Made in our own laboratory in Los Angeles · Every active ingredient and its percentage, published
The science

Built like skin.

Skin holds its moisture in ordered layers of lipids: a liquid crystal, in the chemist's sense of the word. Most creams are not built that way. Our serum and creams are.

Smooth Groove, Deep Water and C-Balance are built on Olivem 1000, an olive-derived emulsifier (cetearyl olivate, sorbitan olivate) that assembles the emulsion in the same lamellar, liquid-crystal structure as the skin's own barrier. Because the base is bio-similar, squalane, ceramides and each formula's actives are carried across the barrier and released gradually, rather than left on the surface to evaporate or be wiped away. Summer Glow, Brighter Day and Inland Sea are built on bases suited to their jobs: a water-light gel for 15% vitamin C, a mineral sunscreen emulsion, a clay suspension. The practical result is a texture that disappears into skin, hydration that lasts through the day, and a 40 ml bottle that lasts around seventy days.

One ingredient · one reason

Why Aquaxyl is in four of the six.

Our chemist on the one thing a moisturiser has to get right, and why we chose three plant sugars to do it.

Aquaxyl · 2% in Smooth Groove, Deep Water, C-Balance and Brighter Day · 1 min 5 sec
Disclosure

Every active, with its exact percentage

Each product page lists every active ingredient, its role and the exact level it is used at, taken from our production batch records. You know the level of actives in your product before you buy it.

Testing

Every batch, before release

Stability, microbial limits and preservative efficacy are tested on every batch in our own laboratory before it ships.

Claims

No numbers we cannot stand behind

We have not yet run clinical studies on the six formulas. When we do, we will publish the results here in full, including what did not work.

The actives

Across the six formulas

What each does, and which formulas carry it.

Squalane 4%Barrier lipid · Smooth Groove, Deep Water
Ceramide complex 0.2–0.5%Barrier structure · Smooth Groove, Deep Water
L-ascorbic acid 15%Vitamin C · Summer Glow
Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate 2%Lipid-soluble vitamin C · C-Balance
Ferulic acid 1%Antioxidant · Summer Glow
Tranexamic acid 1%Tone · C-Balance
Arbutin 1%Tone · C-Balance
Mandelic acid 1%Gentle exfoliation · Smooth Groove
Zinc oxide 10%Mineral UV filter · Brighter Day
Peptide glow complex 1%Tone · Summer Glow, C-Balance
Colloidal oatmeal 0.5%Calming · Deep Water
Shea butter 1–2%Conditioning · Deep Water, C-Balance
Xylitol hydration complex 2%Hydration · Smooth Groove, Deep Water, C-Balance, Brighter Day
Green clay 24% · bentonite 4%Decongesting · Inland Sea
Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids 1%Conditioning · Smooth Groove