What Are Fillers in Skincare Products?

What Are Fillers in Skincare Products?

Have you ever heard a brand marketing to you that they don’t use fillers or toxins? (First of all, using actual toxins is illegal but anyway) 

There is no such thing as a “filler”. It cost money to manufacture cosmetics, no one is going to spend money on an ingredient that serves no purpose. 

What we DO have are the following:

  • Functional ingredients: these don’t affect the skin but rather the actual formula. They give the formula spreadability, texture, form (lotion vs gel), protection from microbial growth, ect. These are NECESSARY to the overall formula. 
  • Performance ingredients: these make changes to the skin, aka your active ingredients. They can be synthetic (sometimes this is most more sustainable) or they can come from vitamins or plants. These are your alpha and beta hydroxy’s, glycerin, lipids, vitamin b3, etc… these don’t make up that much of the formulation but are important in helping create the results you are looking for from your product. 

The other point I want to make is that: everything is a chemical. You are made up of chemicals. Chemicals don’t mean harmful and natural doesn’t mean safe. 

It’s not so much about individual ingredients but so much more about the overall formulation, the pH, and even the delivery system of THAT product. 

Using Physical AND Chemical Exfoliation: Is It Too Much?

Using Physical AND Chemical Exfoliation: Is It Too Much?

Despite the shade, I’ve personally thrown at physical scrubs (it was well-intended, hi St Ives and Kylie walnut scrub 🙄😅) There truly is a special place for a physical exfoliant in a routine.

The magic trick? To incorporate both spherical/rounded beads (like biodegradable jojoba beads) WITH exfoliating acids.

Acid Exfoliators = dissolve the bonds that keep dry and dead skin cells stuck to the skin.

  • Alpha Hydroxy Acids: water-soluble chemical compounds that work by loosening the bond between cells in the epidermis.
  • Beta Hydroxy Acids: Oil-soluble chemical compounds that penetrate the pore lining to remove and lift excess sebum, dirt, and bacteria.

Physical Exfoliators = can easily and * literally * lift those dry and dead skin cells off our skin since they are already loosened up by the acids.

  • Jojoba Beads: gently buff away dead surface debris and leave behind jojoba esters, which are a moisture-retaining component of natural skin sebum.
  • Blue Corn Meal: vibrant in hue, this mild exfoliant ingredient is packed with antioxidants to help relieve dry, patchy skin in a gentle way, making it suitable for sensitized skin.

The best part? No skin tugging, dragging, or harsh scrubbing is required! This is where we often go wrong with physical exfoliators, we go way too hard when there is no need.

Get the most out of your exfoliating days by using a scrub with physical and chemical exfoliators or follow this simple guide I put together below depending on your target. 

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WATER: The Key To Exfoliation

Water: The Key to Exfoliation

We know our skin desquamates, or sheds, every 28-30 days (age-dependent).

But did you know that the enzyme responsible for degrading corneodesmosomes (the main “glue” holding cells in the outer layer of your skin) needs WATER to properly carry out this process?

Your skin needs to be topically hydrated on the surface, where the enzyme is, to maintain the cycle of cell shedding.

Drinking water is great for your overall health, of course, but your skin isn’t using that water intake. If you drink more water today your body will not think “great, extra water! Let’s allocate that to the skin!” Nope, you will just pee out any extra water your body is not needing.

This process needs “free water” or water that doesn’t pertain to another cellular process.

Free water, like the water held by ceramides and the water attracted by humectants that create topical hydration, plays an important role in the natural cell shedding process.

This is huge if you’re dealing with skin texture, acne, dullness, etc..

How to get proper topical hydration?

HUMECTANTS!

– Glycerin

– Sodium PCA

– Hyaluronic Acid

– Lipomoist

– Sphingolipids

– Fructooligosaccharides

Where to find these hydrating superstars?

– The Cucumber Hydration Toner

– The Ageless Skin Hydrating Serum

Treat your cells by topically hydrating your skin.

How To: Keep Your Skin Supple

How To: Keep Your Skin Supple

 

What do shingles on a roof and the cells on your stratum corneum have in common? Corneocytes aka the dead skin cells on the outermost layer of your skin look and lay evenly, like shingles on a roof.

They sit on your stratum corneum and act like a protective barrier that keeps water in and most things out.

In between these corneocytes, there are Hygroscopic (water-loving) substances. Hygroscopic substances keep your skin protected, plumped, supple, glowy, and bouncy.

Examples of Hygroscopic substances: Lipids, Ceramides, Glycerin, Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium PCA, Polysaccharides (sugars), and the list goes on.

While everyone on the internet always boasts on how “ABC helps to get XYZ really DEEP into the skin” I think it’s important to point out that topicals on the surface have a purpose and play a major role in barrier function and proper desquamation

(blog post: Topical Water | The Key to Exfoliation)

Like most things related to our body, these substances decrease the wiser we get.

When this happens there is less and less filling in the cracks of those dead skin cells leading to Corneocyte cohesion, this is when corneocytes start to lay UNevenly and feel rugged, dry, and tight.

This does not mean you have dry SKIN, it means you need to increase those water-loving substances, which might I point out, sit on the surface of your skin, as they should.

What Are Peptides and What do They Do?

What Are Peptides and What Do They Do?

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that make up the building blocks for protein, which are long chains of amino acids. Collagen and Elastin are examples of long-chain amino acid links aka proteins.

On the skin, peptides are chemical messengers that tell cells what to do. In particular, peptides stimulate fibroblasts, the most common type of cell found in our connective tissues. Fibroblasts are responsible for synthesizing collagen and repairing the skin, which means that to maintain the structure of our skin, its firmness, and elasticity we want peptides.

To answer what peptides we want we have to ask which peptides are doing what. Let’s break that down by result.

To stimulate wound healing, collagen synthesis, and skin-repairing lookout for  Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Caprooyl Tetrapeptide-3, Oligopeptide-1 EGF, and Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, which works synergistically with Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7. 

To help control melanin production by inhibiting melanogenesis to decreases irregular pigmentation lookout for Oligopeptide-34. 

To alleviate wrinkles and fine lines peptides like Acetyl Hexapeptide-3, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-38, Acetyl Octapeptide-3 aka SNAP-8TM, and Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 aka Argireline are all great.

Product Suggestions: Vitamin C/Green Tea Serum, Ageless Hydrating Serum, Peptide Eye Serum, Tri-Peptide Eye Cream, Peptide Restoration Moisturizer.

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