Skin Conditioning and Protection Agents in Sunscreen Formulation

Every person who wants protection from the rays of the sun knows the importance of choosing the proper ingredients for the sunscreen formulation. These ingredients could be herbal or synthetic but they must give effective protection for the skin. Harmful UV rays penetrate the skin surface, and destroy vital components of the skin. This causes deterioration of skin health.

Signs of Skin Damage

When skin damage occurs, we lose the beauty of the skin. The main signs of skin damage are these:
●    Rough skin texture.
●    Dilated pores.
●    Blotchy skin color.
●    Skin laxity.
●    Telangiectasia.
●    Sallowness.
●    Brown spots.
●    Wrinkles.

Youthfulness and elasticity of the skin get replaced by fine lines, crows feet, and discolored skin. Repeated ultraviolet exposure will cause this kind of damage. Use of creams and lotions having Sunscreen Formulation give protection to the skin.     One should take care to choose the skin creams that have natural ingredients because synthetic ones will do more harm than good.

Types of UV Ray Blockers

We see two kinds of blockers - physical and chemical. The physical blockers scatter or reflect the UV rays. It is also possible that they absorb the rays to a small extent. Aromatic compounds form the bulk of the chemical blockers. They conjugate it with a carbonyl group in the Sunscreen Formulation.

Ingredients Used in Sunscreen

During the sunscreen product formulation, they make use of many ingredients including Glycerin, Aqua, Sodium Benzoate, glucose stabilized vitamin C, milk protein, lactose, and soybean seed extract among others. They function as UV filters, repairing agents, revitalizing agents, protective agents, moisturizing agents, and anti-stress agents.

Check the SPF of the Sunscreen Lotion

The sunscreen product formulation acts as an ultraviolet ray sponge and absorbs the harmful rays. An SPF of at least 15 will give you enough protection from the sun. A cream with an SPF of 2 will give 50% protection from the sun’s rays.

Foam Booster Ingredients to Improve Beauty Products

As with a surfactant, a foam booster helps make foam in shower and bath products. Shower gel, bubble soap, and shampoos have foam booster ingredients. Surfactants reduce the surface tension between two substances such as oil and water. This improves the foaming capacity of the soap. Using bath products having surfactants helps remove the dirt from the surface of hair. Gases present in its natural state like carbon dioxide or resulting from a chemical reaction such as from bleach are examples of blowing agents.

Use of Foaming Agents

Blowing agents and foam boosters are essential ingredients in soaps and shampoos. Adding foam booster ingredients to ordinary liquid soap will change it to a special one. Common foaming agents in use include Ammonium Laureth Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate. To get the best result, they often add secondary surfactants such as betaines to the primary anionic surfactants.

Protection from the Sun’s Rays

The action of the sunscreen lotion is simple. It has a delivery agent for the active sunscreen ingredients that absorb the harmful UV rays from the sun. This helps protect the skin from harm. The method is simple enough but the formulation of sunscreen lotion is quite complex. We need it to control sensitive performance parameters and pack it all in one package. Chemical fillers are the most common ingredient in sunscreen lotions. Mineral sunscreens usually have titanium dioxide or zinc oxide.

The Action of Zinc Oxide

These inorganic substances deflect the sun’s rays to provide protection. Some may have organic compounds that absorb the UV rays and decrease the intensity.

You can see the sun protection factor on the label of the sunscreen lotion that tells you how long the formulation of sunscreen lotion will protect you. These are white, opaque ointments optimized to give good protection from the sun. You can get them in the form of gels, sprays, and oils other than lotions.

The Wonder of Phenoxyethanol Preservative

Phenoxyethanol occurs in a variety of substances such as chicory and green tea. This clear, colorless liquid preservative is a biocide that exhibits its strongest nature against gram-negative bacteria. You find the phenoxyethanol preservative in many personal care products and cosmetics. It is soluble in most oils and remains stable up to 85ºC. Being soluble in water and having an activity range between pH 3 to 10, it finds use as preservatives in cosmetics.

Typical Properties of Phenoxyethanol

The phenoxyethanol preservative is oily at room temperature, has a faint, aromatic odor, and is easy to use. They use it as preservatives in cosmetics because it stabilizes soaps and shampoos. They permit the usage of this preservative in the EU and Japan as long as it is less than 1% in the product. Another way to refer to phenoxyethanol is as glycol ether as per its chemical formula. When some ingredients or preservatives deteriorate, they use glycol ether to help stabilize the mixture.

Dependable and Safe Preservative

You find many preservatives in cosmetics such as parabens, formaldehyde releasers, and organic acids. Parabens and formaldehyde are best avoided because they are possible carcinogens and could cause irritation if used to a great extent. The use of phenoxyethanol in cosmetics is a safe alternative. This chemical is mild and very useful for the longevity and usability of the product.

Extensive Use in Cosmetics

In a study, they found that the phenoxyethanol in cosmetics was the safest preservative in use. You find it in many personal care products such as blush, foundation, perfume, hand sanitizer, soap, and lipstick. While acting as a stabilizer in soaps and cleansers, glycol ether serves as a preservative or antibacterial in many other cosmetics.  In most cases, using a product with less than 1% concentration of this preservative is safe. Women who are breastfeeding or pregnant, and people who have an allergic reaction to this chemical, will do well to avoid it.

Important Criterion for Sunscreen Formulation

What is a simple matter of blocking the sun has become complicated due to the restrictions on permitted substances along with demand for a higher sun protection factor. This leads the onus to the manufacturing technique using those permitted substances to make a good quality sunscreen. The sunscreen product formulation is ageless since people used sunscreens for centuries. But, the emphasis is now on preserving skin health using the least amount of chemical interference.

Types of Skin Damage Possible

The Sunscreen Formulation relies on a delivery vehicle that places the active sunscreen ingredients in the path of the sun’s rays. Repeated exposure leads to damage of the skin in both long-term and short-term considerations. For short-term exposure, we see a reddening of the skin due to the activation of melanocytes. The long-term exposure will result in a loss of skin elasticity. In extreme cases, it could lead to skin cancer.

Ingredients in the Sunscreen Product

The best kind of sunscreen product formulation possible is water in oil formulation. A typical formulation will have lubricants and emollients, colour, perfume, and thickening agents, and emulsifiers along with absorbers, UV filters, and preservatives. An increasing number of people have taken to sunscreens as awareness of the dangers posed by the sun’s rays increases among the people.

Process of Making the Lotion

During the manufacturing process of the Sunscreen Formulation, we prepare an emulsion using a water base and a powder ingredient. Stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, and flakes undergo dry blending. Stabilizers and emulsifiers form the water phase. We bring the two phases together and heat it. Absorbers, UV filters, and preservatives get mixed in. Mixing will carry on until the mixture is homogeneous.

Good Quality Product is Got

Due to the improvement in technology, modern sunscreens are high in efficiency, produce a wonderful aesthetic appeal, and have a good amount of safety. Protection from the UV rays of the sun is paramount and so the choice of a suitable blocking agent is important while preparing a good sunscreen lotion or cream.