How to choose ingredients for whitening cream？(1)

Whitening is difficult, difficult to whiten, both efficacy and safety! Whitening is very much sought after since ancient times. Whitening cream is a hot phrase in Google.

I believe that in the process of product development, more or less on the whitening problems have been entangled in the “scientific whitening” breakthrough in where? How to choose whitening raw materials? How to do better efficacy testing of different whitening ingredients…

Based on this, we give you a review of the current hot whitening ingredients, hope to give you a little new inspiration.

 

Glabridin

In 1989, Marazen from the Japanese Dermatological Research Institute discovered and extracted glabridin from Glycyrrhiza glabra, a perennial herb with triterpenoids and flavonoids as its main chemical constituents, as well as a small amount of alkaloids, lignans, coumarins, volatile oils, and a variety of amino acids.

Glabridin is known as the “whitening gold” in the cosmetic industry, and is recognized as having super whitening effect.

At present, the common specifications of glabridin used in cosmetics are: 40% glabridin (brownish-yellow or brownish-red powder), 90% glabridin, 95% glabridin, 10% water-soluble glabridin ((white or off-white powder)).

 

Glabridin benefits:

1 Whitening

Inhibit the activity of tyrosinase, open the skin whitening channel, rapid penetration, directly to the base of the muscle. Lighten pigmentation and achieve whitening effect.

2 Anti-inflammatory, delay aging

Glabridin is a flavonoid substance, which contains flavonoid components that have anti-inflammatory activity. And in terms of anti-aging, glabridin’s anti-aging ability and vitamin E is comparable to a natural antioxidant, so it plays a role in the skin to slow down cellular aging and so on.

3 Antioxidant – Scavenging free radicals

With similar free radical scavenging ability as superoxide dismutase (SOD), it can intervene in all the pathways of melanin formation, and a single ingredient can realize whitening in 4 major pathways.

 

Tranexamic acid

Tranexamic acid is the only classical hemostatic drug that has been widely used for half a century. In 1979, in the treatment of chronic urticaria with tranexamic acid, it was first found that tranexamic acid could lighten the melasma of the patients, and it was shown that tranexamic acid’s therapeutic effect and speed of onset of action in the treatment of melasma was superior to that of Vitamin C. Thus, tranexamic acid, as a kind of new drug for the treatment of melasma and whitening, attracted attention of the people. Therefore, as a new drug for melasma treatment and whitening, it has attracted people’s attention.

Principle of action of Tranexamic acid

By inhibiting the activity of tyrosinase, it reduces the synthesis and precipitation of melanin. Melanin is a pigment in the skin, and tyrosinase is an important enzyme for melanin synthesis. By inhibiting the activity of tyrosinase, Tranexamic acid can reduce melanin production, thus reducing skin pigmentation and pigmentation formation. At the same time, Tranexamic Acid can also promote cell renewal, enhance the skin barrier function, improve the skin’s moisturizing ability and self-repair ability, so as to achieve whitening, lightening spots, brightening the skin tone, and enhance the skin’s elasticity and luster.

 

Resorcinol

Resorcinol derivatives were earlier used as antiseptics. Due to its structural similarity to tyrosinase substrates, it is a potent tyrosinase inhibitor and can be added at low levels to achieve excellent and rapid skin whitening results.

 

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of the most familiar and indispensable vitamins in our daily lives, and as a potent antioxidant and multifunctional active ingredient, its effects cover almost all skin care benefits, from anti-acne to anti-UV damage.

1 whitening, even skin tone. VC in the whitening of this matter can be said to be a multi-pass player, one through the chelated copper ions, inhibit tyrosinase; two through the supply of its own electron for the scavenging of free radicals, reduce skin photodamage, that is, the strong antioxidant ability to inhibit melanin oxidation intermediate production, so that the skin will look brighter.

2 Promote collagen synthesis, tighten the skin and improve wrinkles. Although the function of VC is more of an antioxidant whitening, but its first discovery was due to the prevalence of scurvy, the lack of VC human body can not synthesize collagen. This discovery triggered people to pay attention to the efficacy of VC, in vitro data proved that the 3.7ppm VC treated fibroblasts have a strong role in promoting collagen synthesis, while in the human body data has proved that the use of collagen and collagen compounding, and promote each other’s role in a more efficient!

3 Prototype VC group and its role in the pH characteristics so that it can help maintain the skin’s acidic environment, maintaining a weakly acidic pH environment for healthy skin on the micro-ecology is of great importance. Many skin topical antioxidants, 5α-reductase and the existence of inhibition, many applications of high concentration of VC products users also feedback with oil control effect, although its mechanism is not clear, this result feedback, also indicates that it is suitable for the use of acne skin, not only to improve the acne marks, acne improvement is also a certain degree of help.

The effect of VC is mesmerizing, but its application has made many engineers step back, almost to see the light to die, in the aqueous solution without any treatment, vitamin C will be lost about 50% every month, so so far, how to maintain the stability of vitamin C in the aqueous system is still a world-wide problem. The following is a comparison of several common VC derivatives, among which Ethyl Ascorbic Acid has the smallest molecular weight, the highest VC content, weakly acidic pH, and the most stable VC derivative.

Comparison of vitamin C content and solubility

Name	Molecular weight	Vitamin C content (%)	pH value	Solubility
Ethyl Ascorbic Acid	204.18g/mol	86.3	4.0-6.0	Oil-soluble, water-soluble
Ascorbic Acid 2-Glucoside	338.27g/mol	52.0	6.0-7.0	Oil-soluble, water-soluble
Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate	303.5g/mol	49.3	7.0-9.0	Water-soluble
Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate	358.08g/mol	46.55	8.0-10.0	Water-soluble

 

Next week I will introduce another whitening agents for whitening cream. See you next week.