Skin Actives – General
June 3rd, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Corals are among the most amazing and beautiful and complex living beings. What we see is an exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate that has been formed slowly by the whole colony, made of identical individual polyps. These polyps are marine invertebrates of the phylum Cnidaria; in this phylum, members of the class Anthozoa are the reef builders, but you may be more familiar with other members of the phylum that include the nasty, if beautiful, jellyfishes. Corals are even more complicated than “just” the colony of tiny polyps making a beautiful exoskeleton that used to end up as beautiful earrings and necklaces (this practice is not heavily regulated). How do…
May 19th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why do women spend so much money and time taking care of their skin and men don’t? Is this because the skin of men and women are so different in anatomy and physiology and biochemistry? No. The difference is in the expectations we have: women rely on their appearance more, while men are judged by society by other parameters. There are a few differences: men’s skin tends to be thicker. Another: if they wear a beard, it will cover more skin blemishes. Because they don’t wear makeup, there will be less makeup caused damage to the skin (and eyebrows and eyelashes and hair). Not all differences are advantages: acne tends…
April 28th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What is cancer? All the cells in our body, and in all multicellular organisms, are regulated in multiple ways to make it possible for the organism to function as a whole. Cell division is a very tightly regulated process, and many genes participate in its regulation. As we age, our cells divide again and again and, despite all the corrective mechanisms that ensure that there are no major “typing errors” when DNA duplicates, errors occur. These are called mutations. We can see that our skin cells have mutated in the sun spots that accumulate as we age. This means that the DNA mutations have affected, in one way or another,…
April 3rd, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
For other brands, the most relevant questions are “does it feel good, does it smell good”? But at Skin Actives Scientific we are looking for activity, not just for a pleasant feel that will appeal to your senses. For SAS products the main question is: “does it work?” So far, for every product we make, the answer has been “yes”. Our products are based on good science and we make them very well. How long do they take to work? The time line is different for different products, because aside from products that aim at increasing skin moisture (like ELS, instant comfort), the others may only show benefits when the…
April 1st, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The evidence published in scientific journal shows that, as many other chemicals, vitamins, etc., copper (and copper complexed in a peptide) can be beneficial at very low concentrations and detrimental at higher concentrations. This makes sense: a significant portion of the toxicity of copper comes from its ability to accept and donate single electrons as it changes oxidation state, producing reactive free radical. This same property of copper is used by come enzymes that are crucial to cell metabolism, like superoxide dismutase, tyrosinase and more, and this is why copper is an essential micronutrient. Enzymes use copper in a carefully orchestrated reaction, free copper is another matter. With its capacity…
March 29th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
You decide to go on a diet, trying to shed just a few pounds or a maybe large fraction of your weight. Why do this? Our bodies evolved to face a natural world with food scarcity and occasional bounty. Our stomachs are large and our bodies can accumulate large amounts of fat that can support us during the lean times, and even to support the growth of a baby to term despite the scarcity of food. However, if we live in the developed world in the XXI century, there are no times of scarcity. A visit to Costco can supply enough calories to support a small Iron Age village for…
March 9th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Maybe I should have written the title in ALL CAPS! It should be obvious but it is nice to show you pictures of eyelashes growing and of what were before empty areas of scalp, now regrowing hair. I had a medical procedure last year that ended with me losing a lot of hair, adding to the misery of months of recovery, but our SAS hair serum worked and I am now back to my usual hair. So go and get our KGF containing products, they work. As for me, it is nice to do the right thing and succeed, and helping people on the way. And it is nice to…
March 8th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Rosacea update 2018 New scientific evidence has shown that rosacea’s diverse features may be part of a progression of inflammation, which initially may not be visible to the naked eye but can be detected by looking at the changes in the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of the skin. It starts with the common presentations of flushing and then stable face redness, and then it may progress to include papules and pustules, and potentially lead to development of external nodules and swellings called phymas. Research on rosacea has intensified over the last 15 years and it suggests that there will be no simple answers. It seems that, underlying rosacea there is…
March 7th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Your vegan hand bag is made of plastic. What is the plastic used to make your “vegan leather” handbag? From Wikipedia: “Plastics are typically organic polymers of high molecular mass and often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic, most commonly derived from petrochemicals, however, an array of variants are made from renewable materials…” Plastic is used to replace leather as an inexpensive alternative. What is remarkable is the changes in nomenclature used to sell it. Maybe in the past buying fake leather may have made you feel “cheap”. But buying vegan leather may make you feel virtuous, and you may be willing to pay more for vegan than for…
March 7th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
If you can read this, you are probably a human. Next question. What is a stem cell? “It is a an undifferentiated cell of a multicellular organism that is capable of giving rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type, and from which certain other kinds of cell arise by differentiation.” We have stem cells in our skin that will be able to heal your skin if the part of your skin in charge of renewal (stratum basale) gets damaged. Your stem cells have your DNA. If you have been careful (wear sunscreen!) your steam cells’ DNA is intact and non-mutated. What are apple stem cells? Just like your…
February 19th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The answer is “no” if you are talking about a serum with collagen. Only animals make collagen. The answer is “yes”, though, if you are talking about Skin Actives “let’s make collagen serum” (LMC serum), the original name of our collagen serum. LMC serum was too complicated, so its name was shortened. But the objective of our product was always the same: to promote collagen serum synthesis and to preserve the structure and function of existing skin collagen. And a vegan version of this serum is possible and we are making it. How? Collagen is an insoluble protein, so it can’t be used as such in a serum. What we…
February 18th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
It is true that there is no legal rules about what skin care companies (or food, or anything) can call “natural”. But we all know what we call natural: a substance that has not been modified chemically to became something different from what it was before. But “natural” is one of those words that make us go soft and buy a product, so companies keep using it to make us buy something that it is not natural. Other words that make us go soft are: green, honest, pure, organic, etc. Beware when you see these words, they are used just to make us go soft and buy something that we…
February 14th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Microblading is a fancy name for permanent makeup of the eyebrow area. It is meant to be permanent and it is not hair, it is ink deposited deep inside your skin. Anybody older than 15 knows that make-up fashion changes every year, and even every season, influenced by a variety of factors including what the big makeup companies want to sell. New make-up styles will make redundant all the make up products people bought last season and that will be an infusion of cash for the industry. People older than 20 know that the price of plucking eyebrows is the eventual loss of eyebrows. I have seen women with the…
January 29th, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Note: as usual, please feel free to skip stuff as you wish. There is a lot of “jargon” below. Do you remember the stories about sirtuins, resveratrol and the “French paradox”? Sirtuins are proteins with a very important role in the cell: they control the enzyme that converts acetate, a source of calories, into acetyl CoA, a key point of entry to cellular respiration. Because of this crucial role, it has been proposed that it may be possible to control age-related disorders in various organisms, and in humans. These disorders include obesity, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes mellitus, Parkinson’s disease and the “ultimate disorder”: aging. What is the French paradox?…
July 7th, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The image that springs to mind when we read “skin barrier” may be cartoonish, with an impermeable layer of skin resisting entry of anything and everything. This is a false image projected by skin care companies trying to convince us that useful actives will not penetrate the skin unless we use sophisticated delivery systems, a gimmick to sell more products at higher prices. The truth of it is, whatever you apply to the skin will be absorbed, for better and for worse. What is the skin barrier? The term “skin barrier” refers to the main function of the skin: limiting water loss through the skin. How does the skin limit…
May 1st, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The word “placenta” has strong connotations: it is the organ that delivers nutrition to the baby in a mother’s womb. Is human placenta safe for use by humans? The FDA does not think so. It is contaminated with bacteria and probably with some virus. But virus or not, the FDA does not allow human derived materials to be used in cosmetics. Still, the word “placenta” is worth a lot of money. Companies will take the strong feelings we have for babies and maternity and use them to sell a product unsuitable for the skin. Biology of the placenta The placenta is the respiratory, excretory, and digestive organ for the fetus.…
March 28th, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
A good example of an active that has been discussed in articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals is epidermal growth factor (EGF). There are more than 50,000 pieces of scientific literature document the activity of EGF. What is a growth factor? Growth factors are naturally occurring proteins capable of stimulating cellular proliferation and cellular differentiation. Growth factors bind to specific receptors on cell surfaces and are important for the regulation of a variety of cellular processes. Among the practical uses of EGF are its use in accelerating healing of the skin and cornea (the outside coating of the eyeball). EGF was the first growth factor to be discovered and studied,…
February 28th, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What does “skin renewal” mean? Nothing and everything: it depends on the context and who is talking. What do you need to do to renew your skin? Nothing. Your skin renews itself all the time. So what does the skin care industry mean by skin renewal? Generally, they mean that you should peel your dead skin cells off. But those dead skin cells, which make up the stratum corneum, are what make your skin impermeable to water using chemicals like ceramides. If we want to be more specific in defining what renewal means, we first need to understand what is going on in the anatomy of the skin. Skin structure The skin…
February 1st, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Squalane Oil, the serum base in the new Oil Serum For Beginners Kit, is extracted from olive fruit, not from shark liver. This light oil is full of beneficial actives especially suited for the skin; among them are oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, caffeic acid, catechin, and rutin. Loss of skin lipids results in an increased water loss and increased penetration of harmful compounds, especially for people living in big cities. Continuous use of squalane oil should alleviate skin dryness. Why Squalane? Lipids are an important part of our skin chemistry, they are necessary for the skin to do its job of limiting water loss from the body. Lipids also work by blocking…
January 20th, 2017 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
For Valentine’s Day this year, we want you to share the Skin Active’s LOVE with one of your friends! Click on the link below to submit their name, address and email and we will send them a deluxe sample! (Domestic US addresses only**). **For our international customers: When placing your next online order, please put “Share the Love” in your ‘Customer notes’ and we will add a deluxe sample to your order for you to gift your friend.**