THE HYALURONIC ACID LIE - Truth Found by EFSC College Student

HIGHLIGHTS

Brands say hyaluronic acid can absorb 1000x its molecular weight in water

At Eastern Florida State College, I tested this claim

The law says a plaintiff can file a claim if a brand makes misleading statements about their products

Could these companies be in violation of the law?

Everyone has purchased a product they regretted later, whether their bank account has the same notion or not. During a recession, people often spend more than they can afford on cosmetics, known as the Lipstick Effect (MacDonald & Dildar, 2020). The reason is psychological: beauty products promise self confidence and cost less than other personal rewards. Beyond that, beauty brands make incredible claims about their products. Currently, the biggest claim revolves around the ever-so trendy hyaluronic acid. Companies and the influencers that profit from them have long claimed hyaluronic acid can absorb 1000x its molecular weight in water, thereby absorbing that extreme amount of moisture from your environment and into your skin. Even scientific papers cite this claim in their abstracts without providing any evidence.

I went to the chemistry lab in room 207 of Eastern Florida State College to find out more.

Hyaluronic acid’s absorption power has not been documented in isolation. The studies I have found center on hyaluronic acid bonded together in a complex with other ingredients, such as sodium ascorbate, but that is not the same thing as proposing this one ingredient is capable of so much absorption power, especially knowing there is no way to verify whether or not these brands are using hyaluronic acid within these highly complicated complexes. Brands could just rely on the claim that hyaluronic acid can absorb 1000x its weight in water being ubiquitous all while using the molecule by itself.

Could this claim about hyaluronic acid possibly be true without any other absorbing ingredients? If it is false, could these companies be in violation of the law?

According to Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, a person can file a claim against a company for false statements about their own products or another’s. If the hyaluronic acid claim is false, these brands could allegedly be false advertising. While this may not blow up into a court case, at the very least, someone should have advised these companies to be careful with their advertising.

The absorption claim made hyaluronic acid the new viral ingredient and it became a selling point for beauty companies everywhere.

In order to test the hyaluronic acid claim, I took three samples of hyaluronic acid, each weighing 0.3 grams to the chemistry lab.

I dried each sample in the drying oven at 110 degrees Celsius for seven days. Once dried, I immediately mixed them with varying amounts of water. Sample 1 had 3mL of water, Sample 2 was placed in a beaker with 30mL of water, and Sample 3 was given 300mL of water. Each amount of water corresponded to 10x the acid’s weight in water, 100x its weight in water, and the golden 1000x its weight in water. I then set the beakers with watch glasses over top of them aside for seven days.

At the end of the seven day period, the first sample of hyaluronic acid absorbed all of its water content, equating to 10x its weight in water. The other samples absorbed nothing at all, even when given the opportunity to absorb all 1000x its weight as the beauty companies have claimed.

Our study could not support the statement that hyaluronic acid alone can absorb 1000x its weight in water. However, this study must be repeated and peer reviewed before given full legitimacy.

People are purchasing skincare products with this ingredient believing that is all it takes to gain such an extreme amount of absorption, yet it is possible brands are slapping a nearly useless ingredient on the label without taking the necessary steps to supercharge it.

Some brands are transparent about their concoctions. If "hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid” is on the ingredients list, the chemists did in fact create a version of hyaluronic acid that is meant to absorb water at a higher level. However, most brands have not given consumers a way to tell the difference.

So why does this matter?

It is not the molecule. It is not the ingredient listed on the label that can absorb so much, and it is far too easy for a company to just include it in a moisturizer and call that capable of so much absorption.

Further, without stricter regulation of cosmetic products at the federal level, we get more shady med spas (of which there are many in Brevard County) who peddle untrustworthy claims and sell mysterious and potentially dangerous products and services.

Finding an independent value for hyaluronic acid absorption could cause public backlash regarding advertising and misinformation as countries begin to take harder stances on what brands and social media figures can and cannot say.

This is not about vanity, it is about the hard line of the law.

I presented my research at the Fall 2025 Exhibition at Eastern Florida State College and went on to present at University of North Florida. Everyone said the same thing: take it to the news.

So here we are.

You can view my poster here: https://www.easternflorida.edu/academics/our/documents/abstracts-book/fall-2025/heinly-poster.pdf

Abstract: Hyaluronic acid, with its unique structure composed of glycosidic bonds, provides viscoelasticity and moisture retention, often used for how it benefits skin and hair. Hyaluronic acid also makes up many brands of dermal filler, as it draws water molecules into tissue and expands the area of injection. Certain mammals, including humans, naturally produce hyaluronic acid, such as for the lubrication of joints. Cosmetic companies continue to use hyaluronic acid as a marketing buzzword, claiming the compound can absorb 1000x its molecular weight in water, further indicating that their products have the same ability if hyaluronic acid appears on the ingredient list. Despite the statement’s ubiquity, no scientific data currently exists surrounding the absorption rate of hyaluronic acid without the addition of cross-linked compounds such as sodium ascorbate. Even scientific studies reference the claim of 1000x its weight in water within their abstracts, which illustrates how widely accepted the idea has become, regardless of having no evidence. The importance of finding an exact value for the molecular weight of cosmetic-grade hyaluronic acid in isolation lies in the public understanding of the scope of the molecule’s abilities when untampered with. Finding the truth uncovers a scientific secret which will provide much needed insight into what celebrities, influencers, and South Florida aunties, and regular people will have injected into their dermis. No matter how these companies formulate their hyaluronic acid molecule, they all can still rely on this arbitrary claim, even when misrepresenting their product. Since the conceived hype is around the molecule itself, audiences have no understanding of the molecule’s range of capabilities; thus, some brands will use the most inexpensive, unreliable formulations and still end up selling out due to a narrative made inescapable by the cosmetic genre in the media.

References

Daniel MacDonald, Yasemin Dildar, Social and psychological determinants of consumption: Evidence for the lipstick effect during the Great Recession, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Volume 86, 2020, 101527, ISSN 2214-8043, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2020.101527. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804319304884)