GUEST BLOG @SKINCARMA: ORGANIC THE NEW BEAUTY | CLEAR 1% CENTELLA CREAM SERUM

There’s a lot that I consider remarkable about Organic the New Beauty’s Clear 1% Centella Cream Serum from The Clean Beauty Co. Indeed, it’s likely the cleanest skincare product I’ve ever applied to my skin. Formulated with 100% natural and 90% organic ingredients, this moisturizer is completely devoid of any potential skin irritants.

But while those percentages are noteworthy, what I love most about the Clear 1% Centella Cream Serum is that 100% of the vegan formula isskin active. What that means in laymen’s terms is that every single ingredient in the formula benefits the skin.

That may seem odd to you. You may be asking yourself,is it really the case that there are ingredients in my moisturizers, serums, cleansers and toners that aren’t beneficial to my skin?

The answer is, quite remarkably, yes; yes there are.

A skin care formula is a lot like a cupcake, composed of ingredients that benefit you, the eater of said cupcake, and ingredients that really don’t.

Putting nutrition aside for a second (a cupcake could hardly be considered nutritious, right?!), think about the colored frosting. Does the food-grade dye have any benefit to your body? Of course not. It’s simply decorative. It benefits the aesthetics of the cupcake — making it prettier, more appealing, and ultimately more enjoyable.

The same goes for skin care.

Certainly, all skin care — every moisturizer, serum, cleanser and toner —  is composed of ingredients that have an active skin benefit. The most familiar active ingredients include antioxidant vitamins, nourishing lipids and oils, soothing botanical extracts, and more.

But there are numerous ingredients in a skincare product that are like the food dye in cupcake frosting that benefit the product itself. They enhance the product’s texture, facilitate absorption into the skin barrier, preserve the formula from degradation — and even make that moisturizer smell like roses. Theseinactiveingredients have no real benefit when it comes to skin health.

And then there’s all that water. In the case of water, which very often makes up 60-70% of a skincare formula, there is little significant benefit to the skin. In fact, when it comes to topical application of a skincare product,water is useless.

The H2O molecule doesn’t penetrate the skin barrier! Applying water isn’t how we hydrate our bodies. If it were, we wouldn’t need to drink water throughout the day. Our morning shower would be all the hydration we’d need. Clean up, soak it up and go!

The Organic the New Beauty Clear 1% Centella Cream Serum is loaded with active goodness for the skin.

To start, the formula’s distinguishing characteristic is what the brand describes as a “bio-lamellar phospholipid” structure derived from plant cells. This complex of plant cell lipids melds perfectly with the skin.

That means the product doesn’t just sit on the skin’s surface, or barely penetrate; rather, it melts deeply into the skin, deeper than a conventional moisturizer has the ability to do. It fills the skin with lipids, all the while pulling those good-for-skin actives in the product along with it.

That proprietary delivery technology of the Clear 1% Centella Cream Serum is only the beginning of what makes this particular moisturizer so remarkable.

In an aloe vera base instead of useless water, the formula contains a blend of 1% Centella Aciatica, 1% Mastic Oil, and even 1% Bakuchiol Extract — the popular anti-aging alternative to Retinol.

Mastic Oil is such a fascinating option for a moisturizer that targets oilier skin types with a concern for pores. Mastic is extracted from thepistacia lentiscus tree, a member of the cashew family, and indigenous to dry areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular Greece. Its mastic resin is only harvested from the southern part of the Greek island of Chios. Greek lore is steeped in mastic. In fact, the Greeks refer to the mastic resin that oozes from the trees as the “tears of Chios.”

Mastic Oil has powerful antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to neutralize impurities in the skin. That’s gold for oily and acne prone skin types.

A further scan of the INCI and I see there’s also a boost of skin nourishment with bio-fermented water kefir grains. I love fermented actives in skin care — and am heartened by the trend out of A-beauty.

One my favorite things about Organic the New Beauty’s game-changing moisturizer is its fast-absorbing texture — making it ideal for use in warmer climates. You apply this stuff and maybe 30 seconds later it’s gone — right through your skin barrier.

That bio-lamellar lipid structure is responsible for the swift absorption, pulling the mastic, centella and bakuchiol deep into the skin’s surface layers. TheClear 1% Centella Cream Serum is such a brilliant, innovative moisturizer — a real standout this summer.