The Chemistry of Better Skin Care

Bringing Cutting-Edge Cosmeceuticals from the Lab to Your Skin

Much like a recipe, the chemistry of skin care is a process. For best results, not only must the finest ingredients be used, but each must be introduced and combined in just the right amount and at just the right time. Anyone who has ever had a cake fall flat can appreciate the delicacy and precision of the process. However, while a botched recipe may hold dire consequences for your cooking ware (and occasionally your stomach), a poorly formulated skin care product can wreak havoc on your complexion.

Choosing the Right Ingredients

Depending on the product’s intended purpose, ingredients can range from exfoliants to cell stimulators to antioxidants and beyond. Often, cosmeceutical products combine different types of ingredients to treat multiple aspects of a condition. However, simply mixing raw ingredients will deliver limited results at best, even if they are the best ingredients available.

According to Shan Albert, lab consultant for CosMedix, every aspect of handling, storing and combining ingredients must be taken into careful consideration. “Are the ingredients cold-processed or cooked? How long are they cooked? How long are they stirred?” Albert asks. “One doesn’t just throw a bunch of ingredients into a vat, stir it together and produce a great product.”

Additionally, because many ingredients are made up of chiral compounds—a state in which two molecules of the same substance have opposing spins, each pro-ducing a separate effect—unfiltered, raw ingredients are only partially effective, with only the “correct,” spinning molecules producing the desirable effect. Largely inactive (and, in some cases, harmful), “incorrect” molecules only dilute a product and weaken its effectiveness.

Filtered to select only the molecules that interact positively with the skin, the chirally correct ingredients in CosMedix products ensure maximum effectiveness without the undesirable side effects of lesser refined materials.

Using the Right Amount

While skin care companies are required by law to reveal the contents of their products in percentage-descending order on the packaging, they are not compelled to disclose the actual amount of each ingredient used. Given the myriad products developed to address common skin concerns, it is not uncommon for two or more to display similar—sometimes even identical—ingredient lists. However, according to Albert, “even if [two] different products list the same ingredients in the same descending order, they can produce different results.”

Consider two products with the following ingredient list: water, arbutin (a skin brightener) and lactic acid (an exfoliant). With 90 percent water, seven percent arbutin and three percent lactic acid, product A is a powerful skin brightener. Meanwhile, with 88 percent water, six percent arbutin and six percent lactic acid, product B gives more exfoliation and is thicker.

“Slight variances in processing, concentrations and percentages can make all the difference,” Albert explains.

The Right Combination

In order for a product to have a positive effect on the skin, the ingredients must first be able to interact and communicate with each other. “While it is important to know what is in every product, the formula is what counts the most,” Albert says.

Take retinol, for example. The industry standard for skin rejuvenation, retinol pose a challenge to product developers due to its caustic nature. While low doses render it almost ineffectual, high doses of the ingredient can cause significant irritation.

“Retinol is a potent ingredient that has the ability to stimulate the growth of healthy, fresh, youthful cells, increase cell turnover and remove old, worn-out cells,” Albert explains. “[However], just by doing its job, it has the potential to irritate.”

Whereas many skin care brands respond by simply diluting the key ingredient in their formulas, CosMedix answers the retinol challenge in a unique way. By combining retinol with arabino-galactan-protein conjugates from wine, CosMedix is able to deliver a high enough concentration to encourage substantial cellular activity while sidestepping the ingredient’s signature harshness. The result—AGP Complex—is made possible through the right combination of chirally correct ingredients at key points in the formulation process.

“It’s all in the formula—not just the ingredients,” Albert says.