Nowadays, there are a wide variety of skincare products in the market. According to products sales channels, there are supermarkets like Wal-Mart, professional beauty salons, B2C e-commerce like Amazon, social platform, independent station, and brands counter etc. In fact, the essential difference between skincare products in these channels is the difference in formula, and the brand route is also positioned through the difference in formula.
From the perspective of skin care product formulations, Ariel will give you a popular science so that you can understand the main of ingredients of your skincare products and whether the ingredients damage your skin.
1. Why is it important to understand skin care ingredients?
· to help you identity products quality
In the formula of skin care products, the regular labels of the ingredients are all arranged according to the content (weight percentage) from largest to smallest. The number one is usually water. One thing to note – ingredients with content below 1% can be arranged at will.
Effective ingredients, generally must reach a certain concentration to achieve the ideal skin care effect.
Panthenol is a classic soothing ingredient, but the concentration must reach more than 2% to have the effect of soothing and relieving the skin.
For example, Dimasti’s Retinol Essence A1.0, in the ingredient ranking, Ubiquinol is ranked very high (fourth), indicating that its concentration is sufficient and can relieve the skin irritation made by retinol.
· to help you choose suitable products for customers
For oily skin, it is recommended to avoid occlusive moisturizers, such as panthenol, glycerin, etc., and choose products containing oil control ingredients, such as nicotinamide, PCA zinc, etc.
For dry skin, do not choose products with strong cleansing ingredients, such as soap bases. It is recommended to choose creams containing oily sealants and skin lipid analogs.
| Skin Type | Tips |
|---|---|
| Oily Skin | Avoid Closed Grease; Choose Oil Control Ingredients: Niacinamide, PCA Zinc |
| Dry Skin | Avoid Excessive Cleaning; Choose Closed Oils, Skin Lipid Analogs |
| Sensitive Skin | Clean And Avoid Soap-Based Substances; Avoid Strong Functional Ingredients And Allergenic Ingredients |
| Acne-Prone Skin | Reduce The Use Of Alkaline Soap Base, Which Causes Skin Irritation; Use Mild Weak Acid Ingredients |
Note: For daily makeup removal, there’s no need to use facial cleanser + cleansing water, which belongs to excessive cleaning. Cleanser and makeup remover are the two best options.
2. What are the seven major formula systems?
The “emulsification system” and “thickening system” constitute the framework of the entire formula, which directly determines whether this product can be stored for three years. It directly determines the skin feel, moisturizing degree and refreshing degree.
The “anti-corrosion system”, “security system” and “antioxidant system” are to further protect the skin and the main ingredients of the formula from the aspects of microbial infection, oil oxidation, and skin irritation.
Skin care products need to have: safety, stability, usability and efficacy. A product is considered as a good product If it reached the high standards in these four properties.
From the perspective of modern skin care products, safety is always the priority, followed by stability and usability. The market promotion of skin care products has always emphasized special effects. This efficacy is achieved by the “effect system”.
In order to highlight the difference with other similar products, manufacturers give consumers a certain imagination, and even give them a certain sentimental sustenance. They usually allocate the product a special color or smell, which is the “sensory modification system”.
· Emulsification system
First, what is emulsification?
Under normal circumstances, water and oil are incompatible with each other. Even if you shake it vigorously, after a while, it will still stratify, with the oil in the upper layer and the water in the lower layer.
Since water and oil are incompatible with each other, in order for them to exist stably, a “third party” is needed. The third party is close to both water and oil, so that they can combine together, which is the “emulsification phenomenon”, and that third party is called the “emulsifier”.
Why is this phenomenon called “emulsification” and not by other names?
This may be related to their color, because generally the mixture after emulsification is mostly milky white.
What is the point of emulsification?
Normal skin is short of water and oil, especially dry skin. Emulsifier puts these two necessary ingredients for moisturizing in one system, allowing them to coexist harmoniously. This is the first meaning of emulsification-stable formula system.
The second meaning of emulsification is skin feel. Generally, the water-in-oil system is more moisturizing, and the oil-in-water system is more refreshing.
To sum up, emulsification affects the stability and skin feel of skin care products.
· Thickening system
It is not enough to have an emulsification system, because this “third party” may sometimes be unreliable. If you cannot hold water and oil for a long time, the phenomenon of “demulsification” will easily occur, that is, the separation of water and oil.
How to solve this problem?
· Changing to a “third party” means changing to another emulsifier.
· Another way of thinking is to add thickeners and fix those emulsified ions with a grid to reduce the fluidity of the emulsified system. In this way, the entire system will be stabilized.
In summary, thickening system can be understood as follows:
· Product can be stored for four or five years without stratification under a stable and good thickening system.
· Improve the skin feel.
· Anti-corrosion system
It is mainly used to inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms in cosmetics and prolong the effectiveness of skin care products.
Someone did this experiment: same skin care product was put in a glass bowl. Preservatives were added on the left side, and no preservatives on the right side. A few days later, it was discovered that the products without preservatives were covered with bacteria.
In fact, as long as the preservatives added to regular skin care products are approved by the State Food and Drug Administration, toxicological tests, skin irritation tests and skin “patches tests” have been done, showing that: within a certain dose range , preservatives will not cause damage to the skin.
· Effect system
Effect system is a formula system composed of one or more raw materials with efficacies in cosmetic formulations.
The core is to determine goals and provide corresponding solutions based on the mechanism and causes of skin problems.
The efficacy system also has its own formula basis. Take the whitening system as an example, everyone is talking about niacinamide, but in fact, niacinamide only affects one of the links (the transport of melanin), not the whole of the whitening system.
Dimashti’s clear and brightening facial cream (commonly known as “mela cream”), alone in the innovative “five-layer blemish system”, from the production, transport and metabolism of melanin, blocking melanin, whitening and blemishment.
· Security system
Due to the influence of climate, environment and the increasing variety of skin care products, beauty seekers are getting better skin care results. At the same time, there are more and more people having sensitive skins. In order to further reduce the stimulation of skin care products on fragile and sensitive skin, “safety guarantee system” appears!
The epidemiological big data statistical research shows that the main reason for sensitive skin, in addition to the impact of climate and environment, is the improper use of skin care products. Therefore, some soothing ingredients are added to skin care products, such as dipotassium glycyrrhizinate and myrrh alcohol, etc., to reduce the sensitivity of the skin.
· Sensory modification system
The sensory modification system is composed of colorants and flavors. When it comes to flavors, many people are always worried about its safety. They think that flavors are one of the biggest allergens in skin care products. Of course, it is recommended to use fragrance-free skin care products for sensitive skin, however, healthy skin does not need to worry too much about the flavor.
In addition, flavors can cover the odor of raw materials, and change consumers’ evaluation of the performance of the entire product.
· Antioxidant system
Cosmetic antioxidant system is a type of additive to prevent the oxidative deterioration of cosmetic ingredients. It is mainly oils containing unsaturated fatty acids. For example, in this skin care oil of Bailuo, butylated hydroxytoluene is used to prevent the oxidation of oils in the formula, not antioxidant ingredients in the efficacy system.
| Functional Skincare Products | Daily Use Cosmetics | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To Solve Skin Beauty Problems From A Medical Point Of View, Improve Skin Conditions (Anti-Wrinkle, Whitening, Etc.), A Lot Of Efficacy Testing Research Are Needed | Develop More Products Based On Sensitive, Physical And Chemical Indicators, And Rarely Do Efficacy Evaluation Experiments |
| Ingredients | Avoid Excessive Cleaning; Choose Closed Oils, Skin Lipid Analogs | |
| Level Of Functions | Affect The Structure And Function Of The Skin, And Can Really Improve Skin Health | It Is Only Used On The Skin Surface To Modify And Beautify The Skin Epidermis Without Affecting The Structure And Function Of The Skin |
