Research Summary:
Skin reflects origin, lifestyle, age, and state of health. Skin color, tone and evenness, pigmentation, as well as skin surface characteristics, are signs of skin health. The cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries offer a vast armamentarium of skin care products and procedures to clean, soothe, restore, reinforce, protect, and treat our skin, helping to keep it in good condition. Skin care products are readily available in daily life and play a major role in health and nursing care.
The promotion of skin care products, including their claims, is often based on an effect (e.g., moisturizing, antioxidant), evoked by an active ingredient (e.g., urea, tocopherol) delivered through a vehicle (e.g., lotion) that relies on specific technology (e.g., nanotechnology). In addition, "without" claims (e.g., without parabens) often accompany today's promotions. Modern skin care includes cleansing, soothing, restoring, reinforcing, and protecting. With increasing age, the emphasis on skin care shifts. The importance of soothing, restoring, and reinforcing increases, while cleansing should be executed with particular care.
The character of skin care shifts from more cosmetic objectives like smooth, healthy-looking skin to more therapeutic and preventive objectives, such as soothing, restoring, reinforcing, and protecting stressed skin. Even though skin care and protection play an important role throughout one's lifetime, the skin areas in primary need of care and protection change as well.
In younger years, environmental factors (e.g., UV radiation) are of primary importance, whereas in advanced years, age-related factors (e.g., prolonged exposure to moisture sources like urine, feces, perspiration, wound exudate, and their contents) become more important. Consequently, the skin areas in need of care and protection change—from initially exposed areas (e.g., face, arms, and legs) to later enclosed areas (e.g., skin folds, perianal, perigenital skin, groin, and feet), which become vulnerable zones (hot spots).
Aging itself changes the skin structure and function, increasing its susceptibility to numerous clinically relevant skin problems (e.g., xerosis cutis). Skin diseases (e.g., bacterial/fungal infections), accumulating effects of systemic diseases (e.g., diabetes mellitus, renal insufficiency), or pharmacotherapies (e.g., cancer therapies) also necessitate special skin care.
Keywords: Skin care, Creams, Emollients, Moisturizers, Emulsions.
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