Hot items in the beauty world

Let's talk about microcapsules, a technology dating back to the 1950s, with a long history yet remaining somewhat mysterious. Before we begin, let's guess your impression of a single microcapsule product. Are "beauty" and "high-tech" keywords that come to mind?

Tracing its origins is an unavoidable step in our beauty education. Interestingly, the term "microcapsule" in the beauty industry actually originated from the first generation of carbonless copy paper produced by NCR in 1954. In the 1960s, this technology began to be widely used in the pharmaceutical field because it could mask unpleasant drug odors, improve drug stability, reduce irritation, and importantly, allow for slow, controlled release. It wasn't until the last 20 years that it gained traction in the beauty industry.

Simply put, microcapsule technology involves encapsulating a small amount of substance within a polymer film to form tiny particles. These particles release the active ingredients slowly and targetedly in the body under specific pH values or enzyme action, allowing the active ingredients to perform optimally. The main purpose of using microcapsule technology is usually to allow active ingredients to penetrate the dermis more quickly and be absorbed by cells more rapidly, providing cells with more nutrients. We are not familiar with the concepts of non-absorption and poor absorption.

As mentioned earlier, microcapsule technology is typically used to enable the active ingredients in skincare products to penetrate and be absorbed by the skin more effectively. The encapsulated ingredients are usually the most precious components of the product. However, there are exceptions. Some products use common repair ingredients like allantoin and salicylic acid as "protected" components. You must know that these two play important roles in skin conditioning, but without microcapsule encapsulation and slow-release technology, the maximum concentration of allantoin in a skincare product can only be 0.3% (far from sufficient for skin care and repair). However, with microcapsule encapsulation and slow-release technology, the concentration can be increased to 1.5% or more.

Similarly, salicylic acid, hailed as a natural anti-inflammatory agent, offers additional benefits such as antibacterial properties and skin brightening. However, due to previous technical limitations, only a small amount could be added to skincare products to avoid increasing the sensitization rate, with a maximum of 0.2%, which is insufficient to achieve therapeutic effects. With microcapsule technology, an addition of 1% or even 2%, the optimal effective concentration, has become standard practice for brands.