According to the Barcelona-based firm, Pollushield also replenishes the skin with antioxidants, increasing its capacity to resist the harm caused by heavy metals, particulate matter and other harmful elements found in big cities and other polluted areas.
The active has been developed incorporating the company’s Aimtec peptides and synthetic molecules, which are used in a range of skin care applications, and in this case target consumer concerns about pollution.
Anti-pollution trend
Pollution and its effects on the kin have become an increasing consumer trend in skin care over the last couple of years, with concerns rising particularly in big cities, given that the skin is the body’s first line of defence against the harmful elements in the environment.
Premature skin ageing and inflammation are associated, among other things, with the exposure to pollutants, which trigger the generation of oxidative stress and thus protein and DNA damage as well as lipid peroxidation.
Skin irritation or allergies as well as a dry, wrinkled and dull skin are also among the most undesired macroscopic effects.
This has led many ingredient firms to look at developing ingredients to combat this and help protect the skin, and Lipotec is no different, unearthing Pollushield to provide a barrier between the skin and pollutants as well as boosting the antioxidative defence of the skin.
Passing the tests
The active binds toxic metals by a polymer with metal chelating properties to prevent their interaction with the skin, as well as a providing a strong antioxidative action by a potent free radical scavenger to avoid oxidative damage within the skin.
Lipotec says several tests were performed to prove the effectiveness of the new anti-pollution active: in vitro ex vivo, and in vivo.
In the in vitro tests, epidermal cells treated with the ingredient presented statistically significantly higher cell viability of keratinocytes in the presence of urban dust, maintaining close to normal levels and indicating its protective effect.
In the ex vivo ones, the treated skin exposed to pollution preserved normal epidermal and dermal morphology as well as showed reduction in several markers of damage.
And the in vivo test showed reduced levels of metals on the skin treated once with the active when compared to placebo, demonstrating the ingredient’s ability to prevent metal build up in the epidermis.