The biggest obstacle in getting your skincare ingredients where they need to be is a literal barrier: your skin's outer layer, aka the skin barrier.
The skin barrier has an important job; keeping moisture in and pollutants out, which helps keep your entire body, not just deeper layers of the skin safe.
It's great at this job, which is good news for your health, but that becomes a double edged sword with age as it blocks easy replenishment of compounds like collagen and elastin that keep skin healthy and youthful.
So how can you actually get your anti-aging skincare ingredients to penetrate your skin?
Microencapsulation
Encapsulation has been around since the 1930s, where it was originally developed as a potential alternative for carbon copy paper, where tiny amounts of dye were wrapped in a fragile protective layer to allow targeted application.
It quickly evolved to be useful in other arenas like with vitamins and other ingredients that need to be protected from oxidation or similarly degradative processes.
You can learn more about the history of microencapsulation here.
In the 1980s, there was a breakthrough in the cosmetic industry, with the introduction of liposomal encapsulation to help absorption of skincare products.
Before, the majority of active ingredients failed to penetrate the outer layer of the skin and would simply sit on top of it.
Now, by encasing active ingredients in a layer of lipids, ingredients were better able to slip through the lipid membranes in the outermost layer of skin. Then, the outer layer is shed, allowing the active ingredients to be delivered a bit deeper into the epidermis, and produce greater benefits.
This also adds protection to more reactive ingredients like vitamin C and retinol, which can oxidize quickly, contributing to greater potency and longer shelf life.
Odds are you already use at least one or two products that have encapsulation to thank for their results and shelf stability.
To read more about liposomal encapsulation in beauty, click here.
Ourself: The Next Generation of Encapsulation
A new arrival in the skincare market, created by seasoned pros from brands like SkinMedica and Alastin, has pioneered a new development in microencapsulation, allowing for the first subtopical delivery system.
Ourself products use a patented multi-tiered vescicle system that allows encapsulation of multiple active ingredients within 18 or more layers of phospholipids.
This evolution of traditional liposomal encapsulation is a huge step forward, allowing tiered-release of active ingredients, which gets them to deeper layers of the skin.
That means, that for the first time, ingredients like peptides and hyaluronic acid can actually be delivered to the dermis, leading to an increase in collagen fibers, skin hydration, and skin firmness.
The results from their clinical trials are incredible, showing ingredients penetrating deep into the dermis and stimulating collagen production as quickly as within 24 hours.
Read Ourself's clinical findings as published in the Dermatologic Surgery Journal.
To read more about Ourself's clinically tested technology, click here.
Ourself Results
I have been using Ourself's marquee skincare product, HA+ Replenishing Serum for about a month and a half now, and am ready to report on my results.
First, I love how easy it is to apply compared to other HA serums. It's a smooth formula that glides on easily, absorbs well, and doesn't pill like other HA serums can. Because it feels a little thinner than your typical HA serum, it feels like a little goes a long way, and it's easy to spread out across my whole face and neck with just 1-2 pumps.
Plus, with Niacinamide, Vitamin C, and peptides, it's an all-in-one serum that promises to do much more than your standard hydrating serum. My skin tends to be very sensitive and doesn't always tolerate Vitamin C well, so I was curious to see if the multi-level encapsulation would help with that.
Since I've been using Ourself HA+ Replenishing Serum, I haven't had any increase in sensitivity, so it seems the vitamin C encapsulation has been working for my skin. It hasn't been a big change, but I do think my overall complexion looks a bit brighter too.
The biggest change I've observed in my skin is that it definitely feels firmer since I started using Ourself.
I'm 40 and have been using scientifically backed skincare for about 10 years. I haven't experienced any sagging yet, and my fine lines and wrinkles aren't too noticeable yet, so I can't speak to results with those concerns.
But, I definitely have noticed in the past few years that my skin feels softer and less elastic than it used to. Since using Ourself, there is a noticeable improvement in how firm and resilient my skin feels, so I plan to keep using this serum to keep it that way.
Summary
Microencapsulation was a huge step forward in the skincare industry, allowing for greater stability and absorption of active ingredients past the skin barrier.
Ourself's patented multi-layer encapsulation technology is the next generation of encapsulation, allowing active ingredients to penetrate all the way to the dermis, deeper than they've ever gone before.
If you've tried Ourself and love it like I do, tell me about it in the comments!
