Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Skin Salicylic Acid in Oil

  • Salicylic Acid in Oil

    Posted by gdabain on January 16, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    Hello,
    I’m sorry if this is a foolish question but is salicylic acid still effective when dissolved in Octyldodecanol, for example? I was reading up on Sunday Riley’s UFO Oil because I love it (it’s a variety of plant oils and salicylic acid) and came across a post where they said because there’s no pH and salicylic acid isn’t dissolved in water, it isn’t effective.

    I’ve been looking all over to try and find information to prove or disprove this and I cannot. In the oil, the SA is simply used as an exfoliant and I can’t imagine it only being effective when dissolved in water. And of course, all of the SA products I’ve found are emulsions of some sort so pH is always a measurable factor.

    Thoughts?

    markbroussard replied 6 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • gdabain

    Member
    January 16, 2018 at 9:45 pm

    And of course my browser lagged and this posted twice… my apologies!

  • markbroussard

    Member
    January 16, 2018 at 11:15 pm

    Salicylic Acid is oil soluble … when it is dissolved in oil (or in a cream or in an aqueous solution) the SA will be carried into the hair follicle in the sebum where it functions as a lubricant to prevent dead skin cells from sticking together.  So, yes, SA is effective when dissolved in an oil.

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