Ingredient Library: What Is Inside Philogeni Skincare – philogeni

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IThe Ingredient Library

Every actor, annotated.

Every ingredient in the formula, with its dose, its biology, and the reasoning behind its inclusion. Open a card to read the entry.

On the complex

The four mushrooms are dosed at 1.25% each, which is how the complex reaches 5% without any one of them being fairy dusted.

Reishi Mushroom Complex

Bakuchiol

BakuchiolPsoralea corylifolia 0.5%

A plant meroterpene that behaves like a retinoid without being one. It is the entry point into the retinol conversation for skin that cannot take retinol's first six weeks.

Gene-expression profiling in human skin models shows bakuchiol upregulating a retinoid-like transcript set, including type I, III and IV collagen, without binding the retinoic acid receptor itself.

Chemical structure, Bakuchiol

Chaga

ChagaInonotus obliquus (Mushroom) Extract 1.25%

The antioxidant density of the complex. Chaga concentrates polyphenols, melanin and birch-derived triterpenes, and sits at the top of the fungal antioxidant assays.

Polyphenols, melanin complexes and triterpenoids donate electrons to reactive oxygen species generated by UV and pollution exposure.

Chemical structure, Chaga

CoQ10

CoQ10Ubiquinone 1.0%

A mitochondrial coenzyme the skin makes less of each decade. In the epidermis it does two jobs at once: it carries electrons, and it holds the lipid phase against oxidation.

Carries electrons in the mitochondrial respiratory chain; in its reduced form, ubiquinol, it scavenges lipid radicals within membranes.

Chemical structure, CoQ10

Cordyceps

CordycepsCordyceps militaris (Mushroom) Extract 1.25%

The complex's link to the energy story CoQ10 begins. Cordyceps carries cordycepin and adenosine — nucleoside analogues studied for their part in cellular energy signalling.

Cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine) and adenosine interact with adenosine-receptor signalling in vitro. The extract also adds polysaccharides to the complex's humectant load.

Chemical structure, Cordyceps

Maitake

MaitakeGrifola frondosa (Mushroom) Extract 1.25%

The third quarter of the complex, contributing grifolan-type beta-glucans to the same surface hydration the others build.

Grifolan beta-1,3-glucans: humectant and film-forming at the stratum corneum, alongside the other three extracts.

Chemical structure, Maitake

Reishi

ReishiGanoderma lucidum (Mushroom) Extract 1.25%

One quarter of the 5% mushroom complex, and the quarter carrying the most beta-glucan — the polysaccharide that holds water at the surface of the skin.

Beta-1,3/1,6-glucans are large, highly hydrophilic polysaccharides. They bind water in the stratum corneum and form a film that slows transepidermal water loss.

Chemical structure, Reishi

Vitamin C

Vitamin CTetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate 2.0%

The oil-soluble form of vitamin C. L-ascorbic acid needs a low-pH water phase and begins oxidising the day the bottle is opened; THDA sits stably in an anhydrous oil and stays that way.

A lipid-soluble ascorbyl ester. Cutaneous esterases cleave the palmitate chains, releasing L-ascorbic acid in the epidermis, where it works as an antioxidant and as a cofactor for the hydroxylases involved in collagen synthesis.

Chemical structure, Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Vitamin ETocopherol 1.0%

The barrier's own antioxidant, put back. Tocopherol is the primary lipid-phase antioxidant in human skin, and it runs down fastest exactly where the oil is thinnest.

A chain-breaking antioxidant in the lipid phase: it donates a hydrogen atom to lipid peroxyl radicals and terminates the peroxidation chain in barrier lipids, then is regenerated by ascorbate.

Chemical structure, Vitamin E