Moving Water to Ease Dry Skin- P&G’s “Aquacurrent Science” Concept
Aquaporin? Aquacurrent? Water channels??? Do these words mean anything to anyone other than Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and scientists at Proctor & Gamble? You may have seen an ad or heard about “Aquacurrent Science” in P&G brands Olay, Pantene, Covergirl and even Secret! But what is it and what’s the big deal?
Most moisturizers work in the following ways:
- form a film on your skin to prevent water loss (occlusive moisturizers)
- add ingredients that draw water from the atmosphere and hold it onto your skin’s surface (humectants)
- add lipids (oils) to your skin to reinforce and/or repair your natural lipid barrier (natural skin oils that prevent water loss)
These are all good methods that should be used in a cream, lotion or serum meant for real hydration. But they are limited in efficacy (how well it works) because they don’t address hydrating the cells below the stratum corneum (uppermost layer of your skin). Think about it this way- take a cup full of raisins, add a few tablespoons of water to it and secure a paper towel on the top. This is your skin as is with no moisturizers; it won’t take too long for your skin to dry out! Now repeat this again but cover the top with a wet paper towel and plastic wrap . Okay so the raisins are definitely better off and have a chance to plump up because we are preventing water loss and leaving more water in the cup to be absorbed by the raisins. Your skin cells would be better off in a similar way! For the third trial of our experiment (can you tell that I’m a chemist?!?) poke holes in the raisins and then add the water, secure with a wet paper towel and plastic wrap. What’s going to happen to the raisins now? How much faster are they going to plump up now that we are allowing water to get inside the cells, I mean raisins, easier?
I’m sure that you have the general idea but here is another analogy! The holidays are here and for most of us, that meant turkey for Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas dinner too. In an effort to keep the turkey from drying out you do several things: baste it, cover it with a saturated cheese cloth, cook it in a bag, etc. Now they have turkey injectors that force your marinade right into the turkey and, when combined with the other steps the turkey no longer absorbs all of the moisture out of your mouth!
Those were extremely basic analogies of “Aquacurrent Science”! Aquaporins are little gate keepers that allow water to flow into the cells. Now of course, the process is much more complicated and involved than my simple analogies but you get the picture. For ultimate hydration, it makes sense to move water into the dehydrated cells while prevening water loss.
FYI, moving water is not instant so the traditional techniques give us immediate relief and, when used regularly, products like P&G’s “Aquacurrent Science” will lead to longer lasting hydration!