The Story Behind Grown Alchemist

With over twenty years of formulation research and product development experience, brothers Keston and Jeremy Muijs founded Grown Alchemist to create a holistic approach to skin care. Instead of solely focusing on the skin’s appearance, the brothers understand that you must focus on skin health if you want to have beautiful skin. Thus, Grown Alchemist provides a holistic approach to youthful skin by connecting nutrition, dermatology, pharmacology, and genetics to biologically optimize the skin aging process.

What are the Best Skin Care Products of 2023?

For more than a decade prior to launch, Keston and Jeremy traveled around the globe in search of ingredients they could include in their products that would support healthy skin. While they have created an extensive range of skin care products, the brand’s trademark three-phase skin care system is ‘Cleanse. Detox. Activate’. Grown Alchemist products work in synchronicity with the body; restoring skin function, detoxing the skin, then activating skin function using natural ingredients resulting in a product line that is 100% compatible with human skin. In this review, we’ll discuss the brand’s best selling products, key ingredients, Grown Alchemist reviews from real customers, and more.

The Top 5 Grown Alchemist Skin Care Products

Grown Alchemist offers skin care products for every step of your skin care routine, including cleansers, toners, exfoliants, masks, moisturizers, eye care, body care, and more. Let’s take a closer look at the top 5 best selling Grown Alchemist skin care products.

Matte Balancing Moisturizer
Grown Alchemist Matte Balancing Moisturizer is lightweight moisturizer that is said to hydrate facial skin while balancing the skin’s oil levels, leaving skin with a matte finish and increased clarity. A few of the key ingredients in this moisturizer include aloe vera leaf extract, camellia seed oil, and glycerin.

Detox Night Cream
Grown Alchemist Detox Night Cream is an anti-aging facial cream that is said to detox and regenerate the skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, resulting in radiant and youthful-looking skin. Some of the key ingredients you’ll find in this formula include peptides, echinacea, and hyaluronic acid.

Hand Cream
The Grown Alchemist hand cream is very popular due to its non-greasy formulation that naturally soothes and softens dry undernourished hands and cuticles. A few of the key ingredients in this hand cream include camellia seed oil, grape seed oil, and aloe leaf extract.

Polishing Facial Exfoliant
Formulated for daily use, the Grown Alchemist Polishing Facial Exfoliant is said to gently delaminate dead skin cells and stimulate cell regeneration, leaving skin looking radiant, smooth, and prepared for moisturizing. A few of the key ingredients in the Polishing Facial Exfoliant include aloe leaf extract, camellia seed oil, and konjac root extract.

Hydra-Repair Day Cream
This Grown Alchemist day cream is a nourishing, non-greasy facial moisturiser that is said to noticeably improve skin hydration levels, without leaving residual oil or shine on the skin. This cream has a velvety texture that leaves the skin looking smooth and soothed, resulting in an ideal primer for makeup application. A few of the key ingredients in Grown Alchemist Hydra-Repair Day Cream include aloe vera leaf extract, sweet almond oil, and rosehip fruit oil.

What Are The Key Grown Alchemist Skin Care Ingredients?

After reading about the best selling Grown Alchemist skin care products in the last section, you probably noticed that this brand uses a few of the same key ingredients throughout their collection, such as aloe leaf extract, camellia seed oil, and sweet almond oil. In this section, we’ll discuss each of these key ingredients in detail so you’ll know how they are benefitting your skin.

Aloe vera leaf extract is found in almost every Grown Alchemist skin care product. Despite its thick, green, gel-like texture, aloe vera is actually composed of 99 to 99.5% water! The high water content soothes the skin and helps to increase hydration. Plus, aloe vera gel contains a rich supply of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a class of sugar molecules that help bind moisture to the skin. GAGs are naturally found in human skin with a primary role of supporting the proteins collagen and elastin in the dermis. Collagen, elastin, and GAGs form the majority of an important support system called the extracellular matrix (ECM). GAGs readily absorb water, which creates the fluid that fills the space between collagen and elastin fibers in the dermis, giving it turgidity.

Another key ingredient in Grown Alchemist skin care products is Camellia oleifera seed oil, a very lightweight, dry oil that is quickly absorbed by the skin. Therefore, it can soften and smooth the skin without leaving a greasy residue. Camellia oleifera seed oil also contains several polyphenol antioxidants. Antioxidants work by protecting the skin from free radicals, the unstable molecules that contribute to the formation of premature wrinkles and fine lines on the skin. Due to these properties, the Camellia oleifera seed oil in Grown Alchemist skin care products may help to prevent signs of skin aging.

The final key ingredient in several Grown Alchemist skin care products is sweet almond oil. Sweet almond oil is known to help maintain skin hydration by keeping the skin barrier intact. The skin’s natural barrier can be thought of as a “brick and mortar” system. The bricks are the corneocytes (dead skin cells) and the intercellular lipids (ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids) represent the mortar. Without these lipids, the skin barrier is weakened, just like without mortar a brick wall would be weak and unstable. The result is skin that can easily become dry, itchy, or irritated. The fatty acids in almond oil help to strengthen the skin barrier and therefore prevent these issues. Additionally, when vitamin E in almond oil is delivered to your skin through the sebaceous (oil) glands, it provides a protective barrier and helps to reduce transepidermal water loss. Lastly, the B vitamins and zinc found in almond oil are both known to play an important role in maintaining healthy skin. Overall, sweet almond oil helps to reduce symptoms such as dryness and itchiness, leaving the skin healthy and glowing.

Lastly, we’d just like to point out that Grown Alchemist skin care products contain many different fragrant essential oils, such as eugenol, citronellol, linalool, sweet orange peel oil, and more. These fragrance ingredients could be problematic for some people. We understand that consumers typically want their products to smell pleasant, however, fragrance isn’t doing the skin any good. All fragrance ingredients (whether natural or synthetic) impart scent through a volatile reaction, and this natural reaction almost always causes a sensitizing reaction on skin. In fact, according to a 2016 publication in the scholarly journal Dermatitis, nearly 80 essential oils have caused contact allergy. Even if you don’t have a full blown reaction to the ingredient, the damage may still be occurring every day. Ultimately, this can cause mild problems for your skin in the short term and worse problems in the long term.

Where Are Grown Alchemist Skin Care Products Sold?

Grown Alchemist skin care products are sold on the brand’s website, as well as other authorized online dealers such as Ulta, Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus, and more.

What is the Grown Alchemist Return Policy?

Grown Alchemist has a 30-day return policy: you have 30 days from when your order is delivered to ship/postmark it back to our return centre for a refund or exchange.

Is Grown Alchemist Cruelty Free?

Grown Alchemist is certified cruelty-free by PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program. They do not test on animals during product development or production—or allow any third parties to do so with their products.

Grown Alchemist Reviews

Unfortunately, the brand does not display Grown Alchemist reviews on their website, so we had to take a look at Ulta.com to get an idea of what consumers really think of these products. Overall, Grown Alchemist reviews are mostly positive.

Reviews for the Grown Alchemist day cream confirm that this moisturizer does a pretty good job at keeping the skin hydrated without leaving a greasy residue on the skin. For example, one review says, “I was expecting something thick (probably because of the tube), but it’s much thinner than I thought. I was worried it wouldn’t be enough for my dry spots, but happily, I was wrong! It sinks into my skin quickly and is incredibly moisturizing, and keeps my skin’s moisture level up all day. It also has a very faint but very nice fragrance. It’s not overly greasy, so it works in my oilier spots as well. We shall see if it continues to be moisturizing enough throughout the winter, but at least for now, this is my new go-to.”

However, there are a few reviews that mention negative reactions to Grown Alchemist skin care products (such as allergic reactions to the fragrance ingredients). Others find the fragrance to be overwhelming, for example, one review for the Grown Alchemist day cream says, “I have sensitive/super dry skin. The consistency of this cream is amazing. It’s extremely moisturizing, and seeps in the skin. Great for morning/through the day use. The scent is the only part of this cream that puts me off. I’m not a huge fan of it (personally) some may enjoy it. Overall wonderful for dry skin!”

What Are Some Alternatives to Grown Alchemist Skin Care?

There’s no need to compromise when it comes to finding skincare that’s effective and safe.

If you’re looking for effective skincare products that skip harmful toxins, one brand we recommend is Carrot & Stick.

Carrot & Stick is committed to creating plant-derived formulas that deliver extraordinary results without relying on toxic chemicals or standard preservatives.

Carrot & Stick takes a tough love approach to skincare, perfectly balancing the gentle nurturing of plants with innovative science.

We recommend this serum & moisturizer.

References:
de Groot AC, Schmidt E. Essential Oils, Part IV: Contact Allergy. Dermatitis. 2016;27(4):170-175. doi:10.1097/DER.0000000000000197