Our ingredients

How we select ingredients for our IN-ON-UNDER approach:

Healthy skin comes from a healthy body and mind. Our food supplements provide the necessary support to balance and boost overall health, which then improves skin health. Our skincare products enhance the integrity of the skin barrier and promote the longevity of healthy skin cells beneath its surface through antioxidants.

The most important factor in choosing food supplements is their bioavailability, in other words, their ability to be absorbed by the body. The absorption rate of micronutrients is much more effective if they are taken with supporting molecules. For example, the vitamin C in Acne & Stress makes up 25% of Acerola cherry, which also contains bioflavonoids to aid its absorption. The absorption rate of synthetic ascorbic acid is estimated at 20%, compared to nearly 100% for our food-grade vitamin C.

For skincare products to be effective, they must first cross the skin barrier. Here's a quick explanation of how skin works, followed by how our ingredients bypass this barrier.

The Skin Barrier and Ingredients

The epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, plays a vital role in our body, that of defense and protection. To simplify, let's consider the defense as "bricks and mortar." It is actually several layers of flattened skin cells (the bricks) "glued" together by intercellular lipids (the mortar). Together, they fight against elements trying to penetrate, some of which are bad (like pollutants, allergens) and others good (nourishing ingredients). In this same gatekeeper role, they also try to prevent skin moisture from escaping. This is why the integrity of the skin barrier is paramount to skin health.

 

Since the "mortar" is lipid-based, the skin naturally absorbs oil-based ingredients better than water-based ones. For example, vitamin C is a water-based ingredient, and its effectiveness therefore depends on a high dosage and/or a very low pH, two factors that can be irritating to the skin.

 

At Skin Diligent, ingredient selection must meet the following 4 criteria:

 

1. Skin Diligent's 10 Pillars:

Improve skin appearance, improve skin health, provide cellular protection, respect the microbiome and skin pH, never irritate, never sensitize, no endocrine disruptors, no photosensitivity, no side effects, and natural. In other words, all our ingredients respect the health of the skin barrier, its microbiome, and skin cells.

2. Ethical and Sustainable Botanical Ingredients:

Our rare but proven botanical ingredients come directly from agricultural cooperatives that practice Pierre Rabhi's agro-ecological philosophy. This is the case with our Lannea microcarpa, rich in anthocyanins and a protector against lipid peroxidation. In Cameroon, we work with hunter-gatherers who collect Ceasalpinia sappan, a powerful repairer and cellular protector. At the mouth of the Amazon, we work with an ethnobotanist to collect Protium heptaphyllum, a powerful anti-inflammatory that provides rapid soothing. To learn more about our ethical and sustainable credentials, click here.

We also work with local ingredient laboratories that recycle molecules from the agri-food industry in France.

 

3. Efficacy:

At Skin Diligent, our preferred vector for efficacy is the intelligence of delivery systems that help active ingredients reach skin cells. This way, irritation, damage, or sensitization of the skin are not possible. In our acne skin kit, the high-tech delivery system is a modified bentonite clay. A humble but powerful product. This clay resembles the bricks and mortar of our skin, with lamellar bentonite sheets resembling flattened skin cells and active ingredients sliding around the sheets resembling mortar.

Once applied to the skin, bentonite forms an invisible, breathable film on the skin. This is our "second skin" technology. It absorbs oxidized sebum produced by the skin and replaces it with active ingredients released throughout the day. The second skin protects the skin and any breakouts from dirt and pollution. You can find this technology in our Multilayer Serum and Regulating Moisturizer.

 

Another advanced system we use is a lysate that acts as a quorum sensor. A molecule extracted from Noni, 100% natural and cultivated in a biotech laboratory, has the ability to control the population of certain bacteria on the skin without decimating them.

We also use encapsulation methods to protect fragile ingredients like the pioneering fermented probiotic strain. Our formulas also contain very rare technical ingredients like lipid-based vitamin C, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate. This is an oil-based vitamin C that is easily recognized by the skin and works with the skin's natural pH. It is photoprotective and non-irritating to the skin.

4. The NO-list

We have chosen not to use the popular preservative ingredient phenoxyethanol, which has single-handedly replaced parabens since several of their forms were banned. Phenoxyethanol is found in everything from shampoos to serums, body creams, etc. At Skin Diligent, we have developed a unique alternative natural preservation system instead of adopting the industry standard. Our products are:

Phenoxyethanol and paraben-free
Sulfate-free
Silicone, dimethicone, and other petroleum-based ingredient-free
Denatured alcohol-free
Benzoyl peroxide-free
Retinoid-free

As a user of Skin Diligent products, even if you are not interested in all the technical details of our ingredients, you can count on us to bring you the best of our knowledge.