Alcohol and Skin Care

Alcohol is back! As your favorite drink - after the Sex and the City's statement electing Cosmopolitan as the drink of choice and many skin care products. Because alcohol dehydrates the skin, it was banned from our cosmetics for a long time - but all evidence points out that alcohol is back! You can see it in acne treatment pads, hand sanitizers, and many other products mostly used to disinfect the skin.

How alcohol dehydrates the skin
Considering the molecular level, the alcohol structure captures water decreasing the water available necessary to keep the skin moist and hydrated.

Alcohol Use

• Alcohol is used as a solvent in formulas for some active ingredients, such as benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid - it helps to mix them to the formula if they are first dissolved in alcohol
• Alcohol was extensively used in the past as a make-up remover for the same reason: as a solvent of make-up ingredients
• Also used to diminish the water available for nails conditions involving fungus, such as mycosis - since fungus need water to develop
• Today is extensively used in hand sanitizers for its antiseptic properties
• Alcohol is an antiseptic, reducing the number of surface skin bacteria without causing bacterial resistance to antibiotics

If the skin dehydrates, we have a dull, hard and unhealthy look that can be prevented by drinking more water and using a good moisturizer to compensate the use of alcohol on the skin.

Be good and be healthy!

Vanessa