Scary-Sounding Skincare Ingredients That Are Surprisingly Good For Your Skin
Nature provides us with some of the most effective skincare ingredients around, but oftentimes complicated-sounding ingredients are just as good (if not better) for your skin. As long as you choose the correct ones, of course…
We pride ourselves on harnessing the power of nature’s finest ingredients as much as possible – using plant-based actives, wildcrafted extracts and essential oils across all of our skincare formulations.
However, not everything in nature is always good for your skin (cough, poison oak). Some ingredients like peppermint and lemon oils can be terribly harsh when applied to your skin and may cause redness, itching and dryness – especially if it errs on the sensitive side. So, don’t be fooled, nature is awesome, for sure, but not everything in nature is awesome for your skin.
In the exact same way, not all synthetic ingredients are bad. We’re proud to say our products avoid all the big nasties, such as parabens, sulfates, and phthalates, but we’re not 100 percent natural because we believe the best kind of skincare comes from a clever combination of both nature and science.
On that note, here are five ingredients that sound pretty scary… but really aren't. How do we know? Because we use them across many of our formulations and we’d never knowingly put anything into our products that could harm your skin. You're welcome.
1. Cetyl & Stearyl Alcohol
Some skincare brands would have you believe that all alcohol in skincare is bad. Not so. For starters, there are a gazillion different types of alcohol and not all of them sting or dry out your skin. Low-molecular-weight alcohols like denatured alcohol (alcohol denat) are the ones to be aware of. Alcohol denat functions as a solvent and is largely used to improve texture and encourage other ingredients in a product to be better absorbed by your skin. Basically, it makes a product feel nice. However, its naughty side far outweighs its nice side. Alcohol denat is extremely irritating and unbalancing because it draws out your natural oils, causing excessive dryness for many people, but also making oily skin even oilier as it tries to overcompensate for what’s been stripped away.
Best avoided.
On the flipside, high-molecular-weight alcohols like cetyl and stearyl alcohols are actually very skin-friendly. Also known as fatty alcohols, these are added to many skincare formulations to stop oil-and-water from separating. By stabilizing oil and water they give products a much smoother texture which allows them to glide over your skin way better.
Unlike alcohol denat which has the opposite effect, fatty alcohols help keep your skin moisturized because they have emollient properties which fill in cracks on the surface of your skin. They also leave a light oily seal to soften your skin, reduce irritation and decrease transepidermal water loss (TEWL).
We believe in cetyl alcohol so much, it's blended into all three of our Retinol and Vitamin C moisturizers.
2. Xanthan Gum
Xanthan gum doesn’t sound much fun at all, but this polysaccharide not only has zero negative effects on the skin, but it might actually be quite good for it.
Often derived from corn, soy, wheat or dairy, xanthan gum is a naturally derived ingredient that’s frequently used as a thickener or binding agent in kitchen ingredients such as sauces, salad dressings and almond milk. When it comes to your skincare products xanthan gum is used for similar reasons – to bind ingredients together – but it also helps products glide over your skin more easily and effectively.
Full disclosure: xanthan gum definitely benefits the texture and feel of your product more than your skin itself, but due to it being derived from sugar, many experts believe it to have hydrating properties when applied topically. We’ll take that. Find it in Niacinamide Facial Serum among others.
3. Methylsulfonylmethane
Methane? On your skin? No. Way. Actually, stop right there because methylsulfonylmethane is downright awesome as a skincare ingredient. Known as MSM to friends (that includes you) this organic sulfur compound works hard to neutralize free radical damage caused by things like pollution, the sun and cigarette smoke. It does this by boosting your natural levels of glutathione, one of your body’s most important, naturally-occurring antioxidants.
MSM also has plenty of other things going for it. It’s anti-inflammatory so helps reduce inflammation caused by the usual suspects of stress, no sleep and a diet packed with sugar and carbs. Oh, and it’s also been proven to help strengthen and promote collagen production to visibly reduce the appearance of lines, wrinkles, dark spots and sagging skin. Definitely a keeper.
You’ll find MSM in plenty of your TruSkin favorites, including Vitamin C Brightening Cleanser and our awesome Hyaluronic Acid Eye Cream.
4. Palmitates
Sure, ethyhexyl, cetyl and isopopropyl palmitates are tricky to spell and a bit of a mouthful, but we’re big fans.
Produced from a naturally occurring fatty acid called palmitic acid, palmitates are similar to fatty alcohols in that they come under the umbrella of emollients. Emollients are types of ingredients (whether natural or synthetic) that soften and moisturize dry skin by filling in and repairing cracks on the surface. This not only helps up your levels of lipids to reduce dryness and flaking, but it also works hard to prevent water loss and keep your skin healthy, hydrated and free from irritation. Check out our awesome moisturizers to get your fill of super effective palmitates.
5. Phenoxyethanol
Finally, we have phenoxyethanol. This synthetic preservative has received a lot of bad press over the years, but it’s backed by decades of clinical research and is used in extremely small concentrations (no more than 1 percent) in skincare to prevent products from spoiling or losing efficacy. Compared to many other preservatives, phenoxyethanol is way less likely to sensitize your skin or cause any kind of allergic reaction and is much more favorable to parabens.
One particular study also points to phenoxyethanol offering potential benefits to acne-prone skin, possibly improving pimples and reducing inflammation. But the jury’s still out on that one. In the meantime, think of it as an essential and safe way for you to maximize your skincare products, helping them last longer and maintain their potency to give you the best results.
We use phenoxyethanol in most of our active serums, including Tea Tree Super Serum +.
To conclude, all we can say is don't be afraid of complicated-sounding ingredients on your skincare labels; some of them are awesome for your skin. Just do your research, because others definitely have the potential to be as scary as they sound. For a list of some of the most harmful ingredients to avoid, check out our toxic skincare round-up, here.
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![The Most Effective Ingredients For Sagging Skin]()
One wish: to enjoy the tight, gravity-defying skin of 20 years ago. Sadly, it’s not going to happen, so the next best thing? Skincare ingredients that boost collagen and help your skin appear subtly firmer and just a tad more lifted.
Let’s get one thing straight: skincare cannot perform miracles. We’d love to be able to tell you that our new Caffeine Facial Serum can give you the skin of someone 30 years your junior or that our Vitamin C Gentle Face Scrub will eradicate every single one of your much-loathed dark spots after just one use. But we’d be lying. Skincare is awesome, absolutely. And yes, it can 100 percent help to subtly improve the appearance of acne breakouts, wrinkles and aging skin. But it has its limits. And knowing that your favorite moisturizer or prized facial serum can only do so much is crucial. Otherwise, you will always be disappointed. And that’s not what we want for you.
OK, so now this bombshell is out of the way and you understand that skincare ingredients aren’t going to give you an instant facelift or smooth out your laughter lines like fillers or Botox, here’s what they can do.
Choose the right formulation, crafted with thoughtful, clinically-proven ingredients, and skincare can very much improve the look, feel and health of your skin. And if you’ve ever woken up after trying a new serum for the first time, only to be greeted in the mirror by visibly brighter skin, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.
So, which ingredients should you pin your hopes on if you’re specifically looking to lift and firm sagging skin? Well, skin starts to go south because of dwindling collagen supplies so boosting collagen production is your first and best bet. Bearing in mind everything we’ve just said about managing expectations, therefore, here are five topical favorites we believe are the most effective for encouraging healthy collagen and helping you on the road to firmer, more toned skin.
1. Peptides
Without blinding you with science, peptides are chemical compounds made from amino acids. They’re very similar to proteins, but where proteins are large molecules made up of long chains of amino acids, peptides are their baby cousins, containing much shorter chains. Why is this of interest? Because due to their similarity, peptides have the smart ability of being able to penetrate the skin where they work like little messengers, signaling for your cells to produce more proteins. And which protein is most abundant in your skin? Yes, you got it, collagen.
In simple terms, applying topical peptides encourages your cells to keep on producing collagen (and elastin, for that matter), thus helping to counteract the skin’s inevitable loss of this vital protein and staving off all that comes with it – namely wrinkles, lines and sagging skin.
Try: Firming Collagen Day Lotion which contains vegan collagen peptides, amongst other skincare powerhouses like ceramides, green algae, vitamin E and aloe.
2. Retinol
When it comes to boosting your skin’s supply of healthy collagen very few topical ingredients trump retinol. Ask your derm or any skincare expert and we bet 1,000 bucks they will agree. So, what makes it so darn good? Well, it’s been studied for decades and it never fails to deliver the same skin-regenerating results. You see, retinol has an innate ability to communicate with your skin at a deep cellular level to encourage a speedier production of collagen and elastin in a bid to heal and strengthen your skin. Simple as. Well, it’s not that simple, but that’s all you really need to know.
Of course, retinol isn’t for everyone – it’s so good, it can be a tad irritating for some skin types – but if you used it slowly and carefully, always patch testing it first, you’ll find it can be a fantastic way to help keep your skin firm and youthful-looking for years to come.
Try: Retinol Facial Serum which has been formulated with hyaluronic acid and vitamin E, helping it to be as gentle on your skin as possible.
3. Bakuchiol
If retinol isn’t for you but you’re looking for something that does almost the exact same thing and offers very similar results, allow us to introduce you to bakuchiol.
One of the newest ingredients to the skincare world (but an absolute keeper unlike other ridiculous ingredients that are all fluff and no function), bakuchiol is nature’s best alternative to retinol. How so? Because it works just like its long-running counterpart, stimulating collagen synthesis and accelerating cellular turnover at a deep, below-the-surface level.
Bakuchiol is extracted from the seeds and leaves of the babchi plant and has been used for centuries in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. The reason it’s gained such momentum in Western skincare recently is that, granted, it's very similar to retinol, but more importantly it comes with way fewer unwanted side effects. Of course, its gentle nature means it works more slowly but if you sensitive skin and have patience, bakuchiol is a great choice for fighting the visible signs of aging –including sagging skin but certainly not stopping there!
Try: Rejuvenating Longevity Serum which combines bakuchiol with antioxidant-rich lingonberry stem cells and snow algae.
4. Vitamin C
If you don’t know by now how awesome vitamin C is then we’ve been doing something wrong! In our minds, this antioxidant wonder kid can do no wrong.
Like retinol, vitamin C is one of the most trusted and clinically-proven ingredients in the entire world of skincare. It’s known mainly for providing brightening benefits but never forget what an excellent antioxidant it is, offering the absolute best in environmental protection by neutralizing free radicals before they get a chance to destroy collagen – and believe us, that is exactly what free radicals will do if you don’t get in there first.
But it's not just vitamin C's antioxidant prowess that’s crucial for preventing collagen and elastin breakdown. Its highly acidic nature also works hard to boost your collagen and elastin levels. So there’s that.
Try: Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream which gives your skin a delicious overnight boost of protective vitamin C, along with skin-loving botanical oils like jojoba, rosehip and evening primrose.
5. MSM
Sure, we’re all about vitamin C for president here at TruSkin, but another of our skin-firming favorites comes in the form of methylsulfonylmethane, or MSM to friends like you.
Very well tolerated by even the most sensitive of skin types, MSM is a naturally-occurring form of sulfur. And if you didn’t know, sulfur is one of the most important elements in the human body, often touted as the ‘beauty’ or ‘healing’ mineral.
What does that mean for sagging skin? Yeah, we’re getting to that. And the answer is simple: MSM plays a key role in the production and composition of collagen and keratin. Its anti-inflammatory qualities also help decrease damage to the skin caused by lifestyle aggressors like stress, lack of sleep and a sugar or carb-heavy diet. Oh, and as an extra sidenote, MSM also boosts the body’s production of glutathione which is one of your most important, naturally-occurring antioxidants. Take that free radicals!
Try: Vitamin C Super Serum+ which partners MSM with its bestie, vitamin C. Why do they love each other so? Because vitamin C helps the skin readily absorb MSM, thus doubling up their combined collagen-boosting effects.
The Most Effective Ingredients For Sagging Skin
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