Effect of emulsifiers on drying stress and intercellular cohesion in human stratum corneum.

The biomechanical and barrier properties of the human stratum corneum show strong dependence on the emulsifier molecule used in the moisturizing creams, even when the creams included only ~3 weight% emulsifier molecules. Moreover, we found that the reduction in SC peak stress was strongly correlated with the formulation diffusivity into the SC. The moisturizing creams diffusing fastest into the SC had the largest reduction in peak stress and vice versa.