HUI ZHAO, KRZYSZTOF BOJANOWSKI*
*Corresponding author
Sunny BioDiscovery Inc., 972 E. Main St., Santa Paula, CA 93060, USA

Abstract

Facial aging is characterized by a progressive loss of the hypodermal (fatty) layer, resulting in the substantial collapse of the facial volume (face hollowing), wrinkles and folds. Logically, hollowed and wrinkled appearance of the aging face could be addressed with supporting the fatty feeder layer of the skin (the hypodermis). However, technical difficulty of reaching this deepest layer of the integumentary system, made of hypodermis a sort of “last frontier” for the cosmetic industry. Here we will review how this frontier is being challenged by strategies combining innovative actives and delivery methods.

INTRODUCTION

Skin care products don’t constitute a homogenous category, but are usually designed to address specific types of skin on different parts of the body. The delivery strategies vary accordingly – from thick formulations designed to moisturize cornified heels to liquidish serums for eyes. Facial cosmetics category is where research and innovation drive is the strongest. The objective is not only to find better actives, but also to deliver them more efficiently to the treatment sites. More ambitious facial products are designed to go beyond smoothing wrinkles with fillers or deflecting light, and instead attempt to influence biological processes at the level of the dermal-epidermal junction. This approach is difficult – it presents substantial penetration challenges - and yet it allows to reach only the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”. This is because much of the real drama of aging unfolds deeper - on the other side of the integumentary system – in the hypodermis, where the adipose tissue nurses and nourishes the dermal and the epidermal layers of the skin (Figure 1).

HYPODERMIS – THE INTERFACE BETWEEN OUR SKIN - AN ... ...