Self Heating Facial Cleansers
Imagine this: you spread a thin layer of facial cleanser onto your wet face and begin to massage gently. Suddenly, you sense your skin is tingling. The cleanser that is enveloping your face is starting to warm slightly. What you donň€™t see beneath the cleanser is your circulation is starting to flow, bringing more oxygen and blood to the face. But what you do feel, after you rinse, is like you just experienced a spa treatment.What sorts of magic ingredients go into self-heating facial cleansers? The process involves an exothermic chemical reaction that is similar to the portable hand warmer packets that your crush to activate. However, as hand warmer packets work by exposing the chemicals to air, the exothermic reaction for facial products involves activation by water. Interestingly, this process has been developed for use of self-heating military food packaging, or ň€śmeals ready to eatň€ť (MREs). In some MREs, it is possible for the packet to heat up and cook a scrambled egg in about 12 minutes!
For facial cleanser purposes, the exothermic reaction is minimized to raise skin temperature only by about 3 degrees, certainly not hot enough to produce a burn. But the heat is definitely apparent to users. While most people enjoy the heating sensation, other people may be sensitive to the heat. Also, the heat allows other cleanser ingredients to work more effectively- maybe too effectively. For example, glycolic acids may penetrate deeper into skin, leaving redness or rashes on people with sensitive skin.
If you feel that you want to give self-heating facial cleansers a try, take a look at the following products:
Bioreň€™s Self Heating Mask:
From the company that gave you the famous pore strips (sometimes likened to peeling duct tape from skin!) comes the revolutionary self-heating mask. The ň€śsecretň€ť heating ingredient is zeolite, a microporous aluminosilicate mineral that gives off heat when it transitions from a dehydrated to a hydrated form. When water is applied to the Biore mask, zeolite has reacts exothermically. The heat, which is regulated by butylene glycol, warms up kaolin, a clay. Kaolin clay is an excellent facial cleanser that gently removes oil and helps exfoliate skin. The mask is meant to work for about one minute (as indicated by a color change in the mask) after which you remove with water.
Olay Regenerist Thermal Skin Polisher:
This facial cleanser contains self-heating magnesium sulfate which heats skin to ň€śrelax pores.ň€ť According to the company, Procter and Gamble, ň€śThe gentle micro-crystal formula then polishes away dry skin cells, revealing newer skin after rinsing. The formula also contains glycolic acid, a key ingredient used in professional mini-peel treatments.ň€ť
Self-heating technology in facial cleansers and masks is still relatively new technology. It is interesting how basic chemistry can be used to create an ň€śall-in-oneň€ť facial spa treatment. Self-heating cleansers and masks not only help skin cleaning ingredients penetrate deeper into pores but they are also soothing. Hopefully, this technology will be further explored and developed by cosmetics companies.