Impact of surfactant-phase chemistry on skin mildness: Lamellar surfactants provide significant mildness benefits compared with conventional micellar surfactants

Background: Surfactants make up the dominant components in most skin cleansing formulas and are key determinants of a product's performance. It is well known that these surfactants can compromise the stratum barrier function and skin hydration, largely due to surfactant penetration into deeper layers of the stratum corneum and causing disruption of stratum corneum lipids and proteins. It is important to minimize surfactant-induced skin surface damage by developing advanced skin cleansing technologies with improved skin mildness and reduced surfactant penetration into the stratum corneum.