For hundreds of years, silver has been used for its anti-microbial properties. For a long time, it was even utilized as an antibiotic. Today, outside of medicine, it can be found in food supplements, cosmetics, household goods and even textiles. Used in packaging, its germicidal effect helps keep food fresh for longer, while used in clothing, silver can combat unpleasant odors.
What does silver do for the skin and how exactly does it work?
Silver has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Put simply, silver interrupts vital processes of bacterial cells, viruses and fungi and kills them.
Silver comes in different forms
In cosmetics, microsilver and nanosilver (also called colloidal silver) are mainly used. These “types of silver” differ on the one hand in the size of their particles – microsilver is around 10 micrometers on average (i.e. 1/1000 millimeter), nanosilver is even smaller (on average 1 / 1,000,000 millimeter) – on the other hand in their effectiveness.
Microsilver and colloidal silver have the same mode of action, but different potency.
In their mode of action, both types block proteins in bacteria, viruses and fungi, disrupting their cell functions and eventually killing these germs. That is why we speak of the antimicrobial and antibacterial properties of silver.
But because it is the silver ions on the surface of the silver that have antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, microsilver and colloidal silver differ in their effectiveness.
1 gram of microsilver has a surface area of around 5 square meters.
1 gram of nanosilver has a surface area of almost 500 square meters. Accordingly, the effect of nanosilver is much higher, because it produces more antibacterial and antimicrobial silver ions, so it can be used in smaller quantities.
However, due to its tiny size, nanosilver is also much more mobile in the body. It can get into the bloodstream and permeate into the organs. The long-term effects have not yet been researched, but it is believed that it can accumulate in the body. Since our skin is not always completely intact, the use of microsilver should be preferred, especially in cosmetics.
For this reason, we use microfine silver particles in our Pure Hyaluronic Intense Serum.