Sustainable anti-aging skincare with antioxidant hydrogel patches paired with olive pomace extract-loaded phospholipid vesicles

Skin aging is driven by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, with oxidative stress playing a central role. In this study, a sustainable antioxidant vesicular dispersion was developed by loading an olive pomace extract into phospholipid vesicles. The extract was obtained via a green solvent-based method and was rich in polyphenols (1309.12 mg/kg dry weight), particularly quercetin (639.64 mg/kg dry weight) and hydroxycinnamic acids (299.34 mg/kg dry weight). The extract had strong antioxidant activity in DPPH and FRAP assays. Four formulations, namely liposomes, hyalurosomes, collagen-liposomes, and collagen-hyalurosomes, were produced according to the hydrating medium used and were small (≈83 nm), with narrow size distributions (PI ≈ 0.22), high negative zeta potentials (≈􀀀 37 mV), and high incorporation efficiencies (up to 82%). The systems remained stable for up to 90 days at 4 ◦C and withstood thermal and mechanical stress conditions. In vitro tests on HaCaT keratinocytes confirmed their biocompatibility and their ability to mitigate hydrogen peroxide-induced cytotoxicity, preserving ≈90% cell viability. As skin hydration plays a crucial role in the prevention of skin aging, in parallel, hydrogel patches were developed and used either alone or in combination with the vesicular dispersion to evaluate their contribution to skin moisturization. Their combination resulted effective in enhancing both the superficial skin hydration (>100%) and deep hydration (increased by ≈ 17%). These findings support the complementary use of olive pomace extract-loaded vesicular systems and hydrogel patches as a promising, ecofriendly strategy for combating skin aging through topical antioxidant delivery and skin hydration.