Squalane oil

Dfontaine · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 71

Does this mean it's bad for your skin?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6165521&dopt=Abstract

Lipid peroxide of human skin.

Ohkido M, Yoshino K, Matsuo I.

Lipid peroxide in human skin surface lipids was investigated. The correlation between the amount of lipid peroxide and the total amount of lipids in skin surface lipids was determined by statistical analysis.
Furthermore, the correlation between lipid peroxide and squalene in skin surface lipids was also proved. These results suggest that the major source of lipid peroxide in skin surface is squalene, and that lipid peroxidation is enhanced by external factors such as ultraviolet light irradiation.

drtodorov · Site Admin Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Posts: 3177

It could be that squalene is easier oxidized to peroxide than other lipids. But skin produces some squalene anyway, so you can't avoid it. You could avoid skin care products with squalene, I suppose. But again, this is just one study -- too little to judge net effect of squalene on the skin.

Dfontaine · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 71

Thanks doctor. I found that study because I was researching about why people who smoke have wrinkles around their eyes (besides the constant squinting movements and vitamin C loss) and was looking for information on how to oxygenate the skin from the outside as a lack of oxygen to the lipid layers in the skin seemed to come up a lot as a major reason why smoking could cause wrinkles. I know that many cosmetic companies try to do it with Hydrogen peroxide. I think that was a mini craze back in the mid 90's. I remember Reviva had an oxygenating day cream I used and used to like (maybe they still do) and I was reading on a plastic surgeons site they do some sort of oxygen induced healing nutrition thing on skin after major peels and charge a lot for it.

Since I've been using Squalane in my DIY products for about a year, I was excited when I read that study because I thought it was a positive for bringing oxygen into the skin lipids. then I started thinking about it and and rancid oils and how topical oxygen might be bad for your skin and the possiblility the squalene in our skin is actually s a major reason we age. hmmm.....

I'm going to keep using it because I like it, but I'm going to search around for information on other topical oils. For all I know, they could all do the same thing. Like you said, it's only one study.