Zinc: the beauty mineral nobody talks about?

Collagen is all the hype now. Hyaluronic acid has taken over our bathroom shelves (and as we previously discovered in BADDIE LAB is actually beneficial when taken orally as well). Vitamin C has been part of the vitamin conversation for years but is making its way into our beauty routine as well because of it's benefits when taken orally (more info here).

Zinc is somehow less exciting. But this essential mineral is involved in hundreds of processes in the human body, including some that are particularly relevant to your skin, hair and nails. So what exactly does zinc do? How much do we need? And can taking more give you better skin? Back to the lab, baddies!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHAT IS ZINC?

Zinc is an essential trace mineral. “Essential” means your body needs it to function, but can’t produce it itself. We therefore need to get zinc through our diet. And although we only need relatively small amounts, zinc is involved in a surprisingly large number of biological processes. It plays a role in hundreds of enzymes and proteins involved in everything from protein synthesis and cell division to immune function.Your body doesn’t have one large dedicated zinc storage system either, so a regular dietary supply matters.

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR SKIN?

Quite a lot: your skin is constantly renewing itself. New cells are produced, mature and replace older cells, and zinc-dependent proteins and enzymes are involved in many of these processes. The importance of zinc becomes particularly obvious when there isn’t enough of it. Zinc deficiency can show up in the skin, with symptoms including dermatitis, dry or scaling skin and impaired wound healing.

That doesn’t mean taking extra zinc will automatically give someone with adequate zinc levels better skin. But it does tell us something important about its normal biological role. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal skin. That’s also an authorised health claim in the European Union.

AND WHAT ABOUT ACNE?

Zinc has been studied in acne for decades. Research has found that people with acne tend to have lower serum zinc levels on average, and clinical studies suggest that zinc supplementation may help reduce inflammatory acne lesions.
There are several possible explanations. Zinc is involved in immune function and inflammatory processes, and it has also been studied for its effects on bacteria involved in acne.

But the evidence isn’t strong enough to treat zinc as an acne cure. Studies have used different forms and doses of zinc, results vary, and acne itself has many different causes.

So zinc has a legitimate place in acne research. That’s different from saying that simply taking more zinc will clear your skin.

AND YOUR HAIR?

Zinc deficiency has also been associated with hair loss. Hair follicles contain rapidly dividing cells, so it makes sense that nutrients involved in normal cell division and protein synthesis matter there too.

Again, there’s an important distinction between correcting a deficiency and assuming more zinc will produce more hair. The evidence doesn’t support treating zinc as a universal hair-growth supplement.
What we can say, and what is officially recognised in the EU, is that zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair.

AND YOUR NAILS?

Hair, skin and nails often get grouped together in beauty supplements, sometimes with very little explanation as to why. In the case of zinc, there is a biological reason: nails are largely made from keratin, a protein, and zinc contributes to normal protein synthesis and cell division.

Severe nutrient deficiencies can manifest in the nails, although changes in your nails can have many different causes and shouldn’t automatically be blamed on zinc. The established claim is simpler: zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal nails.

WHAT ABOUT OXIDATIVE STRESS?

There’s another reason zinc comes up in conversations around skin and ageing. Normal metabolism continuously produces reactive molecules often referred to as free radicals. Your body has antioxidant defence systems to keep these in balance. Zinc is involved in those defence systems and contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

That doesn’t make zinc an anti-ageing miracle mineral. Oxidative stress is a normal and complex biological process, and no single nutrient can simply switch it off. But zinc does have a recognised role in helping cells protect themselves against it.

WHERE DO WE GET ZINC?

Your diet can provide plenty of it: oysters are famously rich in zinc, but you’ll also find it in meat, fish, seafood, dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains.

There is one interesting detail: not all dietary zinc is absorbed equally. Animal foods generally provide zinc in a form that is relatively well absorbed. Plant foods can contain phytates, compounds that bind zinc and reduce its absorption. That doesn’t mean a plant-based diet can’t provide enough zinc. It simply means the amount of zinc in a food isn’t the only thing that determines how much your body eventually absorbs.

DOES MORE ZINC MEAN BETTER SKIN, HAIR AND NAILS?

No. Zinc is essential for maintaining normal skin, hair and nails. But once your body has enough, taking increasingly large doses doesn’t mean those tissues will become increasingly healthy.

High supplemental zinc intake can even cause problems. In particular, taking large amounts over time can interfere with copper absorption and eventually contribute to copper deficiency. As with vitamin C, “essential” doesn’t mean “the more, the better”. It means your body needs the right amount.

WHY YOU’LL FIND ZINC IN BEAUTY BADDIE

Beauty BADDIE was never going to be built around one ingredient. You already know about our hydrolysed marine collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. Zinc adds something different to the formula: it contributes to the maintenance of normal skin, hair and nails, as well as the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

Every Beauty BADDIE contains 6 mg of zinc, or 60% of the daily reference intake (so don't worry about eating that oyster).

And with zinc being studied for its role in everything from skin biology to inflammatory acne, it was an ingredient we wanted to include in the formula.