The word ‘cosmeceutical’ is used to address products that improve the beauty of the user while also having health benefits. However, the skin’s stratum corneum greatly obstructs the delivery of the active ingredients found in cosmeceutical goods to the skin. Chemical peels and microbeads have been employed to overcome the stratum corneum but these methods can cause side effects and are not environmental friendly. On the other hand, microneedles do not encompass the aforementioned dangers but currently they are only available as patches which make them unsuitable to be used with products that are usually applied onto a large area of the skin. Therefore, this study aimed in developing microneedle-like particles (MLP) whose needles would disrupt the skin during the rubbing of the structure onto the skin. A modified approach from conventional micromolding techniques was employed to make the MLPs and experimental results have shown to have the required mechanical strength. Furthermore, the MLP was able to increase the skin permeability of two fluorescent dyes and niacinamide depending on the applied time and the number of MLPs. Cryosectioned porcine slices have also confirmed the ability of MLPs to enhance skin permeability by revealing a deeper penetration of the applied fluorescent dye. Altogether, the results demonstrated the potential of MLPs to be used as safe skin permeability enhancers that can be rubbed all over the skin.
최근에는 치료 효과를 지니고 있는 기능성 화장품들이 출시되고 있다. 하지만 이러한 유효 성분이 들어가 있는 화장품 제품들은 피부의 각질층에 인해 제대로 전달이 되지를 못하고 있다. 마이크로니들은 이 각질층을 파괴해 제대로 전달이 될 수 있게끔 할 수 있으며 인체와 환경에 유해한 물질로 제조가 가능하다. 하지만 현재 개발되고 있는 마이크로니들은 모두 다 패치 형태로 존재하여, 화장품과 같이 피부의 넓은 면적에 바르는 제품들과 사용하기에는 부적합하다. 따라서 마이크로니들의 각 미세바늘들을 패치로부터 붙리하여 각각 낱개로 존재하게끔 제조를 하여 화장품과 같이 사용을 했을 시, 유효 성분의 피부 투과율을 더욱 높일 수가 있다.
