Thinkderma 1% Encapsulated Resveratrol & 7.5% Vitamin C Face Serum
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PLUM Thinkderma 1% Encapsulated Resveratrol & 7.5% Vitamin C Face SerumIngredients explained
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
A very stable and promising form of the skincare superstar, Vitamin C. If you do not know why Vitamin C is such a big deal in skin care, you can catch up here. In short, Vitamin C has three proven magic abilities: antioxidant, collagen booster, and skin brightener. The problem, though, is that it's very unstable, turns brown and becomes ineffective in no time (after a few month) and the cosmetics industry is trying to come up with smart derivatives that are stable and have the magic properties of pure Vitamin C.
Ethyl Ascorbic Acid or EAC for short is an "etherified derivative of ascorbic acid" that consists of vitamin C and an ethyl group bound to the third carbon position. This makes Vitamin C very stable and soluble in both water and oil.
However, for a Vitamin C derivative to work it's not enough just to be stable, they also have to be absorbed into the skin and be converted there to pure Vitamin C. We have good news regarding the absorption: on top of manufacturer claims, there is some data (animal study) demonstrating in can get into the skin, and it seems to be better at it than Ascorbyl Glucoside, another vitamin C derivative.
Regarding conversion, we can cite only a manufacturers claim saying that EAC is metabolized in the skin into pure ascorbic acid (and the ascorbic acid content of EAC is very high - 86,4% - compared to the usual 50-60% Vitamin C content of other derivatives).
As for the three magic abilities of Vitamin C, we again mostly have only the manufacturer's claims, but at least those are very promising. EAC seems to have both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, and it's claimed to be able to boost the skin's collagen production. The strong point of EAC though is skin brightening. On top of manufacturer claims, there is also clinical in-vivo (tested on real people) data showing that 2% EAC can improve skin tone and whiten the skin.
Overall, Ethyl Ascorbic Acid is a very promising but not a fully proven Vitamin C derivative. It's worth a try, especially if you are after Vitamin C's skin-brightening effects.
A sugar beet-derived amino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Betaine's special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance. It is also a natural osmoprotectant, meaning that it attracts water away from the protein surface and thus protects them from denaturation and increases their thermodynamic stability.
It also gives sensorial benefits to the formula and when used in cleansers, it helps to make them milder and gentler.
Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product.
BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin.
It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.
A low molecular weight dry, silky emollient ester that gives a light and non-greasy feel to the formulas. It's great at reducing the oily or heavy feeling caused by certain ingredients such as sunscreen agents or pigments. It also gives improved emolliency, spreadability and a smooth, elegant feel on the skin.
A nice odorless liquid used mainly as a superior solubilizer and efficacy booster for cosmetic active ingredients such as skincare bigshot vitamin C, self-tanning active DHA or the anti-acne gold standard, benzoyl peroxide.
Other than that it can also be used in hair care products where it gives a longer-lasting and more uniform coloring. According to a manufacturer, it might even prevent the formation of split ends.
A little helper ingredient that is used to adjust the pH of the product. It also helps to keep products stay nice longer by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (they usually come from water).
Diheptyl Succinate is a natural, "silicone-alternative" emollient that usually comes to the formula with Capryloyl Glycerin/Sebacic Acid Copolymer. The two together is trade-named LexFeel N and depending on their ratio, the duo can mimic both super light, Cyclomethicone-type skin feel as well as more viscous Dimethicone like skin feel.
The duo also plays well with pure natural oils, and it can reduce their greasiness and tackiness and make them feel nicer on the skin. LexFeel N is also very eco-friendly, 100% natural (Ecocert approved), sustainable and biodegradable.
The friend of Diheptyl Succinate as the duo is usually used together and is touted as a natural silicone alternative. Read more there >>
Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA.
So citric acid is an exfoliant, that can - just like other AHAs - gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it more smooth and fresh.
There is also some research showing that citric acid with regular use (think three months and 20% concentration) can help sun-damaged skin, increase skin thickness and some nice hydrating things called glycosaminoglycans in the skin.
But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. Probably that’s why citric acid is usually not used as an exfoliant but more as a helper ingredient in small amounts to adjust the pH of a formulation.
A type of bucket or donut-shaped molecule with a water-loving outer side and an oil-loving inner side that is used mostly to encapsulate other actives in cosmetics.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
If you are looking for a reason why red wine is good for you, good news, you have found it! Resveratrol, aka the "red grape antioxidant" is the thing that's suspected to keep the French from coronary heart disease despite their not so healthy eating habits (such as high saturated fat intake).
So resveratrol, found in the seed and skin of the red grape (and berries), is a pretty well-known and well-studied molecule that has potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticarcinogenic abilities. Most of the studies were done examining resveratrol's promising anti-cancer properties, but as for skin care, it shows a potent protective effect against UV-caused oxidative stress as well as promising effects against multiple types of skin cancer including the most severe one, melanoma (as an adjuvant therapy).
When it comes to skincare and antioxidants, "the more the merrier", so resveratrol is definitely a nice addition to any skincare routine.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
This ingredient name is not according to the INCI-standard. :( What, why?!
It's not a standard INCI name, but rather a sloppy one. Several kinds of grape extracts are used in cosmetic products, the most well-known is the seed extract, but fruit extract or juice extract also exists.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
If you have spotted ethylhexylglycerin on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. They are good friends because ethylhexylglycerin can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
Also, it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreading emollient.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
It's one of the most commonly used thickeners and emulsion stabilizers. If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like. Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-called rheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range.
Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules (glucose and sucrose) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry (E415).
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Super common little helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
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| what‑it‑does | solvent |
| what‑it‑does | antioxidant | skin brightening |
| what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
| what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| what‑it‑does | solvent | moisturizer/humectant | perfuming |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | chelating | buffering |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| what‑it‑does | buffering |
| what‑it‑does | chelating |
| what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
| what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
| what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
| what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | chelating |