The Benefits Of Using A Liposome Based Product

By Brittney Swanson


Surprisingly enough, the use of cosmetics was frowned upon at various times in European history. For instance, in the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria publicly declared makeup to be vulgar, improper and only fit for use by actors. These sentiments are not shared by modern men and women; the cosmetics industry does business worth billions of dollars every year. Some of the best beauty products are based on a particle known as a liposome.

This vesicle is really tiny; the best way to describe it is to think of microscopic ball with water inside it. The walls of these particles are made of phospholipids, which are elements with moisture loving heads, and water hating tails. That makes it really hard for them to swim, and they also have to find a way to exist without breaking up.

If these layers are forced to break up, they rebuild themselves into extremely tiny, bubble like structures. Biologists categorise them into monolayers or bilayers; the former are called micelles, while the latter are liposomes. When these come into contact with body tissues, they break up, fusing with cell membranes, forming a sealing layer.

These vesicles have many uses, particularly in the medical and beauty industries. The aqueous chamber is capable of carrying water loving solutions, while the bilayer membrane can carry aqua hating ones. To deliver the cargo, they normally fuse with cell membranes, in the process releasing their contents; some, however, do not break up, but do their work through a process of diffusion.

This behavior provides a number of benefits to the medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. For instance, they are used in fighting cancer. The walls of blood vessels are generally very tight, and will not allow anything large to pass through. Cancer cells, on the other hand, are the equivalent of a fish net; very leaky. Vesicles carrying drugs can be carried in the bloodstream and enter the cancer cells, releasing their deadly load and killing them.

There are also used in the cosmetics industry, especially in skin rejuvenating products such as gels. This is because they are able to carry and deliver treatments deep into the cells. When such a cream is applied, it goes deep into the skin, where the vesicles merge with the cell membranes and release the drugs. One effect of such creams is their ability to slow down the onset of the signs of aging on the skin.

Because they carry water based preparations, they are able to hydrate the epidermis, making it smooth and supple. The product, however, should not not contain chemical additives such as scent, color, synthetic oils, sunscreens and so on. These will be efficiently delivered to the body tissues as well, poisoning them.

Any liposome has the ability to carry both water soluble and non soluble preparations, all without requiring emulsifiers; these are substances used to enable water and oil to mix. Therefore, cosmetics made from these vesicles are very safe. If properly prepared, they are also less likely to induce allergic reactions.




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