The first time that people heard that Skincerity contains acetone, the response was, “What? You’re putting nail polish remover on my face? It will dry out my skin! Are you crazy?”
Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our products. When we first started working on the Skincerity technology, our scientists thought the same thing - that acetone would strip the skin of essential lipids, disrupt skin barrier function and cause dry, irritated skin. We had no idea that Skincerity would have the opposite effect and actually be hydrating to skin.
Our breathable barrier has been extensively researched in numerous human clinical trials. We wanted to prove it was safe for our own satisfaction, not to mention the scrutiny from review committees that oversaw our research grants, so we went above and beyond the requirements. Among all of our tests, the most clinically relevant study for skin irritation is the 21-Day Cumulative Irritation Test in humans, which is a standardized study accepted by the FDA to evaluate the irritation potential of skincare products. In this study, Skincerity was applied to the backs of 26 healthy volunteers for 21 consecutive days. Each day, Skincerity was removed, the skin was evaluated for irritation, and then Skincerity was re-applied. There was no evidence of skin irritation in any person at any time point throughout the study. Based on this study, Skincerity is classified as “non-irritating.”
The published scientific literature explains why we didn’t see any irritation in our clinical studies. In the Archives of Dermatological Research it was shown that acetone did not disrupt skin barrier lipids, “Importantly, no changes in the composition of the barrier lipids, cholesterol, free fatty acids and ceramides could be detected… when comparing acetone-treated to untreated epidermis.” Another study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology found no evidence that acetone disrupted skin barrier function, “Our data show that acetone… does not perturb the skin’s barrier… nor does it extract significant quantities of stratum corneum lipids up to 12 min of exposure. Acetone’s minimal ability to extract polar lipids, such as ceramide, is not surprising as it is a poor solvent for these types of lipids.”
So, there is ample evidence that acetone is safe for skin and that it does not disrupt skin lipids and skin barrier function. We’ve seen it in our own testing and the scientific literature, not to mention in the millions of bottles of Skincerity sold worldwide. But would you believe that acetone has been shown to actually improve the barrier function of your skin? That’s exactly what they discovered in a 2019 study published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis.
In our next post, we will go into more detail about acetone and its benefits, including improving skin barrier function. And why acetone just may be the best kept secret in skincare.
