Calming Serum

Solvent. Water. The main vehicle for our Calming Serum.

Humectant. Rhamnose is a plant-based sugar with hydrating, anti-inflammatory, skin soothing and skin rejuvenating properties. We get ours directly from our lab-neighbour Juho.

Solvent and humectant. Apart from being an excellent, non-irritating solvent, the glycol propanediol has excellent hydrating and preservative boosting properties. The one we use is made from fermentation of glucose, from corn.

Humectant and skin protecting. Technically a sugar alcohol, glycerin is one of the oldest, most common and most versatile humectants used in cosmetics. It moisturises and protects the skin, accelerates skin barrier recovery and has antimicrobial properties, among other things. We use the vegetable, organic kind, made from rapeseed, corn and soy.

Anti-oxidant and skin-conditioning. Madecassoside is a highly purified glycosylated triterpen of the Centella Asiatica or Gotu Kola plant, also known as tiger grass, which has a long history of use in Eastern medicine. It has skin soothing, anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties, reduces redness and flaking, and increases skin hydration. The madecassoside we use is sustainably (UEBT/Nagoya Protocol) wild-harvested on Madagascar and processed in France. Our Calming Serum contains 1.5% madecassoside.

Skin conditioning. Ectoin is a powerful, small, multi-tasking and natural stress-protection molecule, a so-called extremolyte. From a chemical point of view, it is a cyclic amino acid derivate. Extremolytes protect extremophilic microorganisms and plants from the extreme conditions of their habitats like salt lakes, hot springs, permanent ice or deserts. The properties of ectoin have been proven by various in-vivo studies: its benefits include long-term moisturisation, diminished skin roughness, skin barrier repair and anti-inflammatory and anti-irritant properties. We get ours from a lovely little company in Germany, where it is produced through biotechnological fermentation from a specific, non-GMO strain of the halophilic bacteria Halomonas elongata.

Skin conditioning and preservative. Sodium levulinate is the sodium salt of levulinic acid, which is an organic acid derived from in this case sugarcane.

Thickening, gel forming and stabilising. A natural and commonly used mainly thickener and gelling agent in cosmetics, xanthan gum is a polysaccharide produced through bacterial fermentation of pure culture Xanthomonas Campestris with protein and carbohydrate sources, in this case from soy or corn. Together with acacia senegal gum, it makes up the gel base for our Calming Serum.

Film forming. Also known as gum arabic, acacia gum is a natural gum consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the acacia tree. In cosmetics, acacia gum is used for it's ability to create less stringy, or slimy and sticky, gels. The acacia gum we use is ethically and sustainably handpicked in Africa, and is a 100% renewable raw material.

Antimicrobial, flavouring agent and preservative. The salt form of star anis derived organic acid. Together with sodium levulinate makes up the Calming Serums' preservation system.

Buffering agent. Citric acid is a commonly used buffering, i.e. pH adjusting, agent in cosmetics. The appropriate pH is vital for a product's preservative system to work, but also to guarantee its skin-friendliness. Citric acid is made through bacterial fermentation and shifts the pH of the product into the acidic range. This is closer to the natural pH of the skin, which may range from 4 to 7, but is usually thought to be between 5 and 6, with recent studies, however, indicating it to be below 5.