Results are the desired goal of any cosmetic product, whatever that goal may be. How to achieve results is through the use of an active ingredient(s) known for the appropriate properties that address the desired goal. An easy enough concept that for decades has been the driving force behind cosmetic and personal care products. Just follow the marketing material for information on actives and what they are predicted to do for your skin, hair or appearance.
What are those other ingredients?
Active ingredient designation makes product selection a relatively simple process. Retinol stimulates cell turnover to smooth or firm skin, has antiaging results or helps clear acneic skin. Hyaluronic acid holds water and is an active in moisturizing products. The list is long with new active ingredients being introduced on a continual basis. So, if there are maybe two or, at the most, five active ingredients in the product, what are all those other ingredients for? Quick answer: appearance and stability on the shelf.
Emulsifiers hold the product together and stabilizers maintain color, pH, or preserve the product. Also, in the product there are other ingredients that may be considered active, having some value to the skin itself and not just the product. These ingredients are not usually included as active ingredients, such as sunflower or coconut oil and shea butter. Often, they are part of a formula to enhance the marketing appearance of “natural.” One reason to leave these off the active list is due to simplicity in marketing. Too many actives may muddy the message, or is thought to confuse the consumer.
Choosing the Active Ingredient
In the new structure of botanical formulation, the idea of active ingredients is challenging. A botanical skin care formula, by definition, is composed of plant-extracted ingredients. For the most part, all the ingredients have a benefit to the skin. A designation may be given to one or two ingredients as the active in the formula. The formula may contain hyaluronic acid as the advertised moisturizing active, even though it is surrounded by shea butter, olive oil and aloe vera, which are also moisturizing ingredients. As explained already, these unemphasized ingredients support the identity of a natural product.
The challenge for any formulator is to answer the active ingredient question: “Which ones should I choose?” Of the many ingredients in each product, all are there to address the projected results of the creation. For marketing purpose, it’s best to keep it simple and emphasize only one to three active ingredients. In order to voice the integrity of the botanical formulation, a creative solution is necessary. The solution comes in the form of understanding and highlighting the synergy of all the ingredients in the formulation.
For help in understanding the active formulation concept, let’s compare it to a healthy dinner. In terms of a nourishing nutrient rich meal, salmon with yams and kale is a suitable model. What is the active ingredient in this meal? It contains omega-3 fats, astaxanthin, easily digestible proteins, betacarotene, flavonoids, chlorophyl and a rich assortment of vitamins and minerals. There is not one, but a synergy of active compounds for overall health. Put this meal on your face, a concept identified as whole food for the face, and you have a synergistic active formula for skin and body care.
The Active Formulation®
If all the ingredients in a formula have a focused benefit to the product intent, this message must be conveyed in an understanding format, or marketing, to the consumer or therapist. When asked what is the active ingredient in a product, the formulator would answer that all the ingredients were active. Not good enough to a market inundated with the idea of actives. The answer soon became, the formula is the active ingredient. Better, but still out of the ordinary of understanding. “Active Formulation” was the term I introduced to illustrate how the whole, like a healthy entrée, was the active.
Synergy of Formulation
All ingredients combined create a product’s synergy, whether the ingredients used are for therapeutic (active) function or for shelf appearance and stability. Synergy is the resulting activity of all the combined parts, we learn this in the framework of whole body and of holistic medicine. All parts make a unique unified whole.
Where most skin care has actives and functional ingredients, the shelf stabilizing ingredients with no benefit to the health of the skin, the ultimate goal is that every ingredient, including functional, should have a skin care benefit. Even the emulsifier used would have moisturizing capability.
A cosmetic chemist might analyze this formula and say, “There are a lot of redundancies here.” So true, unless you view those redundancies as synergies. The creative art of synergistic formulation is a new and upcoming skill set for formulators. Too many of the new botanical formulas may be missing the fact that synergistic formulation is not simply combining many botanical ingredients. There is a style, a craft and an understanding that comes from experience that goes into the selection and percentages used of each ingredient.
When the formula is executed with artistic calculation, the resulting botanical synergy is an Active Formulation.
Just to be clear, it is acknowledged that synergistic formulation lacks the evidence of scientific study. This is still very experiential, anecdotal and, as is true with much of what is related to botanical therapy, is difficult to evaluate under current scientific standards. This again coincides with food as diets, what’s good or bad, and food combining are constantly showing varied scientific results and contradictions. This is about the limitations of science evaluating the complexities of nature, not the botanicals or food.
All ingredients combined create a product’s synergy.
A Deeper Understanding
When looking at a botanical formula, it’s good to have some knowledge of the therapeutic function, or possibilities, of the individual ingredients. The challenge here is in trying to confine therapeutic properties, which is limiting regarding botanicals, especially essential oils. Botanicals tend to have many diverse properties that may be enhanced or even created in a synergistic formulation. By evaluating the therapeutic potential, as best you can, you will be able to match it to the goal of the product, however that goal is defined in the product literature.
The Big Three
In my work for facial care, I require three properties for every formula; anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and cell regenerative. As an example, a serum contains a synergy of anti-inflammatory fixed oils, such as sunflower seed oil, jojoba, blackberry seed and rosehip seed oil. Anti-inflammatory properties are additionally coming from nutrients alpha lipoic acid, ubiquinol (CoQ10) and niacinamide. These ingredients also have antioxidant properties and very specific individual skin conditioning or corrective properties. Shea butter and cocoa butter, giving a texture quality to the formula, also contribute to the overall anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cell regenerative synergy.
A formula with focus on the three requirements may then be fine tuned to address certain conditions. Helichrysum essential oil and rosehip seed fixed oil, both anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cell regenerative, create a wound healing and scar reducing synergy. German chamomile essential oil and shea butter are ideal in a synergy focus for sensitive skin, eczema and rosacea.
A botanical active formula may contain several functional ingredients…
Full Spectrum Formulation
There’s a concept we can call “full spectrum formulation,” accomplished mainly with the use of botanicals. A formula may be designed to address innumerable possible causes of a symptom or condition, have an emphasis on potential environmental issues, and include balance of skin damaging emotions.
This type of complex synergy is a highly active formulation with a full spectrum of holistic properties.
Active Ingredients and Botanicals
In an ingredient evaluation you can see there are many products making good use of botanical ingredients. It’s obvious someone in marketing insists on naming key or active ingredients, as in one product there are five key ingredients. The entire formula lists over 20 organic botanical extracts with wide ranging therapeutic properties forming an active formulation. A botanical active formula may contain several functional ingredients, though natural, that may not offer much in skin benefit.
This is still a relatively unused philosophy of skin care formulation and consumer marketing. Once you begin understanding and evaluating ingredient lists you’ll get the concept and begin using it in the selection of dynamic botanical skin care products.
