They're not just a collection of buzzwords. Our products have been designed piece by piece by our founder, Melissa Picoli-Philips, with significant benefits to your skin. You may have noticed the ingredient posts on our blog, and learned a thing or two about the individual elements that make our potions great. A question that comes up again and again, though, is that of general function: how, exactly, does a "serum" or "lotion" work on your skin?
First, you have to consider skin as an organ. Despite being the largest organ on the body, the skin is rarely considered from an anatomical standpoint.
The top layer of skin, or epidermis, is protected by a lipid layer created by sebum, the oil that is produced in the dermis layer below. When people think of oil on skin, they might picture the greasy days of adolescence, but the truth is that sebum is vital to skin health. This layer is constantly assaulted by harsh cleaners, pollution, and other disrupting factors that rob the skin of moisture.
It's important to remember that moisture is literally water. When our skin dries out, it means that water is coming to the surface and evaporating--even when you're not sweating.
The skin's natural sebum barrier is one way your skin retains its moisture. When you strip that off, whether it's with a detergent-filled cleanser or the bar soap that was the only thing in the hotel room, it causes your skin to lose moisture.
Once this balance is disrupted, your skin overworks to correct it. This results in many of the skin issues we see today.
Our serum was developed with a specific purpose in mind: to encourage your skin to repair itself while simultaneously protecting it. We call it an "AM" product because it works best during the day, when your skin is barraged with environmental mishaps. In the span of a few hours this morning, I experienced very dry warm air at home, moist cold air outdoors, engine coolant from the leaky heater core in my car, blowing heater air at work, city pollution from outdoors, and a number of cleaners. When I apply serum, the rice bran oil smoothes over the epidermis with its high content of squalene (a lipid also found in sebum) and helps replace what I have lost so my skin can rest and regenerate. It does this by filling in the spaces between cells where sebum existed naturally before I washed it off.
We love and encourage you to apply our lotion all day, but we recommend a night focus for two reasons. First, it was developed to be a collagen-stimulating, cell-turnover-inducing, wrinkle-repairing powerhouse. Humectants like hyaluronic acid and organic honey pull water from deeper inside your system to the skin's surface. The lotion does this no matter what time of day you put it on, but if you apply it at night, just before you rest, your skin can more easily realize its benefits. Second, it provides an aromatherapeutic and mentally relaxing experience. Our scent wasn't picked by accident, and we appreciate it for its more-than-surface power. We also recommend its use during massages and other spa services.
When you use our products, you can be confident that you're getting a formula that is well-thought-out, tested, and proven. We call ourselves "data-driven" because we relentlessly pursue the information necessary to get to the bottom of every single molecule in our products. Body care is an industry that wields tremendous clout, both physically and socially. It's important that when you choose to apply a product to your body, you know exactly what each ingredient is doing to help you.
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