Feeling fatigued and listless? Searching for an energy boost? Want to improve your mood and motivation? The solution may be, according to a proliferation of online articles and wellness TikToks, not to seek medical advice, but to whack on a vitamin patch.

Wearers purport to feel more focused or energised when adorned with the patches, some of which look like transparent squares, and others which are cuter and more colourful, resembling stickers or temporary tattoos.

The adhesives, also called wellness or supplement patches, contain tiny amounts of vitamins, minerals such as iron and magnesium, as well as other compounds such as caffeine and ginger extract.

Do any of the claims about vitamin patches stick, or are they merely a Band-Aid solution?

Can vitamins actually get through the skin?

Very few medicines are available as patches, says Nial Wheate, a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at Macquarie University. “There’s a reason we don’t have paracetamol and aspirin patches.”

The key issue is that the skin is a very effective protective barrier: the structure of its outermost layer, the stratum corneum, blocks water, bacteria and most drugs from getting through.

“It doesn’t mean the right medicines can’t be delivered that way,” Wheate says. “The things that do get through the skin tend to be what we call lipophilic” – fat soluble. For this reason, skin patches are often used to deliver opioid medications, hormone replacement therapy and........

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