KOATis Kinis! The Benefits of Colloidal Oatmeal For Hands and Skin

January 27, 2025

Ever had trouble taking care of your skin? Have you been dealing with dryness and itchiness in your skin, including your hands? There are so many ways to do so with different kinds of ingredients that nature has come to offer! Take a look at oatmeal! Not only is it a nutritious food for our body, it is also good for our skin. Grind some oat grains into a fine powder and you have yourself your skin protectant ingredient that is colloidal oatmeal!

WHAT ARE COLLOIDAL OATMEAL?

Colloidal oatmeal is a fine powdered oatmeal made of grinded oat grains. It contains fats, proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients making it an ingredient for skin softening and soothing known as emollient. Other kinds of emollient are petroleum jelly, mineral oil, lanolin, glycerin, and more.

It also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that would help your skin in battling high numbers of free radicals caused by oxidative stress. This kind of stress is linked to conditions like cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, inflammation, skin diseases and more. The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties within colloidal oatmeal are avenanthramides.

Avenanthramides are a group of plant chemicals found in oat kernels. According to one study, they are responsible for inhibiting inflammatory response by blocking cytokines—a cell-produced group of proteins, part of the immune system that causes inflammation in our bodies. It locates and targets immune cells, then binds them to the cell’s receptors which cause a trigger response from said cells. Hence with Avenanthramides, it diminishes inflammatory cytokines, resulting in colloidal oatmeal softens and soothes our skin.

It is no wonder that colloidal oatmeal has been one of the traditional topical treatments used for our skin for centuries. With this, it was officially categorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a skin protectant back in 2003. Thus, it has been used for different products like lotions, soaps, roll-up liquids, and more.

HOW DOES COLLOIDAL OATMEAL HELP OUR SKIN?

Colloidal oats have several dermatological benefits to our skin. With the aforementioned traits of the ingredient playing their role for our skin, they basically do the following:

Moisturizing – Hold moisture in the outermost layer of the skin through occlusive and water-binding properties
Soothing – Relieves inflammation, irritation and itch, which facilitates skin recovery
Antioxidant – Relieves inflammation, irritation and itch, which facilitates skin recovery

But colloidal oatmeal have other benefits:

Protecting – Forms a viscous occlusive barrier to protect from external irritants
pH Buffering – Preserves the skin’s protective barrier function by restoring pH balance
Cleansing – Acts as a natural cleanser by removing dead skin cells

Colloidal oats have several dermatological benefits to our skin. With the aforementioned traits of the ingredient playing their role for our skin, they basically do the following:

Avenanthramides – provides anti-irritant and redness reduction
Antioxidants – includes Flavonoids and Phenolics which usually found in plants
Avenacins – also one of the anti-inflammatory properties of colloidal oatmeals with immuno-regulatory properties
Oat Beta Glucan – moisturizes skin and aids in wound healing; also helps absorbs water in your skin
Oat Peptides – contains collagen and elastin promoters for pH buffering

STUDIES ON COLLOIDAL OATMEAL

There are several proofs in which colloidal oatmeal has helped our skin as an emollient. There are several studies about this ingredient regarding its moisturizing effects on our skin.

Such as this 2016 study where they test on the treatment of colloidal oatmeal on the skin barrier related gene expression and activity. With only its extracts of it, it induces the expression of genes related to epidermal differentiation, has tight junctions, regulates lipids in the skin, and provides pH-buffering capacity. Additionally, it recovers skin barrier damage in an in vitro model of atopic dermatitis by boosting the expression of multiple target genes related to the skin barrier. These all demonstrate the few helpful effects of colloidal oatmeal in our skin.

Other finds about the finely powdered oatmeal include several uses that not only gives benefits to our skin but also helps against skin diseases:

Improves the microbiome (bacterial ecosystem) of the skin, this includes lowering the level of bacteria such as Staphylococcus
Eases skin dryness, scaling, roughness, and itchiness through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties
Helps heal chronic hand eczema caused by irritants
Helps skin retain moisture, easing the itch of allergy-induced (atopic) dermatitis, and leading to fewer flare-ups
May prevent atopic dermatitis in babies at high risk for developing it
Is as safe and effective as prescription barrier creams for treating atopic dermatitis in children
Improves irritant-induced and allergic eczema in people with dark skin, something challenging to heal

But when it comes to the risks in utilizing colloidal oats, it is only low even for people with highly sensitive skin, and oat allergy. Though it is still best to discontinue using any product with colloidal oats to avoid such reactions even if it’s a slight one.

Additionally, oats may contain gluten due to it being cross-contaminated with such. One prominent reason for this is because they are grown next to gluten-high plants like wheat, barley, or rye. So for those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, you also may have a reaction when utilizing colloidal oatmeal albeit rare. That said, discontinue using it when reactions worsen. You can also consult a doctor before trying out these products.

GLOVEON COATS: WHAT YOUR CHIPPED HANDS NEEDS

Dry skin and itchiness when not cared for can lead to skin diseases like atopic dermatitis or eczema. This could lead to skin rashes, irritation, cracks, and wounds, burdening everyone and their everyday activities. Our hands for example are one of the parts prone to skin diseases especially when we are using disposable gloves.

Despite nitrile or latex disposable gloves protecting our hands from germs, viruses, and bacteria, prolonged and constand wearing of these gloves, as well as constant washing of hands after use, would make our hands susceptible to skin conditions. Our hands get sweaty when wearing gloves for a long time, in addition to poor evaporation and increased temperature caused by our skin’s direct contact with the glove. As sweat in our hands builds up, it develops to skin diseases such as contact and hydration dermatitis. Thus, it would chip our hands.

1. Direct Contact

Glove material in direct contact with skin.

2. Contact Dermatitis

Potentially causes irritation and contact dermatitis by direct contact of skin and glove film.

3. Hydration Dermatitis

Sweat accumulation and elevated temperature due to poor evaporation.

The problem with disposable gloves is it usually cannot absorb the sweat in our hands, hence its poor evaporation when directly contacting our skin. On the other hand, colloidal oatmeal can in fact absorb water and sweat. And as mentioned before, it can moisturize our skin! To deal with chipped hands caused by prolonged wearing of disposable gloves, we have GloveOn COATS—Colloidal Oatmeal System.

COATS is a patented glove coating technology that contains colloidal oatmeal as a protective barrier between our hands and the glove. The barrier itself is a natural moisturizing coating that prevents direct irritation from the glove film, and helps absorb sweat in our hands. And it does all the wonders of colloidal oatmeal to our hands that are mentioned above (anti-oxidant, soothing, cleansing, etc.), including helping our skin retain water which leads to the betterment of our skin integrity.

1. Barrier

Prevents direct irritation from glove film by creating a physical barrier between skin and glove.

2. Absorption

It absorbs water, urea, and salt excretions that cause irritation.

3. Moisturization

It penetrates itself into the skin to moisturize it.

GloveOn COATS is a perfect glove in protecting and aiding our skin from the inside thanks to its colloidal oatmeal coatings. It is a perfect glove for everyone, even people with celiac disease or gluten allergies, and oat allergies. The glove does not cause a high allergic or inflamed reaction to the wearer, but as said earlier, it is best to be careful and to practice appropriate hand washing protocols when dealing with infectious people or substances.

Wear our moisturizing oatmeal-coated gloves to feel the magical difference! GloveOn COATS—Fit to protect, soft to touch.