The method or delivery system is simply how the product is distributed in the skin once and how it reaches the receptors or cells in the skin where it can perform its intended function.

If the product does not have an effective delivery system, it will sit on the skin, rendering the active ingredients somewhat useless. Take, for example, the strange case of hyaluronic acid, Otsuki says.

“A really, really great example of this is all the hype around hyaluronic acid products. We educate consumers that HA is great for your skin. But HA is also incredibly polar, so your skin repels it,” she says. “So many of these HA-based products are great at moisturizing the surface, but they don’t get to the place on the skin where the problem is actually happening, which is inside the layers of the skin.”

There are several different types of delivery systems, some more complex than others. For example, microneedling is a delivery method, albeit a physical one.

As Otsuki explains, in the case of biotech options, it can come down to polarizing the ingredients and the formula: “All molecules have a positive or negative charge, and we have to balance the charges with them correctly to make a formula that literally just melts into your skin,” Otsuki says. she.

If this all sounds very technical, it is. But that’s what makes these new advances in biotech so exciting—they’re bringing a level of efficiency to the beauty industry that we’ve yet to see.

For more on how biotech is shaking up the beauty space, tune in here.