Micro vs. Nano particles

[Mike in Cincy]

I've heard of both of these in the context of lotions, moisturizers, and sunscreens. If I have it correctly, the nano particles are the ones that are so small, they can be absorbed into the skin and even into the blood stream (obviously, bad).

So how do you know which kind of lotion you're getting?

 

[thebikingengineer]

Nanometers are on the size scale of tens of angstroms, the unit generally used to describe the sizes of atoms. They are 1/1000th of a micron and are really, really small (so small that you need a really good electron microscope to see them). If lotions are advertising nano-scale fillers than they're either lying or they're talking about thousands of nanometers (aka: microns).

I wouldn't worry.

 

[MrGuy]

I'd be willing to bet it's just marketing jargon. Both names are just tossed out there to make the product sound good. I saw a company, I can't remember the exact one, some one else will I'm sure, claim that by putting coffee grounds in their face cleanser not only did they exfoliate, but woke up your face