Did you know that cosmetic formulas can degrade due to both oxidative stress and bacterial contamination? And that the same oxidative activity over time can also affect our bodies, both inside and out? Interesting, isn't it? However, there's no need to panic as we have some little superheroes capable of protecting both our favorite cosmetics and our skin. They are called antioxidants and today I'm going to tell you all about them...
SMALL BUT POWERFUL
Lately, the use of antioxidants in cosmetics has become very fashionable, and for good reason, as these tiny molecules hold great power. On the one hand, they are capable of delaying or stopping the deterioration of organic ingredients (such as fragrances, proteins, lipids) and, on the other hand, they help protect skin cells from oxidative stress (that is, they help prevent premature aging, which is of great interest to us).
Although there is an infinite list of external factors that can cause oxidation, the most common in cosmetics is air or light, while smoke, UVA/UVB, pollution, and certain chemicals are the main stressors for the skin. Therefore, the daily use of antioxidants is essential to curb the damage caused by free radicals.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
Antioxidants help control the formation of free radicals, deactivating or stabilizing these molecules before they attack cells, in the following ways:
- Chain Reactions: Oxidation reactions occur when a free radical steals an electron from a molecule, forming a second radical. This new free radical then steals another electron, and the reaction continues. Antioxidants (such as ascorbic acid, for example) break the chain, stabilize the free radical, and thus inhibit the oxidation process from continuing.
- Prevention: Antioxidants can also prevent the oxidation process by "donating" a hydrogen atom to the free radical, forming a new chemical structure stable enough to stop any chain reaction.
Today there are natural and synthetic antioxidants; however, the vast majority of those used in skin or hair care formulas are typically of natural origin and come from roots, seeds, fruits, etc. From here they are divided into two categories: 'true antioxidants' and 'synergistic' or chelating agents whose function is to enhance the action of the former. In addition to these two categories, they can also be classified as fat-soluble (the most effective for protecting oil-based materials) such as tocopherol, and water-soluble such as glutathione (which is found naturally in plants, animals, and fungi).
The most commonly used antioxidants in the 'green beauty' world are tocopherols, lecithin, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). On the other hand, the best-known synthetic ones (and therefore not allowed in organic products) are butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Throughout the entire Twelve Beauty collection, I have chosen to only use natural antioxidants that are safe for the skin to preserve the products well and protect the formulas. They appear on the label as tocopherol, and it comes from organic corn oil, mixed with a little organic sunflower oil as well.
THE BEST DEFENSE FOR THE SKIN
Antioxidants also play an important role in protecting the skin from cellular damage generated by free radicals. Several studies show that simply incorporating some antioxidants into our daily beauty routine regularly helps to strengthen the protective barrier function of the skin against external aggressions, neutralize sun damage, reduce spots, and decrease transepidermal water loss, thus improving both hydration levels and skin defenses. Antioxidants are also capable of improving skin texture and tone, and restoring its luminosity (among many other things!).
As for Twelve products, all formulas are packed with a high amount of active antioxidant ingredients such as white artemisia, buddleja, imperatoria, tocopherol, and mallow. In fact, the three products in the collection that contain the highest amount of antioxidants are Ideal Brightening Corrective Serum, Rapid Eye Treatment and Ideal Moisture Level Serum. And like all the ingredients I use, these antioxidants have also been selected from the botanical world after extensive research and numerous thorough tests.
CONCLUSION
While there are too many antioxidants to mention, each with an infinite number of properties (consider that there are over 4,000 known flavonoids, and that's just one class of antioxidant!), from a 'green' cosmetologist's perspective, I always like to emphasize the importance of using traditional, well-studied, and highly biocompatible antioxidants that come from sustainable sources. After all, natural product formulation is a science, not an experiment.
