A while ago, the question of whether recombinant collagen can be absorbed through the skin has aroused widespread discussion in the industry. However, compared with the event itself, the iterative upgrade of the transdermal delivery technology of functional ingredients is more worthy of in-depth discussion.
The ability to deliver ingredients to the right place is becoming an important watershed moment for the beauty industry to move from the "age of ingredients" to the "era of efficacy".
In fact, international brands have been studying transdermal delivery for decades, with some Japanese brands using alcohol in their formulations to promote the penetration of the ingredients, while Estée Lauder has been using expensive lecithin in small brown bottles early on to encapsulate the ingredients for absorption.
So, how do domestic brands do transdermal transportation? Does transdermal delivery solve only the problem of penetration? What are the new developments in the transdermal delivery system itself? In this regard, "FBeauty Future Traces" found the answer from the research.
The ingredient that cannot penetrate the skin is equal to a soldier who cannot reach the battlefield
The transdermal delivery of cosmetic functional ingredients is not a new topic, and consumers often judge the quality of products by whether they can be quickly absorbed by the skin. On the scientific research side, the transdermal delivery of functional ingredients is a specific technical problem.
The skin barrier can not only effectively resist various aggressions from the external environment, but also block the functional ingredients of cosmetics, and some ingredients themselves are difficult to break through the skin barrier due to excessive molecular weight, poor fat solubility, insufficient stability, greater irritation, poor compatibility and other problems, and the bioavailability is greatly reduced.
For example, astaxanthin has significant anti-oxidation, anti-ultraviolet, anti-wrinkle, anti-aging and other comprehensive effects, but there are problems of easy oxidation and discoloration, poor water solubility and low bioavailability in the application process. Ceramide, which is also a hot raw material and has anti-aging and whitening effects, also has stability problems such as high melting point, strong hydrophobicity, and recrystallization, while well-known ingredients such as bosonine and 4MSK also have the problem of transdermal difficulty. [1]
Ingredients that cannot be used in the right position are like soldiers who cannot reach the designated battlefield to fight, and it is difficult for them to play a real role. Moreover, the transdermal delivery system not only solves the most critical penetration problem of active ingredients, but also plays a role in active protection and formula compatibility.
It is important to note that if the active ingredients are not fully absorbed by the skin, they may even be harmful to the health of the skin.
Relevant studies have shown that the nutrients that cannot be absorbed in skin care products will become a burden, and about 90% of anti-wrinkle creams have excess nutrients, which not only cannot play a role in delaying aging, but will accelerate the aging of the skin. Long-term use of anti-wrinkle creams with an oil content of up to 11% will accelerate the aging of skin cells. In other words, excess nutrients are one of the important causes of "skin oxidation". [2]
Because of this, ingredient efficacy does not equal product efficacy, and an effective transdermal delivery system is the key to truly realizing the efficacy of cosmetics.
Transdermal delivery of cosmetics originates from the transdermal drug delivery technology system in the field of medicine, which refers to a type of drug delivery system or preparation form that absorbs and delivers drugs to the site of action through the skin for disease treatment or prevention. Transdermal drug delivery systems in a broad sense include dermal drug delivery systems (DDDS) and transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) [3].
There is a clear difference between these two systems, among which the transdermal delivery system commonly used in cosmetics belongs to DDDS, and the vast majority of cosmetics are required not to break through the dermis layer and not enter the subcutaneous tissue to participate in the human circulation. Transdermal absorption of the drug requires the drug to penetrate the dermis, enter the subcutaneous tissue, and participate in the body's circulation.
For example, nicotine patches used to help quit smoking, the nicotine components in them must penetrate under the dermis to participate in the human circulation in order to play their due effect, while the sunscreen in sunscreen products must stay on the epidermis, and there is a risk of allergies when it penetrates into the skin, but it needs to be organized through technical means to organize the penetration of the product.
But at the end of the day, transdermal delivery of cosmetics requires the delivery of functional ingredients to a specified depth in the cortex. Usually whitening and anti-aging products need to penetrate deep into the dermis and even the basal layer to play a role, while cleansing and sunscreen products only need to stay on the surface of the skin to play a role.
Image source: Nakang Biotech official account
In practice, cosmetics will promote the penetration of functional ingredients by increasing the concentration of functional ingredients, temporarily weakening the skin barrier function, enlarging sweat glands and pore openings, or changing the combination structure of ingredients to be similar to the skin.
In the R&D process, the brand will design transdermal delivery systems based on multiple dimensions such as consumer age, product use, skin health status, temperature and humidity, stratum corneum moisture content, and the nature of functional ingredients.
Although there are many types of transdermal delivery technologies for cosmetics, with the development of technology and the consideration of cost factors, the most commonly used transdermal delivery systems are carrier technology and formula solubilization system.
According to Liu Wei, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, chemical permeation promotion technology is a transdermal drug delivery technology (TDDS), which may cause irreversible damage to the skin barrier when used for a long time, and some chemical enhancers are not allowed to enter the catalog of cosmetic raw materials.
Transdermal conveying accelerates the application, and domestic technology companies run faster?
As early as 1986, Dior used liposome "Capture" for the first time in the field of cosmetics, and in 1998, L'Oréal Group used nano-microencapsulation technology in anti-aging cream products.
In contrast, "FBeauty Future Traces" found that foreign-funded companies have more mature application experience in carrier technologies such as liposomes, for example, Estee Lauder's formulation scientists like to use lecithin as a carrier to wrap the core functional ingredients, and Estee Lauder's preference has even attracted industry insiders to "complain": everything likes to use lecithin to wrap a pack.
At the same time, the research on carrier technology by international brands is still advancing, and even becoming a technical barrier for brands.
For example, after the expiration of the Bosonine ingredient patent and the influx of many brands into the Bosein track, L'Oréal Group was still able to dominate the market through the excellent application of Bosein, because of its continuous breakthroughs in the effectiveness of Bosein ingredients.
In the practical application of L'Oréal Group, Bosein has been used as a strategic ingredient in many brands and products, which leads to the need for the Group to solve more problems in the face of different use needs, including the control of the skin feel and texture of different products, as well as transdermal absorption rate, high concentration addition, etc.
It is understood that L'Oréal China researchers have created a "double penetration micropump technology" through more than 700 formula tests, which not only completes the stability and efficacy of the formula, but also realizes the high-concentration transdermal delivery of Bosonine ingredients, so that the skin absorption rate of Bosonine is 20.9 times higher than that of creams without this formula technology.
Similarly, the Shiseido Group also has its own transdermal technology, such as the Transdermal Serum product, where Shiseido researchers use cutting-edge drug delivery technologies such as transdermal technology for the delivery of 4MSK ingredients.
In contrast, Chinese brands started relatively late in the field of transdermal delivery technology, but with the deepening of the precision skin care system and the progression from the era of ingredient party to the era of efficacy, domestic brands have long been no longer satisfied with the development of ingredients with strong efficacy, but have further developed their strength in the field of transdermal delivery.
Some researchers in the industry have analyzed the patents related to liposomal cosmetics and found that the number of applications for liposome-related patents in mainland China has increased year by year, and the number of applications ranks first in the world. These patents are mainly for applications in the field of pharmaceuticals, and to a lesser extent in the field of cosmetics.
In April this year, Bloomage Biotech applied for a patent for nanostructured lipid carriers and their applications (publication number CN117883295A), which is suitable for the encapsulation of a variety of active substances, and also shows good performance when wrapping active substances that are difficult to form a transparent appearance, and can obtain nanostructured lipid carriers with small particle size and transparent appearance.
At the same time, due to the introduction of transdermal delivery technology system into the cosmetics industry by technology companies with in-depth research in the pharmaceutical field such as Baihong Group and Best Carrey, transdermal delivery technology has been well popularized and applied in domestic brands. Emerging technology systems such as supramolecular self-assembly and biological permeation are all from domestic technology companies.
On the other hand, emerging physical permeation technologies such as soluble microneedle technology (a microneedle body of several hundred microns can effectively pierce the stratum corneum of the skin to form a microporous channel to reach the epidermis layer for precise drug delivery) have also had some applications in the cosmetics industry, such as the Mystery of New Zealand water light gun products.
The transformation of the transdermal conveying industry is the key to the transcendence of domestic brands
The progress and improvement of the transdermal delivery technology system is becoming a key part of the continuous advancement of effective skin care products.
"FBeauty Future Traces" found that in addition to the patented transdermal delivery system developed by brands with scientific research strength, domestic foundry enterprises and raw material companies have the development and application of relevant technologies to help small and medium-sized brands complete the transdermal delivery of functional ingredients.
Zhao Kun, the founder of Pinhe Biotech, revealed to FBeauty Future Traces that the brand can allow direct cooperation with raw material technology companies to "pre-treat" raw materials to achieve transdermal transportation, and can also allow OEM companies to achieve transdermal ingredients through formula process or carrier technology, but on the whole, this kind of refined treatment requires very good cooperation between brands and supply chain enterprises.
Many foundries also have transdermal delivery technology, such as Baiyue Biotech, which launched a carrier technology called "Liposome" in the industry very early on.
In the past, the high cost of this type of carrier technology made it difficult to land, but now with the development of technology, the application cost has continued to decline, the market demand for efficacy is getting higher and higher, and brands have a higher acceptance of related technologies. Zhao Kun said that OEM companies will not increase the cost of the packaging process of the ingredients alone, but prefer to calculate the price based on the overall penetration performance and efficacy evaluation of the product.
Although the technical threshold and input cost are high, the OEM enterprises that produce functional products are very optimistic about the related technology of transdermal conveying and have made active investments in it.
COSMAX researchers revealed to FBeauty that the company has invested heavily in the research of transdermal delivery system, not only with microfluidics, high-pressure homogenizers and other related manufacturing equipment, but also for characterization and testing, and with complete link penetration verification equipment and methods. Among them, the in vivo Raman spectrometer is one of the few instruments in the industry that can conduct in vivo non-invasive research on the permeation effect.
The glycolipid skin-friendly liposomes developed by the company use natural sources of glycolipids as liposome modifiers, which can reduce the skin contact angle, increase the affinity with the skin and enhance penetration, and will be presented at the 2024IFSCC meeting.
Nosbel has been committed to the application and promotion of nano-microemulsion technology. It is understood that the nano-microemulsion technology has good stability, fast skin penetration, strong permeability, and a large load of functional ingredients, which can be loaded with both fat-soluble and water-soluble ingredients, and is suitable for application in transparent systems (essences/gels). At the same time, the excellent solubilization of microemulsions can also be used to prepare products with high oil content, reduce the oiliness of products, and protect and slow release these ingredients.
For OEM enterprises, whether they have a transdermal conveying technology system has also become an important watershed for modern supply chain enterprises to distinguish traditional formula enterprises.
In addition, domestic cutting-edge technology companies will also deeply empower the industry in the field of transdermal transportation, such as the cooperation between Jiabiyou and Naturetang Group on the composition of bird's nest acid, and the Nanocarriers co-conveyor carrier technology will be empowered by enterprises. Wuhan Besteri Biotech officially signed a cooperation agreement with Germany's Symrise AG, the world's largest cosmetics active raw material company, to accelerate the application of nanocarrier products in functional cosmetics.
It is worth noting that under the acceleration of the industrial transformation of transdermal conveying, domestic brands have more possibilities for product power to catch up.
Liu Wei once pointed out in the book "Transdermal Drug Delivery Nanotechnology": "The application of nanocarrier technology to the cosmetics industry, the development of new functional cosmetics, and the secondary development of existing functional cosmetics will greatly enhance the technical level and competitiveness of the mainland cosmetics industry." ”
Li Huiliang, chief scientist of Huaxizi, also predicted that the successful application of nanocarrier technology will have a subversive impact on the domestic functional cosmetics industry.
There are also relevant scientific researchers to the "FBeauty Future Trace" revealed that the scientific research strength and application of domestic enterprises in the field of transdermal conveyance technology have been surpassed, and at the same time, domestic technology companies are even promoting the further development of transdermal conveyance technology system.
Some domestic technology companies are accurately screening and designing skin care targets and functional ingredients based on computational biology (AI) technology, combined with transdermal delivery carrier technology, to truly achieve accurate transdermal and introduction, so that the precise dose of ingredients can reach the specified receptors, and accurately control the onset time and efficacy intensity, so as to build accurate and high-performance skin care products.
Compared with how to "transdermal", the current research focus is the precise control of transdermal delivery and the precise play of product efficacy.
On the whole, the relevant scientific research has gradually developed from simply strengthening penetration in the past and passively exerting biological effects through the skin, to now actively targeting the introduction of functional ingredients, directly, efficiently and accurately playing a biological role in specific skin tissues or cells.
As more and more cosmetics brands and companies begin to have self-developed patented ingredients, coupled with the "full efficacy" brought by the transdermal delivery system, domestic brands are ushering in a qualitative change in product strength.
[1] Huang Huiling, Gao Jing. Research progress on stability and steady-state technology of natural astaxanthin[J/OL].Science and Technology of Food Industry
[2] Cosmetic Functional Ingredient Transmission Carrier: Pan Yu, Zhu Jun∗, He Congfen, Dong Yinmao, Makeup World
[3] LANGER R. Transdermal drug delivery: past progress, current status, and future prospects [J]. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 2004, 56(5): 557-558.
Author/Chen Long
Editor/Wu Sixin
Proofreading/Yangyan