I initially looked at some other formulations but they just kept missing the mark for me. I looked at vitamin A, B and C and as I worked my way through the alphabet of key ingredients they all had one thing in common being water needed as the prime ingredient.
I remember years ago being at a manufacturer for a QC check and saw water just running out of a hose and straight into a drain, no one cared. I asked them about it and they said the council was ok with it. I can only assume this was easier to add the water to their batch while it was running instead of turning the tap on and off – I guess ? ? ?
There are so many skincare products using water as their base, with some formulations containing more than 50% water. When you think about how many bath, body and skincare products are made around the world every day, that’s an awful lot of water going into the industry
I just can’t…
Having been raised in Adelaide in the driest state of the continent we knew how to be careful and not waste water. We were shown markers on the daily weather report of how much water we had in the reservoirs and all we could do was pray for rain. Now living in Melbourne, you just have to wait 5 minutes and the weather will change from sunshine to a rainstorm somewhere close by.
I digress, with that in mind I was now looking for a formula that worked without water, and that worked in aluminium packaging. Aluminium was also a key criteria, I didn’t want to add to the problem of plastic packaging or add to the landfills. There was some method to my madness.
At the end of my research, Bakuchiol made the cut and here’s why
I had originally considered using retinol, but then discovered that the EU was introducing new restrictions on the amount of vitamin A that could be used in cosmetic formulations. I didn’t have any plans to sell in Europe, but I also couldn’t afford to keep reformulating each time a government decided to make some changes – and I get they’re not doing it for their own entertainment but I needed to keep this in mind.
Bakuchiol comes from the babchi plant, whose seeds and leaves have a long history of use in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicine for various skin conditions. Bakuchiol had been around for centuries and had coasted along without too much song and dance until in a 2018 a clinical study of 0.5% bakuchiol and 0.5% retinol were compared over a 12 week period. Both showed improvements in the appearance of wrinkles and pigmentation, but the group using retinol noticed more scaling and stinging. Albeit a small study involving 44 participants it still grabbed my attention.
I knew I wanted something that worked and having a natural alternative to retinol was a great start to the range. The formula I worked on was completely water-free, which also meant there was no need for a conventional preservative system. Another little plus for me.
I had seen a few products using Bakuchiol at 4%, so I did some more research and ran it past my manufacturer who were comfortable with that concentration. So 4% it was!
The other oils were all selected to complement it and create the kind of face oil I wanted to use myself but I’ll talk about that another time, I’m sure you feel like you’ve been here long enough.
So that’s the goss.
Either way, no matter what your skincare regime – don’t forget your sunscreen
Till next time
Loretta xxs