Targeted brightening treatment with niacinamide, tridroxy acid blend + hyaluronix. A gentle dew-over for smoother, more luminous, even-toned skin.
Uploaded by: anjames85 on
Ingredients overview
Purified Water, Propanediol, Niacinamide, Phytic Acid, Lactic Acid, Betaine, Tranexamic Acid, Lentinus Edodes Mycelium Extract, Glycolic Acid, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate (Multi-Molecular Hyaluronix), Polyglutamic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin
Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>
INCI photo pending approval
Highlights
#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free
Alcohol Free
Fragrance and Essential Oil Free
Key Ingredients
Anti-acne: Niacinamide
Antioxidant: 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid
Cell-communicating ingredient: Niacinamide
Exfoliant: Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid
Skin brightening: Niacinamide, Tranexamic Acid, Lentinus Edodes Mycelium Extract, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid
Skin-identical ingredient: Sodium Hyaluronate (Multi-Molecular Hyaluronix)
Soothing: Tranexamic Acid
Other Ingredients
Buffering: Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid
Chelating: Phytic Acid
Moisturizer/humectant: Propanediol, Niacinamide, Lactic Acid, Betaine, Sodium Hyaluronate (Multi-Molecular Hyaluronix), Polyglutamic Acid
Preservative: Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin
Solvent: Purified Water, Propanediol
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purified Water | solvent | ||
| Propanediol | solvent, moisturizer/humectant | ||
| Niacinamide | cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant | superstar | |
| Phytic Acid | chelating | ||
| Lactic Acid | exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering | superstar | |
| Betaine | moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
| Tranexamic Acid | skin brightening, soothing | goodie | |
| Lentinus Edodes Mycelium Extract | skin brightening | goodie | |
| Glycolic Acid | exfoliant, buffering | superstar | |
| 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid | antioxidant, skin brightening | goodie | |
| Sodium Hyaluronate (Multi-Molecular Hyaluronix) | skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Polyglutamic Acid | moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
| Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
| Ethylhexylglycerin | preservative |
Tru Alchemy Spot Check
Ingredients explainedPurified Water
Also-called: Aqua;Water | What-it-does: solvent
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
Propanediol
Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant
Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.
It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.
Niacinamide - superstar
Also-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant
- A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
- Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
- Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
- Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
- Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis
Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>
Phytic Acid
What-it-does: chelating
Though its name says acid, it's not really an exfoliant. It's a plant extract with some antioxidant properties. Its main thing in cosmetic products is to neutralize the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. It's a natural alternative to sometimes bad-mouthed chelating agents,EDTAs.
Lactic Acid - superstar
What-it-does: exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering
- It’s the second most researched AHA after glycolic acid
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
- It also has amazing skin hydrating properties
- In higher concentration (10% and up) it improves skin firmness, thickness and wrinkles
- Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
- Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
Read all the geeky details about Lactic Acid here >>
Betaine - goodie
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
A sugar beet-derivedamino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Betaine's special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance. It is also a natural osmoprotectant, meaning that it attracts water away from the protein surface and thusprotects them from denaturation and increases their thermodynamic stability.
It also gives sensorial benefits to the formulaand when used in cleansers, it helps to make them milder and gentler.
Tranexamic Acid - goodie
What-it-does: skin brightening, soothing
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Lentinus Edodes Mycelium Extract - goodie
Also-called: Fermented White Shiitake | What-it-does: skin brightening
The fermentation broth of the nice, edible mushroom known as Shiitake. Apart from the gourmet food industry, it is also used in several industrial applications as it contains biocatalytic enzymes (such as laccase, cellulase, and ligninolytic peroxidases) useful for breaking down things both in the paper and textile industries.
The latter one, the textile industry, uses Shiitake ferment to break down dyes in waste streams in an environmentally friendly way and this gavethe skincare industry an idea:if Shiitake ferment can break down synthetic pigments, it might be able to do that tonatural pigment, i.e: melanin.
Based on the in-vitro (in a test-tube) and in-vivo tests by the manufacturer, the idea seems to work. On a panel of ten volunteers, 2% Shiitake Ferment was compared to nothing, to 0.05% Glabridin(the powerful active ingredient in licorice root) and to 2% Kojic acid. The Shiitake formula came out on top. It lightened UVB-treated skin by 50% after 28 days (just for comparison, untreated skin lightenedby 30%).
Overall, sh*takeeferment is an interesting new approach to skin-brightening, so if you suffer from extra pigmentation, it might be something to experiment with.
Glycolic Acid - superstar
What-it-does: exfoliant, buffering
- It’s the most researched AHA with the most proven skin benefits
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
- It can help skin’s own collagen production that results in firmer, younger skin
- It can fade brown spots caused by sun damage or PIH
- Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
- Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
- Slight stinging or burning with a stronger AHA product is normal
- If your skin is very sensitive, rosacea prone choose rather a BHA or PHA product
Read all the geeky details about Glycolic Acid here >>
3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid - goodie
Also-called: Form of Vitamin C, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbate, EAC;Ethyl Ascorbic Acid | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening
A very stable and promising form of the skincare superstar, Vitamin C. If you do not know why Vitamin C is such a big deal in skin care, you can catch up here. In short, Vitamin C has three proven magic abilities: antioxidant, collagen booster, and skin brightener. The problem, though, is that it's very unstable, turns brown and becomes ineffective in no time (after a few month) and the cosmetics industry is trying to come up with smart derivatives that are stable and have the magic properties of pure Vitamin C.
Ethyl Ascorbic Acidor EAC for short is an "etherified derivative of ascorbic acid" that consists of vitamin C and an ethyl group bound to the third carbon position. This makes Vitamin C very stable and soluble in bothwater and oil.
However, for a Vitamin C derivative to workit's not enough just to be stable, they also have to be absorbed into the skin and be converted there to pure Vitamin C. We have good news regarding the absorption: on top of manufacturer claims, there is somedata (animal study) demonstrating in can get into the skin, and it seems to be better at it than Ascorbyl Glucoside, another vitamin C derivative.
Regarding conversion, we can cite onlyamanufacturers claimsaying thatEAC ismetabolized in the skin into pure ascorbic acid (and the ascorbic acid content of EAC is very high - 86,4% - compared to the usual 50-60% Vitamin C content of other derivatives).
As for the three magic abilities of Vitamin C, we again mostly haveonly themanufacturer's claims, but at least those are very promising. EAC seems to have both anantioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, and it's claimed to be able to boost the skin's collagen production. The strong point of EACthoughis skin brightening. On top of manufacturer claims, there is also clinical in-vivo (tested on real people) data showing that 2% EAC can improve skin tone and whiten the skin.
Overall, Ethyl Ascorbic Acid is a very promising but not a fully proven Vitamin C derivative. It's worth a try, especiallyif you are after Vitamin C's skin-brightening effects.
Sodium Hyaluronate (Multi-Molecular Hyaluronix) - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF,hyaluronic acid(HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephenwrites on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".
In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checkedProspector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).
What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate andcheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid(including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).
Polyglutamic Acid - goodie
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
A natural high-molecular weight aminoacidpolymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that is claimed to have awesome, better than IT-moisturizer HA, skin hydrating properties. It is a film-forming polymer thatimproves both the moisture binding and retention properties of the skin.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Ethylhexylglycerin
What-it-does: preservative, deodorant
If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.
You may also want to take a look at...
Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more] A natural corn sugar derived glycol. It can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula. [more] A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more] Though its name says acid, it's not really an exfoliant. It's a plant extract with some antioxidant properties. Its main thing in cosmetic products is to neutralize the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. [more] A superstar AHA that not only exfoliates skin but is also a very good moisturizer. In higher concentration (10% and up) it can even improve skin firmness, thickness, and wrinkles. [more] A sugar beet derivedamino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Its special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance. [more] The fermentation broth of the nice, edible mushroom known as Shiitake. Apart from the gourmet food industry, it is also used in several industrial applications as it contains biocatalytic enzymes (such as laccase, cellulase, and ligninolytic peroxidases) useful for breaking down things both in the paper and textile industries. [more] The most researched and well-known AHA exfoliant. It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin. In larger concentration (>10%) it's a proven collagen booster. [more] A stable form of Vitamin C, whose strong point is skin-brightening. It might also have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and collagen boosting abilities. [more] It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer. [more] A natural high-molecular weight aminoacidpolymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that is claimed to have awesome, better than IT-moisturizer HA, skin hydrating properties. [more] Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more] It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too. [more] what‑it‑does solvent what‑it‑does solvent | moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does cell-communicating ingredient | skin brightening | anti-acne | moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does chelating what‑it‑does exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does skin brightening | soothing what‑it‑does skin brightening what‑it‑does exfoliant | buffering what‑it‑does antioxidant | skin brightening what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does preservative
