Knowing how to decipher an ingredient list is difficult, but even if it doesn’t tell you exactly what percentage of each ingredient was used to create the formula, it is a far more reliable source of information than the product's description and claims.

Thus, let's take a close look first at the biological ingredient and then at the rest of the ingredients we use, mainly to transform a viscose fluid that regulates the orderly regeneration of damaged skin cells and protects the skin, into a pleasant gel with enhanced moisturizing properties.

The Main Biological Ingredient

The most important element in all our products is the secretions produced abundantly by land snails of the species Helix Aspersa Müller whenever they are stressed. Stress makes them secrete a gluey fluid substance to shield, moisturize, repair and renew its skin. The same is also produced by the snail for several other natural functions, albeit with a different molecular composition or a different percentage of its molecular components. The complex molecules the secretion contains have been widely studied and you can learn all about them by following the links above under the title Helix Aspersa Muller Secretion.

How do we collect this precious substance? We use a procedure that is completely inoffensive for the snails, while it allows us to acquire it PURE as it is abundantly being produced by the snails, and undiluted in water to prevent the degrading of its enzymes and other molecules by hydrolysis.

Hydrolysis: A chemical response in which water reacts with an element to produce other compounds; involves the rupture of a bond and the addition of the hydrogen cation and the hydroxide anion from the water and results in the creation of one or more new compounds that do not have the same properties of the original substance.

The snail secretions in BIOSKINEXFOL are NOT deteriorated, neither by interaction with chemicals nor by immediate hydrolysis.

We also embed the natural ingredient in a liposome, a microscopic, fluid-filled pouch whose walls are made of layers of phospholipids identical to the ones that make up cell membranes. Liposomes are employed to deliver certain vaccines, enzymes, or drugs (e.g., insulin and some cancer drugs) to the body. Liposomes adhere to cellular membranes and seem to combine with them, releasing their load into the cell. Sometimes they are assimilated by the cell, and the phospholipids are incorporated into the cell membrane while the substance (glycoprotein enzyme) trapped inside is discharged.

Human skin produces several lipophilic substances which play a substantial role in the preservation of the skin. Chemically seen, these substances belong to the group of lipids, though they show differing structures: glycerides and free acids, cholesterol and its derivatives, esters with fatty acids and long chained alcohols, polar lipids of differing natural, saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. All in all an elaborated amalgam of complex processes.

BIOSKINCARE™ has been formulated to transform a liquid with cell-communicating ingredients and natural activators of skin renewal into a cream that also hydrates, replenishes and stabilizes the lipid content within the intercellular skin matrix by using all biological emollients, emulsifiers, surfactants and nourishing extracts derived from Olive Oil, hydrating Hyaluronic acid, and humectant Glycerin. BIOSKINEXFOL has the same ingredients plus micro-crystals.

The olive oil derivatives are: emulsifier Peg-4 Olivate, surfactant Sorbitan Olivate, and moisturizing Squalene.

Squalene is not only a biological moisturizer but is also a biological component of the skin and is considered a good emollient that has antioxidant and immune-stimulating properties. It helps dry skin look and feel better.

Hyaluronic Acid - The Fountain of Youth

Hyaluronic acid as pure and concentrated as we use it, is a glycosaminoglycan existent in the intercellular matrix of skin where it has a conservative, structure balancing and shock-absorbing role.

Hyaluronic Acid is normally found in the joints, the lower layers of skin, the umbilical cord and in foetal skin. Medical graded Hyaluronic Acid is usually helpful to diminish the incidence of post-operative adhesions, as a viscoelastic agent in intra-ocular surgery, also as a synovial replacement fluid; and is used to help with the healing and regeneration of surgical wounds.

The unique properties of Hyaluronic Acid make it the ideal moisturizer. Hyaluronic Acid has a decisive part in cellular hydration, lubrication and cellular behavior, and has the ability to hold more water than any other biological substance. Its unmatched hydrating properties produce augmented smoothness, softening and diminished wrinkles.

Hyaluronic Acid has also shown excellent results in the diminishing of dryness, itching and burning of the skin. It offers a perfect context for the reproduction of new cells and healing after skin peeling.

Hyaluronic Acid is a major constituent of the extra-cellular matrix that surrounds rapidly reproducing cells. It has been demonstrated to be an integral factor in the rapid and scarless wound healing observed in foetal and neonatal organisms. Moreover, the cellular actions stimulated by Hyaluronic Acid are integral to the seemingly magical biochemistry of foetal development.

It is well known that foetal tissues contain large amounts of Hyaluronic Acid and that decreasing Hyaluronic Acid content are associated with aging and wrinkling. Therefore any practical efforts to extend and recover youth by revivifying damaged tissue should include this molecule.

Squalane

Squalane is not only a biological hydrating agent but is also a biological element of the skin and is conceived as a good emollient that has antioxidant and immune-activating properties. It helps dry skin feel and look much better.

Sebum represents the normal lubricant of hairy and non-hairy skin. It keeps the skin ductile and creates a protective { fungicidal and bacterial |bacterial and fungicidal barrier on the skin and in the pilosebaceous apparatus. This fatty cover helps to maintain humidity on the skin surface. Squalane occurs naturally in the human sebum, as can be observed from the following:

When human sebum is isolated from skin lipids, its main composition is:

Squalane is a ductile substance, with the rare property to increase the rate, depth, and extent of entrance of topical agents such as the biological snail secretions in our cream.

Squalane is a biological emolient. It imparts the skin a firmness with no undesirable oily feel. It quickly forms emulsions with fixed oils and lipophilic substances and does not oxidize nor turn rancid. When applied to washed or sun exposed skin and hair, squalane helps to restore the lost oils. It has long been known that covering the skin with oils offers considerable protection from sunburn because of a strong absorption band in the UVB radiation region (280–320 nm) that causes are sunburns.

Squalene is also the name of a deep sea shark (centrophorus artomarginatus) that lives in waters 600 to 1000 m deep, with no sunlight. How can they manage to live in such hard conditions, where pressure is invariantly high and oxygen supply is very poor?. The secret is in their livers, which represent for 25% to 30% of their total body mass. In 1906 Dr. Tsujimoto of Japan discovered the shark liver extract, which was later identified as Squalene, with a chemical formula (C30H50).

Chemically Squalene is an unsaturated hydrocarbon, which can produce oxygen by mixing with water. Squalene has been greatly researched and, as an oxygen carrier, found to play a fundamental role in maintaining health. Dr Noguchi once said that "the cause of all illnesses is lack of oxygen". An impressive ability of the shark is its apparent immunity to cancer and disease. Once believed a foe, an ancient and powerful hunter of the deep, the shark is now being considered as a lifesaver. This particular fish which has stayed structurally unaltered for 400 million years may provide us with the biological endurance we need to deal with many of our most common modern diseases from colds to cancer. An alternative source of Squalene is olive oil, which has been traditionally known for its health effects.

Glycerin - Humectant

The products contain glycerine which is a humectant. This means it has the ability to take water right from the air to bring it closer to your skin and promotes the retention of water. It helps enhance the skin's defences by filling in the intercellular matrix and attracting just the right quantity of water to maintain the skin's homeostasis whilst helping the other skin lipids act better. Glycerin is a by-product of the saponification process of vegetable fatty acids.

Comment: an ample range of ingredients help skin retain water (moisture). Glycerin is one of the more typical and effective water-binding ingredients used in cosmetics. Some water-binding agents can imitate the skin's real structure and can be of benefit in a formulation; these include ceramide, sodium hyaluronate, lecithin, fructose, collagen, glycogen, amino acids, glycosphingolipids, mucopolysaccharides, elastin, phospholipids, hyaluronic acid, glucose, polysaccharides, sucrose, cholesterol, proteins, sodium PCA, glycerine, and glycosaminoglycans. No single one of these is favourite over the other because even though they are all effective, none of them can permanently modify the actual structure of skin.

Preservants

The preservant we use to isolate the gel from bacteria, yeasts and moulds, is an auto sterilizing skin-friendly pH-stable system that mixes a widely used, globally-accepted preservative (even in Japan), phenoxyethanol, with a proven preservative-enhancer, ethylhexylglycerin, instead of controversial parabens.

Phenoxyethanol is a natural bactericide element believed one of the least irritating cosmetic preservers with none of the polemical side effects of parabens. It provides a wide spectrum of anti-microbial labor fighting both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, as well as yeasts and moulds. It is soluble and its labor is effective for our protein-based product and it does not interact with the copper in the biological substance.

Ethylhexylglycerin reduces interfacial tension on the cell walls of micro-organisms, promoting their more rapid destruction and a wider spectrum activity.

Phenoxyethanol and Ethylhexylglycerin are synthetic compounds derived from grains and plants, and as many other synthetic sources they start as natural because everything comes from our surroundings; nothing is created via alchemy. We have yet to see any cosmetic that is "all" natural. Some synthetic compounds are wonderful for your skin, and no matter the allegations of cosmetics companies to the contrary, every cosmetics product in the world contains its part of synthetic ingredients.

Final Product

The final result is a product that contains ingredients that are antimicrobial, shield, moisturize, repair and renew the skin plus ingredients that imitate the intercellular ambient of skin and are essential for helping skin behave normally. Intercellular substances are those compounds that exist normally in the skin and help to hold the skin cells together. Factors like dry environment, irritation, inflammation, sun damage, and age can all highly reduce the presence of these substances in skin. Mixing those intercellular substances with the natural active ingredient and moisturizers helps maintain the layers of skin integral, resilient, and in good physical shape, for it gives all the materials the skin needs to defend itself from contamination, ambient hazards and events that start an inflammatory reaction from within our body.

The cream is manufactured in a state of the art Cosmetic Laboratory in the USA, based on Helix Aspersa Müller GlycoConjugates gathered in Chile.