When the skin feels tight after cleansing, turns red easily, appears rough, loses comfort, or seems unable to retain moisture, it is often not enough to speak generically of “dry skin.”
Behind these signs may be a compromised skin barrier.
And it is precisely on the barrier that one of the most interesting lipid technologies used in dermo-functional cosmetics intervenes: SK-INFLUX® MB, developed by Evonik.
It is not simply a matter of adding a ceramide to a formula.
SK-INFLUX® MB is a skin-identical lipid concentrate organized in a multilamellar system, designed to reproduce the organization of the lipids naturally present in the stratum corneum and support the skin's protective function.
Its composition brings together Ceramide NP, Ceramide AP, Ceramide EOP, phytosphingosine, and cholesterol, within a structure that promotes the organization and exchange of skin lipids.
The result is a much more complete approach than the simple application of an emollient: not just making the skin softer, but intervening on the lipid component that contributes to its barrier function.
The skin barrier: much more than simple hydration
The surface of our skin is not a passive film.
The stratum corneum represents a highly organized structure that must simultaneously keep water inside the skin and limit its loss, protecting the underlying tissues from environmental aggressions.
The “brick wall” metaphor is often used to describe it.
Corneocytes represent the bricks.
Intercellular lipids represent the mortar that fills the spaces between one brick and the next.
This lipid component is mainly composed of ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids, organized in extremely ordered lamellar structures.
When this organization is altered, the barrier loses efficiency.
The skin may increase its transepidermal water loss (TEWL), become drier, rougher, and more sensitive, and tolerate cleansers, exfoliating treatments, and other external factors less easily.
This is why dehydrated skin is not necessarily skin that simply needs “more water.”
It may need to restore the lipid component that allows it to retain it.
SK-INFLUX® MB: a barrier built with its own protagonists
This is precisely the concept behind SK-INFLUX® MB.
Evonik defines it as a skin-identical lipid concentrate, consisting of a multilamellar system that resembles the organization of the lipid barrier of the stratum corneum.
The formula includes:
- Ceramide NP
- Ceramide AP
- Ceramide EOP
- Phytosphingosine
- Cholesterol
- Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate
- Carbomer
- Xanthan Gum
The first five components are particularly important because they allow for simultaneous intervention on different elements of the barrier's lipid physiology.
Therefore, we are not talking about a single isolated ceramide.
The principle is to use a lipid system composed of multiple complementary elements, organized in a multilamellar structure.
And it is precisely this architecture that makes SK-INFLUX® MB interesting.
Why are three ceramides more interesting than one?
The word “ceramide” is often used in the singular, as if there were only one substance responsible for the skin barrier.
In reality, ceramides constitute a very wide family of structurally different lipids.
SK-INFLUX® MB uses three types:
Ceramide NP, Ceramide AP, and Ceramide EOP.
Their simultaneous presence allows for a closer approach to the physiological lipid complexity of the stratum corneum compared to the use of a single type.
Ceramide NP
Ceramide NP is one of the best-known and most used ceramides in cosmetics dedicated to maintaining the skin barrier.
Its function is closely linked to the organization of intercellular lipids and the maintenance of an efficient barrier.
In a formula like SK-INFLUX® MB, it is not used alone, but together with other physiologically important ceramides and lipids.
Ceramide AP
Ceramide AP has a different structure from NP and contributes to the complexity of the ceramide system.
Its presence together with NP and EOP makes it possible to obtain a mixture of ceramides with different structural characteristics.
Ceramide EOP
Ceramide EOP is particularly interesting for its lipid structure characterized by a very long acyl component.
Ceramides with very long chains are important for the organization of the lamellar lipid structures of the stratum corneum.
For this reason, including it in a system together with NP and AP does not simply mean “adding a third ceramide”: it means increasing the complexity of the lipid system available for the reconstitution of the barrier.
Cholesterol: essential for a truly balanced barrier
Then there is another protagonist who is often forgotten when talking about ceramides:
cholesterol.
In the skin, there are no ceramides that work in isolation.
Ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids are fundamental components of the lipid matrix of the stratum corneum, and their ratio contributes to the organization of the barrier.
This is why the presence of cholesterol in SK-INFLUX® MB is anything but a detail.
It means working with a combination of lipids that is closer to skin physiology, rather than relying exclusively on a single category of molecules.
And phytosphingosine?
Phytosphingosine adds another particularly interesting element.
It is a sphingolipid naturally associated with the biology of the skin barrier and the processes involving the metabolism of sphingolipids.
Its presence completes the system together with the ceramides and cholesterol.
And it is precisely this combination that distinguishes SK-INFLUX® MB from a simple emollient ingredient.
It is not just about making the skin surface softer.
It provides the skin with various lipid components involved in its natural barrier architecture.
The advantage of the multilamellar structure
Here comes one of the most interesting aspects of SK-INFLUX® MB.
The technology is not limited to the choice of ingredients.
How these ingredients are organized also matters.
Evonik describes SK-INFLUX® MB as a multilamellar system that resembles the structure of the lipid barrier of the stratum corneum.
This organization is important because the lipids of the natural barrier are not simply distributed randomly on the skin surface: they are organized in highly ordered lamellar structures.
The goal of the technology is therefore to create a system that facilitates the distribution, transport, and exchange of lipids within the skin barrier. Indeed, Evonik points to “enhanced delivery and exchange of skin lipids” among the benefits of the technology.
It is a very different concept from that of a normal cosmetic oil.
What can this mean concretely for the skin?
And this is where SK-INFLUX® MB becomes particularly interesting.
The benefit does not end with the sensation of softness.
According to Evonik's technical documentation, the technology was developed to:
restore the protective function of the skin barrier,
increase skin hydration,
support the protection of dry and sensitive skin,
promote the distribution and exchange of skin lipids,
and contribute to the skin's ability to recover a more efficient barrier.
This makes the system particularly interesting in products intended for dry, sensitive, stressed, mature skin or skin subjected to conditions that may compromise the barrier.
SK-INFLUX® MB and transepidermal water loss
One of the most interesting aspects of the technology concerns the damaged barrier.
In technical tests of the SK-INFLUX® technology, the skin barrier was experimentally altered and subsequently treated with lipid systems containing ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids in an SK-INFLUX-type structure.
The TEWL was then measured after treatment to evaluate the recovery of the barrier function.
The data reported in the technical documentation show a barrier repair effect, with results evaluated at 2 and 20 hours after application.
This is a fundamental point.
It does not simply mean that the skin “looks more hydrated.”
It means that the technology has been studied precisely in relation to one of the most used parameters to evaluate the barrier function: transepidermal water loss.
More hydration, but also less flaking
The reported effects do not only concern the barrier.
In cosmetic tests described by Evonik, the use of a formulation containing SK-INFLUX® V MB was evaluated on a group of 22 subjects for two weeks.
The evaluations considered both skin hydration via Corneometer and the presence of flaking.
The documentation reports an improvement in hydration and a reduction in flaking compared to initial conditions and the vehicle.
And it is perfectly consistent with what we would expect from a barrier that is progressively returning to function better.
A more efficient barrier, in fact, means skin that is better able to retain water and maintain a more regular and comfortable surface.
Softer skin does not just mean “oily” skin
This is another important point.
A vegetable oil, an ester, or another emollient can immediately improve skin feel.
The skin appears softer, smoother, and more comfortable because the surface component is modified and the feeling of roughness is reduced.
It is a real benefit.
But emolliency and barrier reconstitution are not the same thing.
SK-INFLUX® MB is created for a more specific goal: to provide a lipid system composed of ceramides, cholesterol, and phytosphingosine organized in a multilamellar structure similar to that of the stratum corneum barrier.
This is why it is particularly interesting in formulations oriented not only towards immediate comfort, but to supporting the barrier function.
For which skin types is it particularly interesting?
Evonik itself indicates SK-INFLUX® MB as an ingredient suitable above all for dry, sensitive, and mature skin.
And it is easy to understand why.
Dry skin
When the lipid barrier is inefficient, the skin can lose water more easily.
Integrating ceramides, cholesterol, and phytosphingosine allows one to work precisely on the lipid component involved in the barrier function.
The sought-after result is more hydrated, soft, and comfortable skin.
Sensitive skin
An efficient barrier represents one of the skin's first lines of defense.
Supporting it means helping the skin surface better perform its protective function against the external environment.
This is why lipid systems like SK-INFLUX® MB are particularly interesting in formulations intended for skin that easily shows discomfort, dryness, and sensitivity.
Mature skin
With age, both the lipid composition and the skin's ability to maintain an efficient barrier change.
It is therefore not surprising that Evonik includes mature skin among the main applications of the technology.
In this context, supporting the barrier means contributing not only to hydration, but also to the overall quality of the skin surface.
A technology that is also interesting after intensive cosmetic treatments
The skin barrier can be subjected to numerous stresses: harsh cleansers, frequent exfoliation, unfavorable climatic conditions, and cosmetic procedures that temporarily increase the sensitivity of the skin surface.
In these contexts, a formulation containing a lipid system oriented towards the reconstitution of the barrier can become particularly interesting.
Evonik's own formulation documentation shows the use of SK-INFLUX® V MB in formulations dedicated to skin barrier recovery, including preparations intended for post-tattoo skin care.
This does not mean that the active ingredient transforms damaged skin in a few minutes.
It means that the technology has been developed and used precisely within formulations whose goal is to support the recovery of the barrier function.
SK-INFLUX® MB is not “just ceramide”
This is probably the most important concept to take home.
Simply saying:
“This product contains ceramides”
does not really tell you what makes SK-INFLUX® MB interesting.
Its peculiarity is the set.
Ceramide NP + Ceramide AP + Ceramide EOP + cholesterol + phytosphingosine, organized in a multilamellar system.
It is the combination that makes the difference.
The technology seeks to reproduce not only some of the components of the barrier, but also a part of their structural organization.
And it is precisely for this reason that Evonik talks about a “skin-identical” lipid concentrate with the ability to restore the barrier and improve hydration.
SK-INFLUX® MB and SK-INFLUX® V MB: what is the difference?
There is also SK-INFLUX® V MB, a variant of the technology.
The main lipid composition remains substantially the same, but this version is free of parabens and uses non-animal cholesterol, described by Evonik as being of vegetable/semi-synthetic origin.
This makes it particularly interesting for formulations that require specific needs related to the choice of raw materials.
The barrier cannot be repaired simply by adding “more moisturizer”
Healthy skin does not just need water.
It needs to retain it.
And to succeed, it must possess an adequately organized lipid barrier.
This is the reason why ingredients like ceramides have assumed such an important role in modern cosmetics.
But SK-INFLUX® MB takes the concept a step further.
It does not propose a single isolated ceramide as the protagonist ingredient.
It proposes a complex lipid system, consisting of different ceramides, cholesterol, and phytosphingosine, and organized in a multilamellar structure.
It is an approach that starts from the biology of the skin rather than the simple cosmetic sensation.
For dry, stressed, sensitive, or mature skin, this can translate into something very concrete: more capacity to retain hydration, a better barrier function, a less flaky surface, and a greater feeling of comfort and softness.
And that is precisely the difference between adding a ceramide to a formula and designing a formulation while truly thinking about the skin barrier.
Bibliography
Evonik, official documentation SK-INFLUX® MB: composition, multilamellar structure, barrier function, hydration, and skin lipid exchange.
Evonik, SK-INFLUX® Technologies technical documentation: studies on barrier repair, TEWL, hydration, and flaking.
Evonik, official documentation SK-INFLUX® V MB: variant with non-animal cholesterol and paraben-free formulation.
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