Skin Hydration Assay Test

Skin Hydration Assay

A skin hydration test is the best way to prove the long-lasting, hydrating, and radiating effects our products have on your skin! All skincare enthusiasts would agree that the moisture levels of our skin play a critical role in maintaining its structural & mechanical integrity. This includes the skin's metabolism, enzyme activity, barrier function, and much more. In fact, the firmness, radiance, elasticity, and complexion of youthful skin are all attributed to our skin's high water content.
Therefore, we test all our formulations on an a waterproof & vapor-permeable adhesive membrane to check their skin-hydrating effects.

What is an adhesive film & Why we use it?

An adhesive film is a waterproof but vapor-permeable membrane used for dressing wounds. It is made of a polyurethane film with an acrylic adhesive on one side and is extensively used to study our skin's barrier function.2 It is an excellent tool for investigating the hydrating effect of our products because of its skin-like behavior during the test.
In simple words, our products will act on the adhesive membrane in the exact same manner as they will on the outer layer of your skin!

How we test the hydration of our Products?

Step 1

Preparing The 'Skin'

The vapor-permeable adhesive film acts as the outermost skin layer during this experiment. However, this membrane is originally not designed for a hydration efficiency test Therefore, it needs a supportive base consisting of agarose (sub-surface), glycerol (anti-dryness agent), and Phenoxyethanol (preservative). So just like your natural skin has inner layers, our artificial skin also has something to sit on!

Step 2

Hydration Through The Products

Once we get a solidified base, we place the adhesive membrane on it, followed by the test product. All of our skin-hydrating products are oil-in-water emulsions. So, when we apply the test product, the adhesive film absorbs the moisture content but doesn't bind to it. That's where the oil component helps! The oil holds the water in the membrane just like it does in the outermost layer of your skin, i.e., stratum corneum

Step 3

Tracking Hydration Levels With Corneometer

The membrane is now well-hydrated! But the question is how much and for how long? We find these answers through a corneometer. A corneometer is a device that tracks the hydration levels of the stratum corneum.In this experiment, we use it to check the hydration levels of the membrane at different intervals of time.

What's The Final Result?

Under normal conditions (20 Celcius & 40-60% humidity), readings in the corneometer are classified as < 30 (dry), 30-45 (normal), and > 45 (well moisturized). Therefore, all readings for the test product should be above 40, proving that the membrane is sufficiently hydrated. At Areoveda, the tested products reveal similar results!