Lamellar gel containing emulsions as an effective carrier for stabilization and transdermal delivery of retinyl propionate

Emulsion systems are widely used as carriers for diverse actives processing moisturizing, anti-aging, whitening and other functions. Recently, emulsions containing lamellar gel phase have been attracting more and more research interests since it improves the physical stability of degradable actives. In the present work, o/w emulsions containing lamellar gel phase composed of ceteareth-20 (O-20) and mixed fatty alcohols (FA) were developed for retinyl propionate (RP) stabilization and transdermal delivery . The lamellar gel phase was confirmed by XRD combined with cryo-SEM, and main factors for lamellar gel phase formation were investigated and discussed. Moreover, effects of carrier oil on the emulsion properties were studied and the result showed that introduction of carrier oil benefits RP retention, rheological and transdermal properties. This study proves that O-20/FA based lamellar phase emulsion is promising system for RP stabilization and utilization in cosmetic formulations.