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That was our goal: to repair the skin’s natural barrier before we apply our moisturizer.
Eighteen B just launched our third product, Firm + Replenish Serum. We asked Lindsay Wray, our Chief Science Officer, for her inspiration behind the formulation. Hint: It goes back to protecting skin’s natural barrier.
Why did we decide to make a serum? The story goes back to the basics – protecting your skin’s natural barrier function.
Here’s something you already know: your skin is a barrier between you and the world. For your skin to look and feel healthy, that barrier needs to stay healthy. However, many of the products we currently use, especially alkaline cleansers, are quite harsh and can break down the natural skin barrier. This can lead to sensitive skin, psoriasis, acne, and more.
The concept of protecting the skin barrier may sound new – the New York Times just called “barrier protection” a beauty buzzword – but the skin barrier is far from a fad. Focusing on the skin barrier has been a long time coming. It’s why we created b-silk™ protein.
B-silk™ protein, our proprietary ingredient, is a dual-action, lightweight barrier that replenishes your skin’s vital barrier function. It leaves your skin soft and smooth while visibly firming, lifting, and increasing overall radiance. (Read more about b-silk™ protein here.)
We launched Eighteen B with two products: Revitalizing Hydrogel Moisturizer and Hydrate + Restore Rich Cream. Both moisturizers were designed to hydrate the skin and support the barrier function. However, we knew there was a first step that would allow the skin to reap more benefits from our b-silk™ protein. We could replenish our skin’s natural barrier before adding our hydrating ingredients.
In our research, it became clear that one of the most disruptive things we do to our skin’s natural barrier is to cleanse and exfoliate. Cleansing is essential to healthy skin, of course, but it’s important to replenish those healthy ingredients you just stripped away. What could instantly replenish that barrier? You guessed it: a serum.
When we were developing our Firm + Replenish Serum, the serums I saw on the market delivered a potent dose of great ingredients, like Vitamin C and Vitamin A. However, none of these serums worked to replenish our Natural Moisturizing Factor and essential Lipids, which our skin loses during cleansing.
The Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF) is a cocktail of Amino Acids, PCA, Hyaluronic Acid, and more that the skin naturally creates to keep the stratum corneum and epidermis hydrated. Our Serum features a potent dose of NMF so your skin doesn’t need to work so hard to replenish NMF on its own. That means the skin is in a better state to function normally, and isn’t using up precious biological resources to maintain a healthy state. B-silk™ protein works to lock in these ingredients so they can do their replenishing work. That was our goal: to repair the skin’s natural barrier before we apply our moisturizer.
As Dr. Shari Marchbein said in the New York Times story, “If you frost a dry cake, the cake is still dry. If you frost a moist cake, it stays moist.” We completely agree. We’ve always felt our moisturizers were icing on the cake.
Do you have questions for Lindsay? Comments? Topics you want us to cover? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at thelab@eighteenb.com.
