Study on Adsorption of Surfactants on Skin and Selective Cleaning of Lipids by Cleansing Foams

The effect of the alkyl chain length of fatty acid soaps (C12-C18) and the other type of surfactants using for cleansing foams on adsorption on skin and on selective cleaning ability have been studied. It has been also examined whether there is any relationship between the adsorption volume of the surfactants, selective cleaning ability and skin condition.Squalene and cholesterol were used as indicator of the selective cleaning. The selective cleaning ability of the surfactants has been obtained from the wash-off ratio of cholesterol/squalene +cholesterol. Potassium palmitate and potassium stearate indicated to have higher wash-off ratio than other surfactants and had the selective cleaning ability. Besides these surfactants did not adsorb on skin. Moreover in an users' test of cleansing foams, the skin condition applied the sample including palmitic acid and stearic acid was better than that of another sample.In conclusion, it has been suggested that the surfactants which do not adsorb on skin and have selective cleaning ability maintain the skin condition to be good.