How come moisturizing creams reach only the most outer layers of the skin, whereas muscle gels can reach so much deeper?
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Skin moisturizing creams do not need to penetrate far into the layers of the skin as it is only necessary to rehydrate the top layers. As the name suggests, muscle gels are made to contain chemicals that penetrate into the outer layers to reach the muscle tissue, but both creams have varying needs for penetration depth.
I understood that muscle creams work by creating a distractive sensation or numbing on the skin, not that they actually penetrate to do anything to muscles.
The purpose of moisturisers is to both attract additional water to the skin surface and to keep it from evaporating from there. Most of them use quite large molecules, specifically because they can’t get through the layers of your skin and go deeper.
Topical medications, like the kind of muscle creams that contain anti-inflammatories, specifically need to reach further into your body, and so must either use smaller molecules that can bypass the barrier of your skin, or be designed so that the skin will allow them to pass in other ways.
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