why do most lotions contain alcohol when alcohol is very drying for skin?
In: Chemistry
As someone else said, some formulas will have other alcohols that don’t have the drying effect. Glycerin/glycerol is an alcohol for example, but it helps retain moisture in the skin because glycerin has an affinity for water and “holds onto it”. Long chain alcohols like cetyl or stearyl alcohol are water insoluble and act sort of like a thin grease layer on the skin. This makes a barrier to keep moisture in.
The formula may also contain ethanol as a stabilizer to help different things blend together (mixing oils and water can be tricky). In concentrated form, ethanol and other alcohols with low boiling points such as rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) will definitely dry skin. However, the amount of ethanol is probably too low for it to have a noticable effect, or at least the drying effect will be nowhere near as large as the moisturizing effect from everything else. If the other ingredients are able to slow down the ethanol’s evaporation, that should diminish the drying effect even further.
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