The Science
The science of how we age, and how skin responds.
We began as a laboratory in 2016, not a brand. This page explains the research behind our formulas.
Where we start
Epigenetics is the science of how we age.
Your genes are the instructions. Epigenetics is what decides which instructions are read, and when. It is the layer where biology, environment, and time meet.
It is why two people the same age can have very different skin. Much of that difference is written over years, by everything skin is exposed to. And unlike your genes, it can respond to the choices you make.
The cocktail effect
Chemicals behave differently together than alone.
Some chemicals used in cosmetics can interfere with the body's hormone signals. They are called endocrine disruptors, and their effects are well documented by leading scientific bodies.
Here is the part most testing misses. Chemicals that look harmless one at a time can behave differently once they sit together in a finished formula. Researchers call this the cocktail effect, and it is why testing single ingredients is not enough.
So we test the whole finished formula. Every one we make is tested, using living cells, and confirmed free of estrogenic and androgenic endocrine disruption. We have done this on every formula since 2021.
Tested free of estrogenic and androgenic endocrine disruption
Sources: the Endocrine Society's second scientific statement on endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and Kortenkamp's review of combination effects. Full references below.
Our complex
The CEL™ Complex, patent pending.
Most anti-aging skincare tries to send skin a stronger signal. We think the harder problem is reception. As cells age, they become less able to read and act on the signals they receive. The CEL™ Complex is designed to support the cellular environment in which those signals are read. It is a complex of plant-derived exosomes, peptides, and bioactive ingredients. In our laboratory, it has been studied for the following activity.
The Cellular Science Behind CEL™
It is designed to work in pulses rather than constantly, which is how the body's own regulation tends to work. SIRT1, a protein in the sirtuin family linked to cellular longevity, sits in this pathway.
Autophagy is how a cell identifies, breaks down, and recycles damaged material. Its efficiency falls with age. The complex is studied for its ability to help activate it.
Skin cells take on damage every day. The complex is studied for support of the cell's natural repair processes. To be clear, it does not alter DNA.
In laboratory testing, the complex was associated with a reduction in reactive oxygen species, one of the measurable signs of cellular stress.
Inside the laboratory
What the testing measured.
We commissioned an external laboratory specializing in anatomical pathology to test the CEL™ Complex on real human skin, ex vivo, meaning on living skin tissue in the laboratory, against a control. Three findings stand out.
Ex vivo, on real skin, measured against a control. External laboratory specializing in anatomical pathology, France.
Our strategy
Longevity, not a single ingredient.
Aging skin is not one problem, so we do not treat it as one. Our approach is systemic. Rather than push a single active, we work to slow the point at which cells become senescent, that is, still alive but no longer doing their job.
Part of that strategy is the telomere. Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes. They shorten as cells divide over time. Telomerase is the enzyme that maintains them. Our longevity work includes ingredients intended to support telomerase activity and telomere length, an area recognized by the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
A word on exosomes
The messengers between cells.
Exosomes are extracellular vesicles, tiny packages that cells use to carry signals to one another. It is one of the more active areas in skin science today.
Our Exosome Advanced Night Cream is made with probiotic-derived extracellular vesicles, paired with a longevity extract from the cashew tree. The CEL™ Complex uses plant-derived extracellular vesicles. Different sources, the same principle, communication between cells.
Our philosophy
A formula is more than its active.
The active ingredient a brand talks about is often just one to five percent of a formula. The rest, the preservatives, the base, the texture, is the other ninety-five percent. All of it touches skin. All of it matters.
So we formulate and test the whole thing, not only the headline. It is slower, and more demanding. We think it is the only honest way to make skincare that respects the cell.
Our standards
How every formula is held.
- Tested free of estrogenic and androgenic endocrine disruption
- Cruelty-fre
- A minimum of 97% natural origin
- Made in France, to EU cosmetic standards
- No parabens, no phenoxyethanol
- Formulated for high tolerability
References
The sources behind this page.
- Gore AC, Chappell VA, Fenton SE, et al. EDC-2: The Endocrine Society's Second Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals. Endocrine Reviews. 2015;36(6):E1-E150.
- Kortenkamp A. Ten Years of Mixing Cocktails: A Review of Combination Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2007;115(Suppl 1):98-105.
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Endocrine Disruptors. National Institutes of Health.
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016, awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy.
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009, awarded to Blackburn EH, Greider CW, Szostak JW, for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
- Lane DP. p53, guardian of the genome. Nature. 1992;358(6381):15-16.
- External laboratory specializing in anatomical pathology, France. Ex vivo testing on real skin, against control.