Doesn’t it work because the alcohol breaks down the lipid cell membrane?
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Siimply put, because it doesn’t really come in contact with your living cells, unless put on a cut or broken skin.
Your outer skin, the epidermis, consists of 4-5 layers, five layers being on you palms and soles.
There is a base layer where active cells divide a lot, making new cells. Those cells mature and get pushed up from below to the spinosum layer, named for the angular, pointy shape of the cells there.
Then, they start to flatten out and become full of certain protein granules in the stratum granulosum.
Those protein granules become something called “keratin”, which is the protein horns and hair are composed of. The cells die, toughen up, and flatten, almost like scales in the next layer, the granulosum.
The cells are now dead, flat, stuck together and overlapping like shingles as they rise into the “horny” layer, the strat. corneum. This is the toughest, most waterproof, layer that takes on all the pokes, rubbing, scratching and chemicals as we interact with the whole world we live in.
The last layer is loosening dead cells that flake off and are constantly replaced.
Those last three layers protect the lives cells underneath, and bacteria, viruses, etc. have nothing like that. It”s like a flexiible raw hide shield protecting the more delicate live cells.
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