Oxygenating Skincare Is All the Rage, But Does it Work? (2024)

Just like maxi skirts and fisherman sandals are having a moment in fashion right now, skincare also isn’t immune to the comings and goings of trends. For a while there, it was all about niacinamide, with the multitasking ingredient—a form of vitamin B purported to help with everything from hydration to acne and dark spots—getting top billing in seemingly every new product launch.

Well now, there’s a new fad vying to take over. It’s an emerging category called oxygenating skincare, as in products that aim to deliver oxygen to the skin. The idea is that, due to environmental factors such as pollution, our skin cells can often lack oxygen, leading to dullness, breakouts or even premature aging. Oxygenating products seek to correct that by breathing fresh air into the skin, rendering our complexions plumper, firmer and more glowing. Who wouldn’t want that, right? But does it really work? We asked dermatologist Dr. Renée Beach, founder of DermAtelier on Avenue in Toronto, to set the record straight.

First of all, what does it mean to “oxygenate” skin and how can a product achieve this?

“To me, it means providing actual oxygen or having ingredients in it that would boost oxygen delivery to the skin,” says Beach. It sounds pretty great, but perhaps a bit too good to be true, she says. “It’s odd to think of a product’s capability to do such a thing.” Odd because contrary to popular belief, our skin doesn’t actually breathe. “It does have interaction with the environment like ultraviolet radiation and pollutants, but it doesn’t do gas exchange, which is what breathing is,” explains the expert. In fact, the outermost layer of the epidermis, called the stratum corneum, is made up of dead skin cells, a.k.a. keratinocytes. “So this idea that ’oxygenation’ helps skin breathe may sound good, but the actual physiology doesn’t work that way.”

Contrary to popular belief, our skin doesn’t actually breathe.

So is it possible for a product to contain oxygen?

“It is, but only because products contain water—H2O.” Indeed, as you probably learned in chemistry class, a molecule of water is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Peruse the ingredient list of pretty much any skincare product and chances are you’ll spot water, “so, in a way, every product has an oxygen component, just probably not how we think it would,” says Beach.

How can you tell if your skin is lacking oxygen?

“I guess a proxy marker is skin dryness or scaling,” says Beach, who notes that it once again goes back to water. See, water is crucial to skin’s wellbeing, lubricating it and supporting its ground substances, such as collagen and elastin. “If your water content is low or you put water into the skin but don’t have an emulsifier or another agent to help trap the water and seal it in, it’ll evaporate and your skin will be left feeling dry/lacking water and therefore lacking oxygen.”

Is there any scientific research that backs the efficacy of oxygenating skincare?

“The short answer is ‘kind of,’” says Beach. The longer explanation is that hyperbaric oxygen, meaning the delivery of pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, has been used in the medical field for decades for wound healing. “It helps accelerate difficult to treat wounds and ulcers and is generally provided in a hospital-based setting.” It can however lead to side effects such as lightheadedness, dizziness and lung damage. While the thinking is that oxygenating the skin through skincare or facial treatments can replicate these healing effects, research supporting the theory is not well documented.

Hyperbaric oxygen has been used in the medical field for decades for wound healing.

Speaking of facial treatments, what about oxygen facials—how do those work?

It depends on the clinic providing the service, but generally speaking, a device with a hose-like attachment is used to discharge a combination of pressurized oxygen and hydrating hyaluronic acid serum into the skin. While Beach hasn’t ever tried an oxygen facial herself, she does recall a friend getting one and having glowing skin afterwards. But the pro credits this outcome to the infusion of hyaluronic acid rather than to the oxygen itself. Again, it’s all about water. Hyaluronic acid’s claim to fame is its ability to hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, making it brilliant for hydrating and plumping skin.

So bottom line, is oxygenating skincare a myth?

“I think it’s harmless marketing, but not really backed by physiology,” says Beach. “It’s a buzzy term, but digging deeper, it really is trendy and not physiologically sensible.”

Many oxygenating products claim to make skin look firmer, plumper and more radiant. Are there ingredients that would be better suited to accomplishing these results?

When searching for effective products, the formulation is what matters most, so it’s important to look beyond the marketing claims and get acquainted with ingredient lists, says the expert. If you’re after firmer skin, that means you need to promote collagen, something vitamin A derivatives like retinol can help with. For plumpness, you want ingredients that help ‘swell’ the skin with added water so trusty hyaluronic acid is a good option or even glycerin. As for radiance, look for acids like glycolic or lactic that ‘polish’ the skin, making it smoother and more reflective. “While it’s possible that ‘oxygenating products’ contain these ingredients and more,” says Beach, “using the term ‘oxygenating/oxygenation’ distracts from all these details, whether by intent or not.”

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Oxygenating Skincare Is All the Rage, But Does it Work? (2024)
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