Stretch marks are more common than you may have thought.
Stretch marks are a topic that has come up a lot recently from our customers. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you know that they affect 80% of the adult population, both female and male. Also called striae distensae, stretch marks are a form of scarring on the skin, that display an off-color hue and altered texture. They appear during the rapid growth of the body, which causes a tearing of the dermis and really never disappear. Stretch marks are very often associated with pregnancy, but also frequently happen during rapid body changes (think puberty) and are not unfamiliar to extreme body-builders who undergo accelerated growth due to weight and muscle gain.
See our blog: https://www.privatelabelskincareflorida.com/blog/2019/9/25/scar?rq=scar
So, what really happens in your skin that causes such a traumatic reaction? There a two main driving forces here: the first one is mostly physical, due to the rapid stretching of the skin causing changes in the cytoskeleton and expression of components of the extracellular matrix. This leads to disoriented dermal fibers and atrophy of the epidermis. In the cases where hormonal changes are also involved (pregnancy for instance), some researchers also see the increased production of estrogen as possibly leading to an increase in Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs). These enzymes are in turn responsible for an unusually high rate of collagen and elastin breakdown, further depriving skin of the fundamental structural network that provides its integrity and leading to local inflammation and cellular oxidation.
Stretch marks are an emotional and beautiful symbolic part of the human body, and reactions toward them can greatly vary from one individual to another. Some people will gladly embrace them, and others might be looking for cosmetic solutions to decrease their visibility. While the leading causes for stretch mark formation haven’t been clearly identified, their general prevalence in the population, combined with the emotional impact these visible scars can bring has driven the interest in finding solutions aimed at alleviating them for cosmetic purposes. Some solutions have been identified to help reduce their appearance: collagen-stimulating ingredients, retinoids especially, used during the active phase (right after the development of the immature striae, or striae rubra) can help mitigate the metabolic pathway at the origin of stretch marks. This class of molecules however is known for their potential irritancy and might not be suited for all skin types. Additionally, retinoids are often strongly advised against during pregnancy, which has led us to discuss with formulators: are there stretch mark treatment alternatives out there, more suitable for sensitive skin and at-risk populations?
We put jojoba oil to the test
After reviewing existing data and research, Jojoba oil was selected for the study. Scientific literature contains plenty of evidence about the efficacy of jojoba oil for moisturization and overall skin improvement, likely due to its unique liquid wax ester composition and rich content in primary and secondary metabolites. Our technical team designed a plan to study the efficacy of jojoba oil on wound healing, whose mechanism of action can be compared to the one involved in stretch mark formation. For the first part of the test, a gene expression study was performed, which involved 36,000 transcripts and variants. The second part of the test involved a fibroblast scratch test, where both jojoba oil and retinol were put to test.
b-Fibroblast scratch test
During this test, jojoba oil at 2% was used on a human skin fibroblast monolayer culture. The culture was scratched, and wound width measurements were taken at 0, 2, 8, and 24 hours. Jojoba was tested against retinol (positive control) and untreated cells (negative control).
Retinoids are known to demonstrate significant improvement in the appearance of early stretch marks compared to the placebo formula. The result of the test carried out by Vantage™ reveals that jojoba oil demonstrates comparable benefits to retinol in a fibroblast scratch test. Each result in the graph is statistically significant compared to the negative control and the 24-hour results show jojoba improved wound healing significantly compared to retinol. These excellent results led us to hypothesize that jojoba oil might help improve the appearance of stretch marks.
These results are extremely encouraging and open the door for numerous new opportunities for the use of jojoba in would healing treatments, stretch mark treatments, and cosmetics/treatments targeted for diabetic patients. Additional clinical studies are being carried out to further determine all the potential benefits that jojoba brings into personal care formulations.
As the leader in jojoba oil and derivatives, Vantage™ has created many formats to deliver this ingredient in cosmetic formulations: golden and colorless jojoba oil, encapsulated jojoba in Lipobead™ or Liposphere™ technologies, Iso Jojoba™ Butters, jojoba oil captured in the nano-emulsion of DW Jojoba Milk, and more. This company has it all covered when it comes to Jojoba.
We truly thanks Vantage for this study, and love what they have discovered, and we are using this incredible ingredient in our latest “Mommy to be” stretch mark cream and oils. We thank all the incredible researchers for their valuable information. Please call or email us today to get Jojoba in your Mommy to be products. We have some very visual and beautiful ways of delivering this ingredient to the end-user. We would like to make some products for you.