Our ingredients

Ingredients: Bakuchiol

Bakuchiol, how we of sensitive and problem skin provenance love thee! If you’re as nuts about skincare and ingredients as we are, you are bound to have heard about bakuchiol and how it tackles pigmentation, fine linesand congestion and impurities – without irritation. Small wonder we stuck it in our Renewing Serum. Read on for more bakuchiol greatness!

Ingredients: Glycine soja seed extract

If you’re a skincare geek, like we are, you’ll know that an emulsion will always require an emulsifier, to enable mixing water and oil into an emulsion. The tricky part, though, when dealing with sensitive and problem skin, is that emulsifiers are surfactants, and surfactants can be hell on finicky faces. So imagine how stoked we were when we found the non-ionic (e.g. gentle) soy-based lysophospholipid emulsifier we use in the Hydrating Face Mask & Cream and Renewing Serum! Read on for more INCI porn.

Ingredients: Giant kelp extract

Giant kelp extract from the Macrystis pyrifera kelp is a legendary skincare ingredient with top notch smoothing and hydrating properties. We tailor make our extract in France, so as to get the ratio between solvent and kelp the way we want. Read on!

Ingredients: Propanediol

It hydrates, dissolves, penetrates (sorry) and boosts preservative effect. Without any further ado, let us present propanediol, the glycol to end them all. And yes, it's plant-based, vegan and non-irritatating. Read on!

Ingredients: Argan oil

All hail argania spinosa! If you’ve tried our Face Oil and All-Around Balm, you’ve likely noticed that we are fans of argan oil. It's the base for both these products. Argan's been a skin and hair care superstar for many years now, but for us, it also boils down to some serious personal love - as our founder and CEO Kristina is fond of saying, nothing in terms of skincare impacted her finicky skin as much as switching her regular face cream to argan oil.

Ingredients: PCA salts in skincare

Sodium PCA, copper PCA and zinc PCA are all PCA salts, and are widely used in skincare, including ours. Here we break down the what and the why of these amino acid derivatives that pack a mean hydrating punch - while adding calming, skin-barrier strengthening, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and sebum-regulating care.

Ingredients: Rhamnose

What brings that soothing punch to our Calming Serum? A cocktail of three: madecassoside, ectoin and last, but not least, something called rhamnose. Let’s take a look at what rhamnose is and why it’s wonderful for battling irritated and inflamed skin – while decreasing fine lines.

Ingredients: Thickeners in cosmetics - a short guide

When formulating cosmetics, one of the key aspects is viscosity – do we want a thick or a thin product? Thickeners are ingredients that increase the viscosity, i.e. thickness, of a product. They can also improve product stability (e.g. keep a cream from separating into oil and water), affect how a product looks, make application easier, and affect how the product flows, say, out of a tube. Our chemist Jaana explains more!

Ingredients: Algae-derived silica

Silica has been used in cosmetics for a long time, as an absorbing agent and a mattifier. It’s found in in sandstone, clay and granite, plants and animals, but the one we use in our Clarifying Serum is derived from the silica shells of a Swedish micro-algal group called diatoms and comes with one major additional benefit: cleansing and hydration in one go. Suffice to say it's great for sensitive and problem skin.

Ingredients: Madecassoside

Tigers are said to roll in it to heal their wounds, so what’s not to like? The Centellla asiatica plant, also known as Gotu Kola or Tiger Grass, is a perennial favourite in traditional Eastern medicine. It packs a powerful soothing, healing and hydrating skincare punch, and none so more than one of its main molecules, madecassoside.

Which cosmetics ingredients are safe?

Which cosmetic ingredients are safe? There's a lot of talk about “clean” and “non-toxic” ingredients in skincare, and we receive a lot of questions on what is safe to use. Which cosmetic ingredients are safe? Here our chemist Jaana runs you through the basics of ingredient safety.

Ingredients: Rosehip oil

One of the four oils in our Face Oil is organic, cold pressed rosehip oil. Often a lovely reddish colour when undiluted, rosehip is a real powerhouse when tackling sensitive and problem skin.

Ingredients: Glycerine - the queen of humectants

Glycerine is one of the most common ingredients in skincare, and is used in pretty much all kinds of products. Here our chemist Jaana breaks down what it is, what it does and why it's such a great and versatile material.

Sulfates in skincare

Sulfates, specifically SLS, in skincare receive a lot of negative attention. Here our chemist Jaana breaks down what they are, for what they are used and whether sensitive and problem skins should be concerned.

Ingredients: Our top calming skincare ingredients

For sensitive skincare, ingredients that soothe and calm skin are crucial. Here are our four favourites.

Ingredients: Betaine

Betaine is highly purified sugar beet extract and chemically speaking an amino acid derivative. In skincare it hydrates and conditions skin.

Microplastics in cosmetics Q&A

Microplastics are synthetic polymer particles smaller than 5 millimeters that resist (bio)degradation. The legislative definition of microplastics is currently under debate, and it is yet unclear which cosmetic ingredients will fall under the definition. In skincare, microplastics are typically used as skinfeel enhancers, thickeners and stabilisers or in the case of microbeads, to add mechanical exfoliating properties to the product. Our chemist Jaana fills you in.

There is no such thing as a chemical free skincare product

If you can touch a skincare product, it's all chemicals. Our chemist Jaana explains why there is no such thing as chemical-free and why chemicals aren't dangerous.

Ingredients: Liquorice root

Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate is a humectant and skin conditioner found in our Balancing Essence. A real skincare multi-tasker, dipotassium glycyrrhizate is the dipotassium salt of glycyrrhizic acid derived from liquorice root.

Ingredients: What is a humectant?

What actually hydrates skin in a skincare product? Answer: humectants, i.e. hydrating substances that attract water to skin. Our chemist Jaana breaks it down for you.

Ingredients: Sidestreams

We strive to use as locally and sustainably produced ingredients as possible, always going for quality, safety and efficacy of our products. We use use time and effort on sustainable sourcing. In our formulations, we use a few ingredients that are actually sidestreams from other industries, such as poppy seed oil and raspberry seed oil, making them great choices also from a sustainability angle.

Ingredients: Preservatives in skincare

It’s debatable whether or not Benjamin Franklin really said that wine makes us wise, but it is a fact that germs really require just one thing to grow, and that's water. So, any cosmetic product containing water usually needs an appropriate preservation system in order to be stable and safe to use. Still, preservatives in cosmetics sometime get an unjustly bad rap. Read on for our chemist Jaana breakdown on preservatives in skincare.

Ingredients: Raspberry seed oil

Rubus Idaeus seed oil, i.e raspberry seed oil, is a popular natural oil used in skincare and one of the four oils in our Face Oil for sensitive and problem skin. One of its key benefits in skincare is its ability to soothe skin. Raspberry seed oil is obtained by pressing raspberry seeds and is not to be confused with the raspberry essential oil used in aromatherapy.