Skin, the most significant protective organ in the body, may face serious problems, including
cancer, infectious diseases, etc., requiring different drugs for the treatment. However, most
of these drugs have poor chemical and physical stability, and insufficient penetration through the
skin layers. In recent years, with the development of nanotechnology, it has been possible to load a
variety of drugs into nanocarriers, to effectively targeted drug delivery. The unique structure of niosome
presents an effective novel drug delivery system with the ability to load both hydrophilic and
lipophilic drugs, having many potential therapeutic applications including skin treatment. However,
surveying and discussing these recent, rapidly growing reported studies, along with their theoretical
principals, are required for the full understanding and exploring the great potential of this approach
in skin diseases and cosmetic treatments. To this aim, an emphasis has been given to the factors
affecting the penetration of niosome into the skin and their laboratory measurements and dependency
on the niosome composition. In sum, longer tail surfactants for storing hydrophobic
drugs and intracellular passing and surfactants with a large head group for penetrating hydrophilic
drugs are more suitable. Cholesterol and oleic acid are commonly used lipids to gain more stability
and permeability, respectively. The ionic component in the niosome interrupts cellular connectivity,
thus making it more permeable, but it may cause relative cell toxicity. Herbal oils have been
used in the structure to make the nanoparticles elastic and allow them to pass through pores without
changing the size of the particles.