This past week on the new hit TV show “The Good Doctor” a women dies when her cheek implant becomes septic, consequently infecting her butt and breast implants. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition in which the body is fighting a severe infection that has spread via the bloodstream.  Although the show is fiction it caused me to consider a hotly discussed topic in the world of skincare – can cosmetics be absorbed into your bloodstream? 

Optimists boast that the skin is such an effective barrier that hardly anything can pass through into the deeper layers of the skin, let alone the bloodstream. Those are the girls that sleep in their eye makeup and wonder why they can’t see.  The vegans and LIVESTRONG enthusiasts claim that about 60% of chemicals in cosmetics ending up in the bloodstream or 5 pounds of cosmetics being absorbed by our bodies every year or it taking 26 seconds for cosmetics to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

The most effective products trap the anti-aging compounds, which you want to get deep into the skin, in a blend of oil and water. If a product is ‘amphiphilic’ (both oil- and water-loving) it can make it deeper into the layers of the skin (Förster et al., 2009). Suddenly those blood vessels are looking closer to potentially absorbing what we put on our skin.

This week I will examine the best and safest products to use, and let you in on special offers that will save your skin, your purse and possibly your life.

Stay tuned!

Read more: http://www.herbhedgerow.co.uk/can-cosmetics-be-absorbed-into-your-bloodstream/#ixzz5A8mJFuKX