One of the most highly anticipated beauty trends of 2018 is the growth of bespoke skincare. Brands like Trinny London, Curology, Function of Beauty and of course Skin Inc. have been creating custom skincare, bodycare and hair care solutions in order to solve more complex concerns. Skin Inc. themselves were actually one of the first companies to expand on this movement and, as they said, offer “The first Skin Supplement Bar”. With customizable serums that actively target specific skin concerns, the brand aims to create effective, specific solutions that target unique skin concerns.
How Does it Work?
Skin Inc straddles the line between “one-size-fits-all to one-size-fits-me”. The brand first started with their customizable skin serums, which used a multiple choice questionnaire to match customers with the ingredients that would be best suited for their skin type. Knowing that up to 80% of skin’s condition is based off of our lifestyle as well as several environmental factors, they sought to make skincare more focused on combating those in a more direct manner.
Today Skin Inc offers a customizable line, as well as a more traditional, ‘straight out of the bottle’ collection. With either line, the brand continues to center around an ingredients first approach in order to target all types of skin concerns.
Customizable Skin Inc Serums
Skin inc is most known for their customizable serums. These serums are composed of up to three different active ingredients in order to combat a number of skin concerns. The process starts with customers filling out their skin profiles. Here, they’ll comment on their diet, lifestyle, stress levels and major skin concerns. Based on this data, they will receive a custom blended serum with different levels of each active ingredient. The result is an effective all-in-one serum that aims to simplify your skincare routine. Instead of applying three different serums in hopes of achieving the same results, you only need one.
The main actives that the brand uses in their serums include hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, niacinamide, retinol, licorice root extract, collagen, chlorella extract, ceramides, french pine bark, and coenzyme Q10. Each extract or active serves a specific function and is most effective for a given skin concern. For example, licorice root extract is included in custom serums for those who have irritated skin or have a hard time with redness. Each extract can also be purchased separately if you consider yourself an amateur cosmetics chemist. You can mix and match different ingredients to create whatever combination you’d like.
Skin Inc Staples
Along with the custom line of serums, Skin Inc also has a more traditional skincare line that includes cleansers, exfoliators, moisturizers and more. Of the line, the most popular items includes the Pure Revival Peel and the Optimizer Voyage.
Skin Inc Pure Revival Peel
The pure revival peel is designed to exfoliate the skin in the most gentle and non-abrasive way possible. Unlike scrubs or acid exfoliators, this gel formula goes on to the skin just like a thick essence. After about thirty seconds and a light face massage, the gel turns starts to form white particles on the top of your skin, similar to the texture of pilling makeup or primer. But, this pilling isn’t just the product, it’s your dead skin cells.
While it may sound strange, the formula of this peeling gel picks up and envelops the dead skin cells, allowing you to easily wash them away with water afterwards. While this type of exfoliator is somewhat popular in asian skincare, this product is still rather new in western markets. Because of the gentle formula, this peel is ideal for those with sensitive skin that experiences irritation when using other exfoliants.
Skin Inc Optimizer Voyage
Known as a “Facial in a Flash”, the optimizer voyage brings the same technologies that are normally only found in a facialist office, and brings it right to your home. This device uses LED chromotherapy and low frequency stimulation to treat a variety of skincare concerns.
The Optimizer Voyage is available in multiple different settings. There are options that only target one skin concern, or options like their Optimizer Voyage Tri-light, that can treat up to five. The different LED lights serve to target different skincare concerns. The red light is used to repair damaged skin cells and increase collagen, the yellow light is used to bright the complexion and the blue light is designed to treat acne and skin sensitivity.
Inside the Ingredients
The entire Skin Inc range focuses on the power of individual ingredients in order to achieve desired results. Because of this, their approach and delivery system is rather unique to the brand. Based on Japanese technology, the active ingredients that are featured in each serum or treatment is encapsulated and suspended within the formula. And it’s not just for the aesthetics. These colored beads release the active ingredient on contact with your skin, so you get the most effective, most potent dosage of the active ingredient.
The difference between this and other active delivery systems is actually pretty significant. Take Vitamin C for example. Vitamin C, whether you’re working with the pure Ascorbic Acid or a derivative like Sodium or Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, is incredibly difficult to formulate with. In more traditionally blended treatments, it’s common for the product will oxidize in around three months. After Vitamin C oxidizes and turns yellow and is not longer potent enough for the skin to reap the enormous benefits of the powerful active. People have tried nearly everything to extend this time, whether it’s suspending the formula in silicones, using a powdered Vitamin C and applying to with water, packaging in a light-blocking container or storing the serum in the refrigerator.
But, by encapsulating the active Ascorbic Acid or its esters, including Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate and Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, the active Vitamin C is always at the highest potency, so you get the maximum dosage with every application.
Review Recap
Skin Inc is no stranger to good press. Along with winning over 100 different awards for various products within the line, they have thousands of reviews across different websites detailing their success. Most of the products have pretty spectacular reviews, but there are a few pros and cons to be aware before you run out a purchase a set.
The Skin Inc line has really been able to make effective actives more accessible. Many of the reviewers love their products because they are specific and targeted their own skin concerns. Customers appreciated that these serums allowed them to take ownership of their skincare and play with different combinations until they found a routine that worked best for them.
With that said, there are a few downsides, most of which were directed at their single ingredient serums. These serums are small, so you aren’t getting that much product. Unfortunately, that means that if you find one serum that works extraordinarily well for you, you will run out fairly quickly.
The move for creative and customizable skin care, however, isn’t going anywhere. As we move forward and develop new technologies in the world of cosmetics, hopefully we will continue to see ingredient focused products that are well-designed and able to suit a variety of needs. Have you tried customized skincare yet? Let us know in the comments below!
