Exploring Ingredients – Occlusives & Emollients
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In our last post, we broke down lotion ingredients. In this post, we look at two types of cosmetic ingredients: occlusives and emollients.
What are occlusives?
Occlusive ingredients create a physical barrier on top of the skin to keep skin moist and hydrated. These ingredients tend to be heavy, greasy, and often sticky.
Mineral oil, silicones, vegetable oils, animal fats, wax esters, hydrocarbons, and sterols are examples of occlusive ingredients (1,2).
Petroleum jelly (a hydrocarbon) is one of the best examples of an occlusive ingredient as it creates a barrier between our skin and the outside environment, keeping our skin moist.
What are emollients?
Emollient ingredients soften and smooth skin by exerting many effects on our skin like filling the spaces between our skin cells, improving skin barrier function, and enhancing membrane fluidity (1). Emollient ingredients tend to be softer, silky, and less bulkily on the skin than occlusive ingredients.
We can find emollient ingredients naturally in wool fat, palm oil, coconut oil, and more (1).
Oat ingredients, like Avena sativa (oat) kernel flour found in many oatmeal lotions, are emollient ingredients. Oat ingredients often contain lipids and other ingredients that help improve skin texture and suppleness.
What is the difference between an occlusive and an emollient ingredient?
Occlusive ingredients sit on the skin as a barrier rather than emollient ingredients that can influence how the skin cells function (1). However, many ingredients are both occlusive and emollient ingredients.
Lanolin oil is an excellent example of an ingredient that ticks both the occlusive and emollient boxes. As a result, you’ll find this ingredient in many lotions and cosmetic products
What do they do?
These ingredients are critical to providing the properties we value most in lotions. While not all creams contain powerful occlusive ingredients, most lotions will contain an emollient ingredient that works in conjunction with other ingredients like humectants to keep our skin soft and supple.
Are they regulated?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates occlusive and emollient ingredients under cosmetic rules as they are commonly found in personal care products like lotions, moisturizers, hair care products, etc. (1,2).
However, the FDA does not approve nor test cosmetic products, including lotions, before they are on the market. Manufacturers are legally responsible for ensuring product safety when the products are used as intended. If there is a safety issue, the FDA can and will test products and issue recalls when necessary (1).
Products containing occlusive or emollient ingredients marketed for healing or improving a medical condition (e.g., eczema) are considered over-the-counter drugs, meaning they're governed by the same FDA rules and regulations applicable to any over-the-counter pharmaceutical medications (1,2).
Are they safe to use?
Occlusive and emollient ingredients are safe when used as intended. Manufacturers are encouraged to test lotions and cosmetic products containing occlusive and emollient ingredients before they are available on the market.
However, some ingredients like lanolin can irritate skin or cause reactions in people with sensitive skin or allergies. If you have an allergy, it’s essential to avoid topical products containing those ingredients. Even mild adverse reactions can become more significant upon continued exposure.
Where can I learn more about individual ingredients?
You can learn general cosmetic safety information at https://cosmeticsinfo.org.
You can view in-depth cosmetic ingredient safety information and reports at https://www.cir-safety.org/ingredients.
The good news.
As we’ve all increased our hand washing and hand sanitizing practices throughout the past year, our hands are more likely to become dry and even cracked.
Using lotions that contain occlusive and emollient ingredients can help heal and protect our skin as we continue to follow best hygiene practices.
Cosmetic ingredients may vary depending on the formulator, but there are some functional ingredients that are necessary to condition a makeup base or to have the effect on the body actually intended by the formulator. What are these ingredients and what is the importance of using them correctly?
Most formulators agree there are three different kinds of ingredients to formulate cosmetics, and they are aesthetic modifiers, functional and claims ingredients. Here we will focus on the importance of using functional ingredients, which include – among many others – emollients and humectants to formulate a makeup base or any other cosmetic.
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Formulating with Emollients and Humectants
Every cosmetic has at least one functional ingredient, they are essential to make a product perform as intended and they are also the ones cosmetic manufacturers require the most from raw materials suppliers. Emollients are among the functional ingredients most commonly used by formulators thanks to the benefits they provide, which include:
- Performance
- Odor
- Color
- Compatibility
Other aspects to consider are cost and origin since some emollients can be very expensive and some consumers these days want to avoid animal-based ingredients. But there are other things to know about emollients and humectants, which will be discussed in the next paragraphs.
Knowing Emollients
The term emollient comes from the Latin word “molliere”, which means “to soften”. That is why emollients are ingredients used in cosmetics to improve the feel of skin and hair. They have a variety of molecular structures and come from natural and synthetic sources.
Natural Emollients
Considering that synthetic chemistry has not been with us all the time, most of the cosmetics ingredients used in ancient times come from natural sources.
Most Common Natural Emollients
Triglycerides are the most common natural emollients and they are the fats and oils from plants and animals. When they come from a plant they are called an oil, examples include:
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil
- Soybean oil
When the origin of the triglyceride is an animal, it is called a fat. For example: tallow and lard. But sometimes there is the special case in which animal triglycerides are also called oils, that is the case for shark liver oil and mink oil.
The characteristics of triglycerides include:
- Feel oilier than other kinds of emollients
- Ability to penetrate into the skin
- Melting point
- Compatibility with other ingredients
Distribution of Fatty Acids
This characteristic is what makes the difference among triglycerides. Fatty acids are hydrocarbons with different amounts of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms. Different triglycerides have different compositions of fatty acids. For example: coconut oil – 12 carbon fatty acids, palm oil – 16 carbon fatty acids.
Lanolin
It is an emollient derived from sheep’s wool. Molecularly, it is more complex than triglycerides and made of a complex mixture of esters. It has been used since ancient times because it gives a nice feel to skin and hair. It can also be used as an oil.
Synthetic Emollients
Since natural emollients can feel oily and present stability challenges and other problems to formulators, the synthetic chemistry can also be an option. Many esters have been created to avoid these issues, including:
- Simple esters: Most common synthetic esters that result from the reaction of an alcohol with an acid. The best known is Isopropyl myristate that provides a non-oily feel.
- Complex esters: They can be created using molecules of multiple acid or alcohol functional groups, but not many have been adapted to the cosmetics industry.
- Polyhydric alcohols: They are more complex esters that are produced with molecules that have multiple alcohol groups. An example is Ethylene Glycol Mono Stearate (EGMS), which can be used for its pearling effect and for being a thickener.
Our Lines of Perfect Balance
Blue Sun International offers product lines that are the perfect balance between natural products and technology. For instance, we remove the natural stickiness of Glycerin in our Dermanet line and our Moist Plus is a multifunctional humectant that combines synchronized biopolymers and banana fruit extract for a well-balanced and protected skin.
For more information, please visit cosmetic emollient ingredients manufacturer.