Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We want to find out whether Omega oils can be absorbed through the skin. We were thinking of making our own hand cream and adding different amounts of Omega oil into the cream to see what levels might be needed before it was absorbed by the skin. We thought we could make gelatin skin and then layer our cream on top and leave it for a couple of days. But we are not sure how we would test to see if the omega oil had gone into the skin. Is there a simple test to measure the amount of omega oils? We thought if we knew how we could measure if there was any change in the omega oil level in the cream after 1-2 days, or if we could test the gelatin skin to see if there was any omega oil in it? Do you have any advice? Thank you.

Hi!

Sorry, I could not find anything on the measurements of oils in a cream or anything else other than in blood tests. Is there a way that, instead of layering your cream on the gelatin skin, you could try layering pure omega oils? It may be hard to get it controlled so that the oil doesn't slide off or even evaporate. But, you may be able to measure what's left of the oil, and make a cream based on that instead. Just a few thoughts, perhaps another expert may have more insight to this specific field.

Thanks for your question!

Thank you for your ideas, we may try this as a starting point.