Ingredients
July 28th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
We, humans, and the many bacteria that live in us and on us have evolved together for millennia. This stuff may sound yucky but what is actually is yucky it’s when the bacteria are not there. Our body needs them, they are crucial to the immune system and epidermal development and differentiation. Microbe colonization of our skin is no longer perceived as a threat but as a factor to be evaluated depending on the circumstances. Bacteria are so enmeshed with the human body that, for some purposes, they could be considered part of it. This relationship starts as soon as a baby makes its way through the birth canal, collecting…
July 14th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Glycolic acid 70% is too strong for skincare use. It burns the skin. Then, how come it is being sold wisely? It isn’t, it’s called FRAUD. How come they can get away with it? Because people don’t know how to read an ingredient list. Here are examples of products sold as 70% glycolic acid peels. Product #1:Deionized Water, Glycolic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Xanthan Gum, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Potassium Sorbate, Hexylene Glycol. Product #2: Distilled Water, Glycolic Acid This is funny (or sad): The answer to this question: “How could it be 70%? Water comes first” the manufacturer answered: “70% denotes the strength of the acid, not how much of it…
July 9th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I enjoy watching the videos from Epicurious, “4 levels of…”. They show how to make a variety of foods at different levels of expertise, and a food scientist explains how the flavors develop and the composition and interaction of different ingredients. You will find them here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjhYlL1WRBjKaJsMH_h7Lg Have fun! Hannah
July 4th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The easiest, and perhaps, most rewarding, way to DIY (do it yourself) skincare is to personalize a ready-made product you already like. You don’t need to start from scratch making a serum or cream or lotion. Just take a product you like and make it suit your body even better. Do you want a product that will firm your skin? Maybe you like our Canvas or European cream? Or our sea kelp bioferment? Add to either of these a hint of any of the following sea kelp bioferment (with extra fucoidan), collagen peptides or hyaluronic acid. What other benefits, besides instant skin tightening, will you get? Pullulan (from my glossary)…
June 11th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
…it’s just as sweet. And gentle on your skin. Ultra Clarifying Blemish Oil Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Linum Usitatissimum (Linseed) Seed Oil, Salicylic Acid, Calophyllum Inophyllum (Foraha) Nut Oil, Hippophae Rhamnoides (Seabuckthorn) Fruit Oil, Bisabolol, Retinyl Palmitate, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Coleus Forskohlii Oil, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil, Tocotrienols, Tocopherol, Astaxanthin, Lycopene, Xanthophyll, Thioctic Acid, Beta Carotene, Alpinia Galanga Root Oil, Cedrus Deodara Oil. The idea behind the product That acne is a complex problem with several components. Work on all of them and you can take control of your skin. Discourage and/or kill acne bacteria Keep pores open (no anaerobiosis here!) No food for you, nasty acne bacteria Decrease…
June 10th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The INCI name of the ingredient is Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract. But, what is Tremella? Figure: Tremella fuciformis a.k.a. snow fungus, snow ear, silver ear fungus, or white jelly mushroom. Tremella fuciformis is a parasitic yeast that grows as a slimy film until it encounters its preferred hosts, also fungi like Annulohypoxylon archeri, which the yeast invades, triggering the fast growth required to form the fruiting bodies found on decaying wood. So there are three components to this ingredient. The three-species “organism” can be cultivated on fallen wood if the two species of fungus are inoculated together. Benefits Let’s start by saying that this is an edible mushroom, and safety…
June 6th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
How does it work? Take a scientific-sounding word and insert it in a story where your product solves all problems and skin issues. An old one: deconstructed water. Ignore it: it doesn’t exist, and La Mer was forbidden from using it in the UK, where they take advertising a bit more seriously than in the USA. But wait! Here comes Activated Water: Pure water is infused with aloe barbadensis leaf extract and then supercharged to hold both positive and negative ionic charges to help skin absorb moisture more easily. No! And then, the real scientific words: exosomes, sirtuins, stem cells. All real, but don’t let advertisers sell you science that…
June 1st, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Testing skincare products on animals is not only cruel, but it’s also useless. Lists of “comedogenic ” ingredients come from an old study where products would be applied to a rabbit ear for days and then checked for comedo formation. It is a silly assumption that the skin of a teenager would behave like a rabbit ear. There were old laws that demanded from ingredients and products proof of safety, and at the time governments believed that animal testing could prove safety. This is old news, animal testing on animals has been banned in Europe since the 2000s, earlier in some other countries. Maybe not so old news, since the…
May 30th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Since before Theophrastus ( c. 371 – c. 287 BC), licorice root has been used to heal skin lesions. Licorice root is an ingredient of traditional Japanese Kampo and Chinese medicines. But ethnopharmacological use, however ancient, is not proof of effectiveness. Does “modern” science (phytochemistry, biochemistry) support this use of licorice? Yes and no. Licorice root contains many different chemicals, let’s look at them. this use of Figure: Glycyrrhiza glabra This is from my Glossary Licorice Natural sweetener, anti-inflammatory, skin brightener. Licorice root has been used in Europe since prehistoric times, documented since the ancient Greeks, for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity. Its sweetness comes from glycyrrhizin. The extract, which…
May 24th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Azelaic acid is good and for several skin problems. Why? Azelaic acid is a saturated dicarboxylic acid found in wheat, rye, and barley. Like most (but probably not all) chemicals, azelaic acid can also be made in a lab by a good organic chemist. Figure: Azelaic acid Azelaic acid and more soluble derivatives like azeloyl glycine (a.k.a. Potassium Azeloyl Diglycinate) can be used to treat some skin problems, usually as part of a combo with other chemicals. Acne Azelaic acid is used to treat mild to moderate acne, it works by killing acne bacteria that multiply within blocked pores. Rosacea Azelaic acid decreases inflammation in rosacea. The mechanism of…
May 12th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Plants don’t need collagen. Water, cell membranes, and cell walls keep the plant erect while there is enough water. Take the water away and the plant wilts. We don’t. Then, what’s in Vegan Collagen Lash Serum & Primer? Obviously, there is no plant collagen but here is the list of ingredients. Water, carnauba wax, stearic acid, glyceryl stearate, mica, oleic acid, hydroxyethylcellulose, alkyl hydroxystearoyl stearate, sr-hydrozoan polypeptide-1 (vegan collagen), tocopheryl acetate, panthenol, kaolin, lauroyl lysine, glycerin, silica, potassium sorbate, caprylyl glycol, glyceryl caprylate, sodium benzoate, ethylhexylglycerin, phenoxyethanol. The protein here, sr-hydrozoan polypeptide-1 bears no relation to human collagen or to plants. It is a jellyfish protein fragment produced by fermentation…
May 9th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
From my Glossary: Skin brightener, increases skin elasticity.Secreted by the pineal gland in response to sunlight, it has been shown that topical application decreases the accumulation of melanin. Topical use of synthetic melatonin appears to be beneficial to the skin in many ways. Used in conjunction with magnesium ascorbyl phosphate (MAP), melatonin improves skin elasticity. It may also help with mouth sores (stomatitis), decrease the side effects of radion therapy on the skin and improve skin texture. Melatonin may help improve hair texture in female alopecia. Figure: Melatonin chemical struture A bit more information: Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine) is synthesized in our bodies from tryptophan, an amino acid, with serotonin as…
April 28th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What causes uneven skin? Life does. From the day we are born, our body accumulates changes and scars as we grow up and grow old, but nothing is as visible as this scar or that sunspot on our face. Our skin changes color in response to the sun, the environment, and stress in general, including the products we apply to our skin. Skin pigmentation is a very complex process that involves different types of cells that originate in different parts of the embryo, several biochemical reactions, and transport across the cell and between cells. With so many interconnected processes, it is not surprising that things can go wrong. In my…
April 20th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Vegetable oils are as good (or as bad) as their chemical composition. What is “good” or “bad” depends on the use you are planning for it. When it comes to energy and carbon skeletons, our body (and skin) can use practically everything. When it comes to building the cell and its membranes, some fatty acids, like linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids, are essential because we can’t make them. What do we know about the composition of coconut oil? Below is the list of fatty acids, the number of carbons they have, and whether they are saturated or not. Coconut oil will not give you the essential fatty acids you need, that’s…
April 15th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The question should be: how did you choose your favorite ingredient? If the answer is “everybody was talking about X” then you probably chose wrong. Ingredients that “everybody was talking about” included the following: a toxic plant extract (yes, believe me), idebenone (a CoQ10 analog that was allergenic for some people), media discarded from laboratory cell cultures, a copper salt that decreases hyaluronic acid synthesis, myriad non-biological synthetic peptides with unknown effects, a strong oxidant (benzoyl peroxide), plant stem cells, etc. This list includes ingredients that will do nothing for your skin and others that will damage and age it. Please remember that what makes people talk about something is…
April 2nd, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What do we know about niacinamide? Lots. Figure. Niacinamide. Other names: nicotinamide, 3-pyridinecarboxamide, nicotinic acid amide, vitamin PP, nicotinic amide, vitamin B3 From my glossary: Vitamin, skin brightener Niacinamide (vitamin B3) benefits skin color and decreases melanin synthesis (important for hyperpigmentation); decreases inflammation, itching (pruritus) and UV-induced skin cancers, and prevents immunosuppression by UV irradiation. By increasing NADPH, the donor of reducing power in cell biosynthesis, niacinamide will increase synthesis of collagen, involucrin, filaggrin, and keratin. Niacinamide is one of the components of NADPH (reduced niacinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) the coenzyme that provides the reducing power required to build new molecules in the human body. Niacinamide and niacin are not…
April 1st, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
It’s an interesting story. Allow me to tell to you. Once upon a time, cosmetics were cosmetics. Cold creams, makeup, etc. But one enterprising doctor discovered the usefulness of science as an advertising tool and, perhaps, a useful nutritional ingredient to sneak into makeup (“sneak” because the FDA doesn’t like that certain “cosmetics” can change skin physiology). And, voila, with the addition of alpha-lipoic acid to skincare products, cosmeceuticals were born, It’s a useful story. Having found that alpha-lipoic acid was easy to introduce in skincare products, the flood of science into the skincare industry was open. Some additions were helpful, others not so much. What can I tell you…
February 26th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Not my answer but still the best: They charge a lot, so you have been hearing about them because they spend money on PR and advertising. Apart from the peptides, the ingredients look good, headlined by X or Y (niacinaide, magnesium ascorbyl phsophate, any of hundreds of ingredients). The peptides are off the shelf synthetic peptides (very cheap now) so there is no new science in the products, just renaming a few peptides that can be purchased by anyone. XXX just puts random peptides into cell lines (in culture) and sees if anything pops out in the test tube. Totally removed from real life. They then put the peptides in…
February 16th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
From my glossary, The Chemicals Life Makes” (you can find it here) Silymarin Antioxidant, chemopreventive Silymarin, a heterogenous extract of Silybum marianum (milk thistle) may be as effective as RetinA without the irritation. Silymarin has multiple beneficial effects on the skin, protecting it from a variety of environmental agents. Research has shown that silymarin reduces the effects of toxins on epidermal cells; as an antioxidant, it prevents the oxidative damage to DNA caused by UV radiation, and it protects against chemically induced skin tumors in mice. Recent research looked at the mechanism by which silymarin prevents skin cancer and it seems that it normalizes the function of a “deranged” cell…
February 6th, 2021 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Figure. Collagen structure Why are proteins so complicated? Because they have to be. Think about it: every protein has a different function. Think of all the enzymes required to convert sugar into carbon dioxide, water, and energy. And everything in our bodies (and in plants, bacteria, your cat) is just as complicated. This is why it is hard to improve on a biological process but easy to mess it up. Any time you feel like messing about with your body, stop and think how complicated it is. Do you know enough to mess with it? I can tell you: you DON’T! Anyway, going back to proteins, Some facts, here and…