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.
You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell by its name, but the glycine soja seed extract in our Hydrating Face Mask and Renewing Serum is the ingredient emulsifiying the bejesus out of our babies.
The extract is a lysophospholipid, which is a small bioactive lipid molecule characterised by a carbon chain and a polar head group. If that doesn’t get your juices flowing, focus on this: while the (non-GMO) soybean extract acts as a powerful and super-stable emulsifier (emulsifying an impressive oil phase up to 40% ), it also hydrates skin, has anti-inflammatory properties, strengthens the skin barrier and decreases TEWL (trans-epidermal water-loss), and repairs skin – lysophospholipids have been shown to stimulate fibroblasts, increasing collagen and elastin production. Hello, smoother looking skin. To boot, the extract also helps actives penetrate (sorry) better. Finally, it lends a lovely silky feel to the Mask, and gives it great play time (sorry again), which is industry jargon for how long and well a product spreads.
Oh, and it does all of this while being extremely mild and non-irritating, making it suitable for delicate and sensitive skin.
