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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

ABCs of Skincare/Makeup Ingredients: Ectoin

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Aaaaand I'm back! Sorry I've been MIA these last two weeks. I've been super stressed out with school assignments and work commitments. I'm going to try and spend the rest of today writing out these posts and scheduling them, so I can stay on my schedule.

So today, the focus is on ectoin. According to Wikipedia, Ectoin (1, 4, 5, 6-tetrahydro-2-methyl-4-pyrimidinecarboxylic acid) is a natural compound found in several species of bacteria.

In skincare, ectoin is commonly found as an active ingredient in sun protection products. It stabilizes proteins and other cellular structures and protects the skin from stresses like UV irradiation and dryness. It is also a skin-conditioning agent and thus, functions in cosmetics as a stabilizer. Little research has been conducted on ectoin as a successful protectant of the skin from UVA damage.

However, there was a study published by Skin Pharmacology and Physiology in 2004, showing that Ecotin did protect the skin from the effects of UVA-induced cell damage in a number of different ways. It was demonstrated that the UVA-induced second messenger release, transcription factor AP-2 activation, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression and mitochondrial DNA mutation could be prevented. The results obtained clearly demonstrate that Ectoin counteracts the effects of UVA-induced and accelerated skin aging at different cell levels.

There are no harmful side effects associated with the use of Ecotin in our skincare products. So while this post is largely just informational, and not cautionary, I hope you were able to still get something out of this post! Not a lot of "fad" skincare ingredients begin with /e/.

Thanks for reading!

Sources

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectoine
  • http://www.cosdna.com/eng/58675d6398.html
  • http://www.paulaschoice.com/cosmetic-ingredient-dictionary/definition/ectoin
  • https://www.truthinaging.com/ingredients/ectoin

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