Squalane, A Good Moisturizing And Repairing Ingredient For The Skin
Many skin care products have squalane as an ingredient. Squalane is very helpful to our skin. It is a treasured ingredient and has the energy you can’t think of.
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The Development Of Squalane
Shark liver contains a lot of squalene. Japanese cosmetics companies did not know when they discovered that squalene is an extremely effective skin care ingredient, so they started hunting sharks to obtain this precious substance.
But squalene has high activity, if it is directly added to skin care products, it is very easy to be oxidized and lose the skin care effect. So the formulators processed squalene and got the twin brother of squalene, squalane.
Squalane also has good skin care effects. The most important thing is that it has stable properties and can exist stably in various formulation systems.
But only 1 ton of squalene can be extracted from the liver of every 3,000 sharks, which requires a lot of sharks to be killed to meet human skin care needs. At the same time, large-scale hunting of sharks will cause huge damage to the natural ecosystem of the ocean.
As a result, animal protectionists in various countries continue to protest. At present, most parts of the world have banned the use of animal squalane as raw materials for cosmetics.
Common Sources Of Squalane
1. Plant squalene
To save the poor sharks and meet human skin care needs, chemists have worked hard to finally successfully extract squalene from olive oil, palm oil, amaranth oil, and other vegetable oils. Among them, olive oil has the highest squalene content, and olive oil has become the main source of plant squalene.
Nowadays, most of the natural squalane on the market is made from squalene extracted from olive oil and other vegetable oils and then hydrogenated. It is called vegetable squalane.
The properties are very stable and can exist stably in various formulation systems.
There is currently no data showing that the efficacy of plant squalane is lower than that of animal squalane. Therefore, the use of plant squalane is both environmentally friendly and cheap.
2. Synthetic squalane
In addition to extracting squalene from vegetable oils, squalene can also be synthesized artificially.
At present, chemists have been able to synthesize raw materials with similar properties to squalane, such as hydrogenated polyisobutylene. Hydrogenated polyisobutylene is a synthetic polymer with moisturizing and lubricating effects. It has similar properties to natural squalane and is much cheaper.
Many of the squalane sold in the market are synthetic squalane, which is cheap. Synthetic squalane has the characteristics of natural squalane, but the effect is slightly worse. In the ingredient list of the synthetic squalane product, the label is hydrogenated polyisobutylene, not squalane.
The Benefits Of Squalane For The Skin
1. Moisturizing
Squalane is a lipid that is very close to human sebum and has a strong affinity with the skin. Therefore, it can be integrated with the sebum of the skin during use, forming a breathable protective film on the skin surface, which not only moisturizes the skin but also prevents moisture loss.
2. Skin-friendly
There is a layer of sebum on the outermost layer of the skin, which is the oil on our face. The components of the oil include fatty acids, triglycerides, waxes, and squalene. Among them, squalene accounts for about 12%.
As the twin brother of squalene, squalane is very skin-friendly and can lubricate the skin very well. After the girls are 25 years old, the amount of sebum secretion will be significantly reduced, so using skin care products containing squalane will be very helpful to the skin.
3. Low irritation
Since squalane is very close to the squalene in sebum, it is very safe for the human body.
4. Anti-bacteria
Squalane can inhibit the growth of mold.
Applicable People Of Squalane
Any skin care product should be selected according to your skin type, even skin care products containing squalane. What kind of skin type is suitable for using squalane?
1. Sensitive skin
Sensitive skin is more sensitive to external stimuli, so it is not suitable to use irritating skin care products. So using squalane skin care products is a good choice.
As mentioned above, squalane is a lipid that is very close to human sebum. It has a strong affinity and does not irritate the skin. Therefore, squalane is very suitable for sensitive skin.
2. The stratum corneum is extremely thin, and the skin with red blood streaks
Extremely thin stratum corneum or skin with red blood streaks is a manifestation of weak skin resistance, which is often caused by damaged skin barriers.
Squalane can form a protective film of sebum on the surface of the skin to help the skin resist external pollution and irritation and prevent water evaporation. Therefore, skin with poor skin resistance and a thin stratum corneum can use squalane to repair the skin barrier.
3. Dry skin
The most obvious characteristics of dry skin are dry skin, less oil secretion, poor absorption, and prone to fine lines and freckles.
Squalane can help the skin to replenish the oil, enhance the skin’s moisturizing capacity, prevent water loss, and improve the skin’s absorption capacity. Squalane has obvious improvement effects on skin sagging, dryness, decrustation, spots, and so on.
4. Squalane is not recommended for oily skin
Oily skin is very oily, and the skin secretes enough oil. Although squalane is a very affinity lipid, oily skin does not need to supplement skin with extra oil.