2-HYDROXYPROPYL ACRYLATE

📋 Quick facts

Description: 2-HYDROXYPROPYL ACRYLATE — FILM FORMING.

All Functions: FILM FORMING

Quick Facts:

• Category: other

Proven Benefits At A Glance:

• 2-hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA) is a water-soluble ingredient studied for how it moves through skin
• Research shows HPA’s ability to penetrate skin depends on water content in the outer skin layer
• When the outer skin layer loses water, it acts as a stronger barrier to HPA penetration
• The relationship between HPA and water in mixtures affects how much reaches deeper skin

⚗️ Chemical Overview

structure in first source RN given refers to monomer

Source(s): Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), via PubChem

📊 Comedogenicity

🛡️ Safety rating

Safety tier is a starting heuristic from regulatory status and comedogenic rating, not a dermatological verdict — see our Terms for the full disclaimer. Research confidence reflects how many real cited studies back this ingredient, not the strength of their findings.

🌍 Regulatory Status

💧 Skin Type Compatibility

⚠️ Don’t Combine With

📚 Research & Evidence

🔬 The Science

2-hydroxypropyl acrylate is a chemical compound that mixes completely with water. Researchers at the International Journal of Pharmaceutics (2014) studied how HPA moves through human skin to understand skin barrier function. #1: HPA penetration through skin is controlled by thermodynamic activity—a measure of how “available” the molecule is in a mixture—rather than simple concentration. When HPA was applied to silicone membranes, the amount passing through increased in direct proportion to HPA activity, but human epidermis (the outer living layer of skin) showed a different pattern: increased penetration only occurred at lower HPA activity levels (0.35 or below). #2: Water content in the stratum corneum—the outermost dead skin layer that acts as the body’s primary barrier—plays a major role in controlling HPA penetration.

When water activity in applied mixtures decreased from fully saturated (1.0) to drier conditions (0.8), HPA flux through epidermis dropped 4.5-fold, demonstrating that a drier outer skin layer significantly blocks HPA from passing through. #3: The study found that applying HPA-water mixtures to the stratum corneum caused substantial changes in how much water the outer skin layer retained, with the effect depending on the water content of the mixture itself. These findings provided direct evidence that dehydration of the stratum corneum increases the skin’s barrier function against HPA penetration (Int J Pharm, 2014). The research was designed to use HPA as a model compound to understand skin permeability principles rather than to test HPA’s cosmetic benefits.

📄 Related Research

Matched by search — not necessarily verified support for every statement above.

• Frasch HF et al. (2014). Dermal permeation of 2-hydroxypropyl acrylate, a model water-miscible compound: effects of concentration, thermodynamic activity and skin hydration. Int J Pharm.

🧴 Products Containing 2-HYDROXYPROPYL ACRYLATE