If skin is a watertight barrier, how do medicinal creams work?
In: Biology
Short answer – skin isn’t actually watertight.
Slightly longer answer – skin is quite porous; has to be to let sweat out, for example. What skin blocks is not so much water as (significantly larger) particles. As an example, silver miners can develop argyria, recognizable by a bluish skin tone from a high concentration of silver dust that’s gotten stuck in their skin. Not going through, just stuck in the skin; water particles are smaller, and get absorbed by the skin, as it is allowed to seep ever so slightly through it.
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