is the size of the molecule which is referred to as the molecular weight. Most products contain huge molecules are simply too large to slip between those cracks between the “building blocks” of dead skin cells.
- Solubility (Water or Oil Based): Oil soluble ingredients penetrate much better than water-soluble ingredients because the skin itself has a lot of keratins which makes it waterproof. For example a water-soluble alpha hydroxy acid like lactic acid which works on the surface of the skin. In comparison to a more oil soluble beta hydroxy acid like salicylic acid which can penetrate into pores to fight acne. - See Serumize Clear Fight Serum for salicylic acid goodness.
- Charge: The charge the molecule carries is super important. For example, both sugar and salt are water-soluble but one is polar and one is not so you’d expect them to penetrate at different rates.
- The current state of the skin: Some areas are thicker than others, a good example is how the skin under your eye is much thinner than other skin parts. Thin skin is more prone to penetration than thick skin, that's why exfoliation makes all the difference.
In conclusion, it's so important to choose a more effective and lightweight skincare routine that works, there is absolutely no need to slather 12 products that sit on top of your skin and clog your pores. To create your own active routine with Serumize skin.
