12 replies to this topic

[Leni]

I thought about using a serum underneath sunscreen, more specifically: a serum with photoprotective properties (as most sunscreens don't offer complete protection, and another motivation is to have some protection against visible light too).

 

I was thinking about using an HA-gel as a base (credit for the DIY HA-gel goes to Aconita), as it sinks into the skin well, and simply adding some ingredients as listed below. 

– Does anyone know: could the HA-gel potentially destabilize the sunscreenfilters used on top of it?

- NB: I'm actually not even sure if all ingredients I listed are water-soluble and could be used in an HA-gel - will see later.

 

Perhaps someone would like to give some input about the potential ingredients I listed below or of other ingredients with photoprotective properties that could better be used. And if it would be better to use less ingredients than let's say those 5 listed below.

 

I used this study as a reference as I found it quite useful (all text below is cited from this study):

The Role of Antioxidants in Skin Cancer Prevention and Treatment

 

 

1. Ascorbic acid

"Ascorbic acid was a photoprotectant in clinical human UV studies at doses just above the minimal erythema dose (MED). An opaque cream containing 5% ascorbic acid did not induce dermal sensitization in 103 human subjects. A product containing 10% ascorbic acid was nonirritant in a 4-day minicumulative patch assay on human skin and a facial treatment containing 10% ascorbic acid was not a contact sensitizer in a maximization assay on 26 humans [15]. Many other studies have found that vitamin C can increase collagen production, protect against damage from UVA and UVB rays, correct pigmentation problems, and improve inflammatory skin conditions."

 

2. Vitamin E

"One study showed that the number of sunburn to cells was decreased by treatment with the antioxidant tocopherol and may result from both direct protection from free radicals and indirect protection by means of increased epidermal thickness [21]. Additionally, Packer and Valacchi [19] showed that vitamin E has skin barrier-stabilizing properties. Vitamin E provides protection against UV-induced skin photodamage through a combination of antioxidant and UV absorptive properties."

 

3. Q10 (or Ubiquinol?)

"It was recently reported that coenzyme Q10 protects against oxidative stress-induced cell death and enhances the synthesis of basement membrane components in dermal and epidermal cells [32]. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) was reported to reduce ROS production and DNA damage triggered by UVA irradiation in human keratinocytes in vitro. Further, CoQ10 was shown to reduce UVA-induced MMPs in cultured human dermal fibroblasts [33]."

 

4. Glutathionine

"Additional evidence that glutathione is a photoprotective agent in skin cells is derived from experiments which have demonstrated that glutathione levels in both dermis and epidermis are depleted by UVA treatment [37]."

 

5. Green tea

"Another study of Vayalil et al. [39] demonstrated that topical application of green tea polyphenols reduced UVB-induced oxidation of lipids and proteins and depletion of antioxidant enzymes. Other protective effects include the reduced production of ROS and lipid peroxidation products, a reduced depletion of Langerhans cells and of endogenous antioxidant systems as reported by Afaq and Mukhtar [40]."

 

Edited by Leni, 27 September 2017 - 10:11 AM.

[aconita]

HA gels are very unlikely to destabilize anything.

 

Best choice as a photoprotector would likely be ZINCLEAR added to HA gel, no need for anything else on top since 30SPF is easily achieved.

 

Eventually add an antyoxidant of your choice even if it wouldn't be necessary, grape seed extract, for example (vitamin E isn't water soluble and a bit trickier to include in HA gel as alpha lipoic acid and Q10 would be).

 

I would avoid ascorbic acid because is quite irritating (and unstable once in solution) and green tea because can reduce sub-dermal fat.

 

Nothing stops you to apply a lecithin based cream containing liposoluble antioxidants of your choice before or after if you wish so.

[Leni]

Thanks so much, Aconita. I'm looking into some studies and the anti-oxidants you mentioned (also in previous posts). Will certainly get back to this (it's becoming quite time-consuming to look into all the studies I want to look into :-) ) .

 

With regard to ZINCLEAR; it looks very interesting. ZINC of course is one of the better sunscreen filters (with the exception I look like a geisha with the amounts I want to use :-) ). The ZINCLEAR however appears to have nano-scaled particles, so I'm not sure if that could be a concern.

[aconita]

It seems reasonably safe

 

Nanomaterials

This product meets the definition of a nanomaterial as listed in Article 2(k) of the EU Cosmetic Regulation. This

product would not trigger the notification requirements of Article

16 or the need for any further safety assessment

that is required for a cosmetic product due to the presence of nanomaterials.

Using state of the art advanced analytical techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Dynamic

and Static light sc

attering (DLS and SLS) and X

-

Ray Diffraction (XRD), Dow dtermined that ZinClear™ IM products

include both particles that have an internal structure at the nano scale and particles that measure less than 100

nanometers.

 

http://msdssearch.do...fromPage=GetDoc

 

And

 

http://www.ewg.org/s...Tinted,_SPF_30/

 

Of course that refers to the whole product, Zinclear itself has a very good safety score (2), likely much better than any other sunscreens on the market.

 

I would use it in a high molecular weight HA gel (1-2 millions Da) in order to avoid any possible "carrier" effect, just in case.

[bosharpe]

You could give Survival 0 from Niod a look. Survival is a range of serums they do with and with SPF for protection against stress, smog, light etc.

[Nuke]

Though not topical, you may find Niacinamide(B3) interesting. After reading the article below, I added 500mg at night to the 100mg I take in the morning as a B-complex. It really make a big difference, to such a degree that I don't even bother with sunscreen. After a day in the African sun I may have a slight redness in the face, but not pain or any warmness indicating a lot of inflammation. It has happened a few times where I worked outside alongside others, where they got really badly burned in the same amount of time I got none at all.

 

After my success with it, one of my friends who sunburn extremely easily, started the same regimen. He has a very light skin and seem happy with the way it works.

 

So with the study, this is an n=2 anecdotal. I have not tried the Red Orange extract or Polypodium Leucotomos extract btw.

 

http://www.lifeexten...r-Risk/Page-01 

[Leni]

Thanks very much Boharpe, I'm going to look into Survival 0, 

And thanks Nuke Niacinamide was on my list of ingredients I wanted to look into, and your experiece sure convinces me to delve into this a bit more.

[bosharpe]

No problem @Leni 

 

Let me know your thoughts on it  

[happy lemon]

I recommend grape seed extract & pomegranate extract, both of them have great UVA & UVB protection properties but you need either Propanediol or propylene glycol to dissolve these actives.

[aconita]

Grape seed extract and pomegranate extract are both water soluble.

[Deckah]

Here is a list of ingredients that bulkactives has down related to sun damage repair and protection.
https://www.bulkacti...mage-protection
https://www.bulkacti...n-damage-repair

 

Hope it helps. Lotioncrafters and makingcosmetics sometimes has the above ingredients for cheaper.
ETSY also has some as well. Had to go mandelic acid shopping and it was the only place I could find that had it (other than Ebay).

[YOLF]

I speak from experience here, polypodium leucotomos (the active from heliocare... search for PLE) works wonders for sun protection. I'm UV sensitive and can feel the difference as well as see the cosmetic improvement in my skin. It's at the top of my list.

 

I believe the active is 20 hydroxyecdysone, it is also available as a cyanotis extract. 

 

So far I've tried:

PL Extract  

PL 4:1 Extract

8% 20 hydroxyecdysone Ext

95% Ext from cyanotis... still testing personally.

[acephale]

HA gels are very unlikely to destabilize anything.

 

Best choice as a photoprotector would likely be ZINCLEAR added to HA gel, no need for anything else on top since 30SPF is easily achieved.

 

Eventually add an antyoxidant of your choice even if it wouldn't be necessary, grape seed extract, for example (vitamin E isn't water soluble and a bit trickier to include in HA gel as alpha lipoic acid and Q10 would be).

 

I would avoid ascorbic acid because is quite irritating (and unstable once in solution) and green tea because can reduce sub-dermal fat.

 

Nothing stops you to apply a lecithin based cream containing liposoluble antioxidants of your choice before or after if you wish so.

 

Would you care to elaborate on the green tea sub dermal fat loss thingy? Is it just because of the general effects of ingesting green tea you suppose this also happens when applied on skin? 

Just some extract of reasoning i found on smartskincare forum "Interesting question. While I cannot entirely rule out this possibility, I think it is very unlikely. Firstly, the ability of green tea to cause fat loss in real human users remains largely unproven. Second, even if green tea (ECG) causes thermogenesis by fat oxidation, if may be occurring in so-called "brown fat" which is located mainly outside face area. Finally, it is unclear whether topical green tea can penetrate sufficiently to reach subcutaneous fat in adequate concentrations."

 

i wonder/worry because its featured in two of paulas choice skin products i use, sunscreen and bha solution, i guess with the bha solution it would be possible that the salicylic acid also might aid deeper skin penetration of the green tea?