HOW TO GET 57 ACTIVE INGREDIENTS INTO A SERUM

Written by LENA RAFF
Photography by GRANT LEGAN

Skin care products typically contain a laundry list of ingredients, and while they all have a significant role to play, not every one of them is actually responsible for creating change in the skin—that duty falls to the active ingredients. Take, for example, a “vitamin C serum," it’s so-called because vitamin C is doing the heavy lifting of firming, evening tone, and defending against environmental damage. Other ingredients support this action, but vitamin C is the star of the show.

On today’s market, many formulations center around either a single hero active, or a small handful of the targeted ingredients. With an astounding 57 actives, Sweet Chemistry’s Barrier-Repairing Hydra Serum is a different story. The brand didn’t set out to pack as many skin-changers as possible into their most-loved product—rather, the soothing, restorative formula emerged as the organic result of their skin care philosophy. Co-founder Alec Batis explains, “My collaborator, Dr. John O’Neill’s company, Xylyx Bio (spun out of Columbia University’s Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering), has spent over a decade developing extracellular matrix–derived materials for organ repair research—work funded by the NIH and used by pharmaceutical and academic labs. Hydra-Serum came out of questions we kept circling back to: What would a serum look like if it were built the way a tissue engineer thinks about supporting cellular environments? What does skin actually need to function as a coherent system, and at what concentrations?” The answer turned out to be: a lot more than the industry norm.

For those of us who aren’t scientists, the simplest way to think about the resulting ultra-hydrating product is not as a serum, but as a skin ecosystem built in three parts: First, a barrier layer that replenishes natural lipids (like ceramides) in ratios skin actually recognizes. Next, a hydration system that delivers moisture at multiple depths using different forms of hyaluronic acid, plus the naturally occurring building blocks of skin hydration. And finally, an antioxidant network that functions like it does in nature—multiple ingredients working together to protect and bolster each other.

Each of these three tiers is made up of a complex blend of active ingredients, and as you might imagine, combining all 57 of them without destabilizing the formula or sensitizing the skin—let alone creating the texturally elegant and effective formula we know and love—is no small feat. Sweet Chemistry employed another multi-pronged approach to achieve this goal, starting with properly sequencing the order in which ingredients are combined. Batis explains, "Copper peptides can be reactive with antioxidants like Alpha Lipoic Acid. So, the sequencing has to keep them separated chemically until the formula is stabilized along with order-of-addition sequencing.”

Specialized encapsulation and protected delivery systems also work to protect ingredients that need to be isolated until the moment of application—and the formula is engineered to sit in a pH window where the largest number of actives can function, to account for ingredients that have different optimal pH levels.

Then there’s the packaging, which was chosen as part of the formulation, not afterwards. The Hydra-Serum is filled into a DEA dark amber-glass, airless bottle with UV coating. “To our knowledge,” says Batis, “We're the only brand in the US currently using this specific component. That decision wasn't aesthetic. The serum is built at a lower water concentration than a conventional emulsion—which is part of how we're able to load 58 actives at functional levels—but a formula like that would not be stable in a jar exposed to air, or even in a standard pump where headspace and light exposure compromise the actives over the life of the product. The dark amber glass blocks UV, the airless mechanism eliminates oxygen contact and headspace, and the glass—rather than plastic—eliminates the migration and permeability concerns.”

The resulting product is one that cares for skin in a truly comprehensive way, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, repairing and reversing the damage, and delivering intense hydration that’s appropriate for even oily and acne-prone complexions. As for those 57 actives, we’ve listed them below for your perusing pleasure.

ACTIVES BY FUNCTIONAL FAMILY

Matrikynes® and Peptides
Matrikynes® (Hydrolyzed Cow Bone Extract), Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-52, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-50, Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate, Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-18, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, Copper Lysinate/Prolinate.

Peptide Delivery System
Lactic Acid/Glycolic Acid Copolymer (PLGA).

Barrier and Skin-Identical Lipids
CCeramide NP, Ceramide AP, Phytosphingosine, Cholesterol, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid.

Vitamin C and Enzymatic Antioxidants
Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Ubiquinone (CoQ10), Thioctic Acid (Alpha-Lipoic Acid).

Botanical Antioxidants
Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Vaccinium Macrocarpon (Cranberry) Fruit Extract, Vaccinium Myrtillus (Blueberry) Fruit Extract, Rubus Fruticosus (Blackberry) Fruit Extract, Rubus Idaeus (Raspberry) Fruit Extract, Sambucus Nigra (Elderberry) Fruit Extract, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Euterpe Oleracea (Acai) Fruit Extract, Emblica Officinalis (Amla) Fruit Extract, Rosa Rubiginosa (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Resveratrol.

Hyaluronic Acid System
Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate.

Skin-Restoring and NMF Actives
Glycerin (certified organic), Niacinamide, Beta-Glucan, Panthenol, Colloidal Oatmeal, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Sodium PCA, Sodium Lactate, PCA, Allantoin, Bisabolol, Methylglucoside Phosphate, Saccharina Latissima (Seaweed Glycan).

Amino Acids
Arginine, Aspartic Acid, Glycine, Alanine, Serine, Valine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Threonine.