prox eye restoration complex reviews
In fact, perhaps the biggest complaint about Olay is that there are a number of repetitive formulas within and between the sub-brands make this line confusing and tricky to shop! Still, there is a lot to like about this drugstore stalwart, with its main drawback being a few formulas containing fragrance or other ingredients that have the potential to cause irritation.
Pro-X Eye Restoration Complex
We disagree with Olay’s marketing claims that this is a specialized treatment for the eye area because the ingredients also show up in their facial moisturizers. However, it cannot be denied that this fragrance-free formula is outstanding in many respects. It feels lightweight yet substantial, makes skin feel incredibly smooth, and treats it to several cell-communicating ingredients as well as a respectable amount of antioxidants, but the caffeine it contains won’t brighten or wake up your eyes. As with most eye creams, the claims of diminishing dark circles and puffiness are dubious at best. By the way, this product is very similar to Olay’s Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum, which sells for less.
Pro-X Eye Restoration Complex is designed and professionally tested for the part of your face that communicates age the most: the delicate eye area. This specialized treatment hydrates to restore the area to its optimum appearance by improving the look of crows feet. Massaging it in reduces excess fluids to diminish dark circles and puffiness.
Olay At-A-Glance
Starting decades ago with the now-classic Oil of Olay, this brand now offers an extensive range of skin-care products sold at drugstores and mass-market stores. Today’s Olay lineup for those concerned about staving off the effects of aging skin is impressive, comprising their Regenerist, Pro X, and Total Effects lines. All of these (and several other Olay products) contain the B vitamin niacinamide. As you might expect, the claims made for it are inflated, but niacinamide is a very helpful ingredient for all skin types, capable of exerting multiple benefits.
In fact, perhaps the biggest complaint about Olay is that there are a number of repetitive formulas within and between the sub-brands make this line confusing and tricky to shop! Still, there is a lot to like about this drugstore stalwart, with its main drawback being a few formulas containing fragrance or other ingredients that have the potential to cause irritation.
For more information about Olay, owned by Procter & Gamble, call (800) 285-5170 or visit www.olay.com.
About the Experts
The Beautypedia team consists of skin care and makeup experts personally trained by the original Cosmetics Cop and best-selling beauty author, Paula Begoun. We’re fascinated by skin care and makeup products and thrilled when they meet or exceed our expectations, but we’re also disappointed when they fail to perform as claimed, are wildly overpriced, or contain ingredients scientific research has proven can hurt skin.
Our mission has always been to help you find the best products for your skin, no matter your budget or preferences. Beautypedia’s thorough and insightful reviews cut through the hype and provide reliable recommendations for all ages, skin types, and skin tones.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our terms of use here.
The formulation also contains a patented peptide – palmitoyl dipeptide-7 – and niacinamide or vitamin-B3. The ingredients work together to repair and restore the health of a compromised skin barrier.
Overview Of Prox Eye Restoration Complex
The eyes have the thinnest skin where those bothersome signs of aging appear first and fast. As the skin around the eyes is the thinnest, they are prone to breaking down, laxity, wrinkles, and lines. Therefore, using an anti-aging eye cream makes sense if you wish to restore the skin’s youthful appearance around your eyes.
Olay’s ProX Eye Restoration Complex is an anti-aging eye cream you may pick up from the drugstore aisle, and before you do that, here’s one of the most comprehensive ProX Eye Restoration Complex Reviews you will find online.
Treat skin morning and night by applying product to the corners, lid and suborbital eye area, massaging in thoroughly until absorbed.
This anti-aging eye cream contains a quality collection of ingredients that provide benefits for the skin.
This includes deeply moisturizing the area, improving the texture and smoothing out wrinkles and fine lines. Customers loved the results they got from this product.
This product doesn’t have any side effects, but there’s always the chance that you could have a reaction. If this happens, stop using the product and see a doctor if necessary.
The most common eye area issues are puffiness, dark circles, wrinkles and crow’s feet, and loss of hydration. There are countless eye creams available on the market today, making it seem nearly impossible to find the “right one” that meets our specific under eye needs. It is imperative to find a product that has been formulated to address a variety of complex eye area problems.
Below you’ll find some of the most effective eye cream formulations on the market today, in our opinion.
Our Top Eye Cream Choices *
ConsumerReviews.tv is dedicated to bringing you the best products with the most effective ingredients. Our unique Review Ranking Platform combines our personal experience with online reviews and opinions from over 100 independent review websites.
Treat skin morning and night by applying Eye Restoration Complex to the corners, lid, and suborbital eye area, massaging in thoroughly until absorbed. As with all facial skin care products, avoid getting into your eyes. If contact occurs, rinse thoroughly with water.
Description
New Olay Professional Pro-X is a scientifically advanced line of skin care products created by an inspired partnership of P&G Beauty scientists and renowned dermatologists.
Together, they took advantage of the very latest research, technology, ingredients, and thinking to create these advanced anti-aging products.
And as with all Pro-X products, it has been designed and tested to resignal skin to perform more like it did when it was younger.* And younger-acting skin means younger-looking skin. Guaranteed.*** Product Features
Olay’s new Professional line of skin care products
Professionally designed by an inspired partnership of P&G Beauty scientists and a renowned team of dermatologists
Anti-aging technology resignals skin to perform more like it did when it was younger*
Eye Restorative Complex hydrates to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in the eye area and diminish under-eye darkness
Clinically proven anti-aging results in 28 days.** Guaranteed***
Eye Restoration Complex is professionally designed for the part of your face that communicates age the most: the delicate eye area. This specialized treatment hydrates to restore the area to its optimum appearance by improving the look of dark circles, puffiness, and crow’s feet.
Prescribed Protocol for Maximum Results
Protect
skin in the morning with Age Repair Lotion with SPF 30
Treat
skin morning and night by applying Eye Restoration Complex to the corners, lid, and suborbital eye area, massaging in thoroughly until until absorbed.
Transform
skin at night with Wrinkle Soothing Cream or Hydra Firming Cream
Professional Skin Expertise
Olay Professional is at the forefront of science and anti-aging technology. Leading dermatologists and Olay skin scientists have partnered to establish the Olay Professional Advisory Panel. This team has professionally designed and professionally tested these products by selecting anti-aging ingredients to treat your specific skin care concerns. Through this partnership, Pro-X was created to bring you prescribed regimens to Protect, Treat, and Transform your skin’s appearance.
Olay Professional Promise
We promise your satisfaction with this product or we’ll refund your money. Guaranteed. Call 1-866-511-OLAY (6529) for information on the guarantee or visit olayprofessional.com for information and regimen tips.
*Resignals skin by increasing surface turnover and repairing the moisture barrier.
**Discoloration Fighting Concentrate reduces appearance of discoloration in eight weeks.
***Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. For details, call 1-866-511-OLAY (6529).
Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Dimethicone, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Isohexadecane, Polyethylene, Caffeine, Isopropyl Isostearate, Behenyl Alcohol, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Tocopheryl Acetate, Panthenol, Palmitoyl Dipeptide 7, Palmitoyl Dipeptide 4, Carnosine, Dimethiconol, Stearyl Alcohol, Sodium Acrylate/Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, PEG 100 Stearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Cetyl Alcohol, Sucrose Polycottonseedate, Titanium Dioxide, Polysorbate 80, Propylparaben, Stearic Acid, PEG 4 Dilaurate, PEG 4 Laurate, Decyl Glucoside, Lactic Acid, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, PEG 4, Citric Acid, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Ammonium Polyacrylate, Disodium EDTA
Treat skin morning and night by applying Eye Restoration Complex to the corners, lid, and suborbital eye area, massaging in thoroughly until absorbed. As with all facial skin care products, avoid getting into your eyes. If contact occurs, rinse thoroughly with water.
Проверенная покупка: да | Состояние товара: Новые
товар 1 ProX by Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 fl. Torn Box 1 – ProX by Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 fl. Torn Box
товар 2 ProX By Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 Fl Oz 2 – ProX By Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 Fl Oz
товар 3 Olay Professional Pro-X Eye Restoration Complex
NEW! 3 – Olay Professional Pro-X Eye Restoration Complex
товар 4 ProX By Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Cream 15 ml New 4 – ProX By Olay Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Cream 15 ml New
товар 5 ProX by OLAY Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 fl oz – New 5 – ProX by OLAY Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex 0.5 fl oz – New
товар 6 Olay ProX Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex NEW 15ml 6 – Olay ProX Dermatological Anti-Aging Eye Restoration Complex NEW 15ml
товар 7 Olay Professional Pro x Eye Restoration Complex Renewal Cleanser 0.5 fl oz 15 ml 7 – Olay Professional Pro x Eye Restoration Complex Renewal Cleanser 0.5 fl oz 15 ml
The number at the end refers to the oil-loving part and the bigger the number the more emulsifying power it has. 20 is a weak emulsifier, rather called solubilizer used commonly in toners while 60 and 80 are more common in serums and creams.
Prox eye restoration complex reviews
A handy multi-tasker, white to light yellowish oil-loving wax that works very well in oil-in-water emulsions. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), stabilizes oil-water mixes and gives body to them.
Oh, and one more thing: it's a so-called fatty alcohol – the good, emollient type of alcohol that is non-drying and non-irritating. It is often mixed with fellow fatty alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and the mixture is called Cetearyl Alcohol in the ingredient list.
A very common water-loving surfactant and emulsifier that helps to keep water and oil mixed nicely together.
It's often paired with glyceryl stearate – the two together form a super effective emulsifier duo that's salt and acid tolerant and works over a wide pH range. It also gives a "pleasing product aesthetics", so no wonder it's popular.
A sugar based emulsifier that's especially great for low viscosity lotions or even sprays. It's effective in small amounts, only 1-1.5% is needed to form an emulsion. The resulting cream or lotion has great cosmetic properties with good spreadability and an enhanced soft skin feel.
An extremely common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams and lotions. It also helps to stabilize oil-water mixes (emulsions), though it does not function as an emulsifier in itself. Its typical use level in most cream type formulas is 2-3%.
It’s a so-called fatty alcohol, a mix of cetyl and stearyl alcohol, other two emollient fatty alcohols. Though chemically speaking, it is alcohol (as in, it has an -OH group in its molecule), its properties are totally different from the properties of low molecular weight or drying alcohols such as denat. alcohol. Fatty alcohols have a long oil-soluble (and thus emollient) tail part that makes them absolutely non-drying and non-irritating and are totally ok for the skin.
A so-called fatty (the good, non-drying kind of) alcohol that does all kinds of things in a skincare product: it makes your skin feel smooth and nice (emollient), helps to thicken up products and also helps water and oil to blend (emulsifier). Can be derived from coconut or palm kernel oil.
A copolymer is a big molecule that consists not of one but of two repeating subunits. This particular copolymer is a handy helper ingredient to form nice gel textures.
It usually comes to the formula combined with emollients (such as C13-14 Isoparaffin, Isohexadecane, Isononyl Isononanoate or Squalane) and can be used as an emulsifier and/or thickener to produce milky gel emulsions with a soft and non-tacky skin feel.
A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type with a long oil loving chain of 22 carbon atoms) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and it also helps the oily and the watery parts to stay nicely mixed together (called emulsion stabilizing).
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives, such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol.
The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature – in green tea – but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Expand to read more
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Titanium Dioxide is one of the two members of the elite sunscreen group called physical sunscreens (or inorganic sunscreens if you’re a science geek and want to be precise).
Traditionally, UV-filters are categorized as either chemical or physical. The big difference is supposed to be that chemical agents absorb UV-light while physical agents reflect it like a bunch of mini umbrellas on top of the skin. While this categorization is easy and logical it turns out it's not true. A recent, 2016 study shows that inorganic sunscreens work mostly by absorption, just like chemical filters, and only a little bit by reflection (they do reflect the light in the visible spectrum, but mostly absorb in the UV spectrum).
Expand to read more
Anyway, it doesn't matter if it reflects or absorbs, Titanium Dioxide is a pretty awesome sunscreen agent for two main reasons: it gives a nice broad spectrum coverage and it's highly stable. Its protection is very good between 290 – 350 nm (UVB and UVA II range), and less good at 350-400 nm (UVA I) range. Regular sized Titanium Dioxide also has a great safety profile, it's non-irritating and is pretty much free from any health concerns (like estrogenic effect worries with some chemical filters).
The disadvantage of Titanium Dioxide is that it's not cosmetically elegant, meaning it's a white, "unspreadable" mess. Sunscreens containing Titanium Dioxide are often hard to spread on the skin and they leave a disturbing whitish tint. The cosmetic industry is, of course, really trying to solve this problem and the best solution so far is using nanoparticles. The itsy-bitsy Nano-sized particles improve both spreadability and reduce the whitish tint a lot, but unfortunately, it also introduces new health concerns.
The main concern with nanoparticles is that they are so tiny that they are absorbed into the skin more than we want them (ideally sunscreen should remain on the surface of the skin). Once absorbed they might form unwanted complexes with proteins and they might promote the formation of evil free radicals. But do not panic, these are concerns under investigation. A 2009 review article about the safety of nanoparticles summarizes this, "to date, in-vivo and in-vitro studies have not demonstrated percutaneous penetration of nanosized particles in titanium dioxide and zinc oxide sunscreens". The English translation is, so far it looks like sunscreens with nanoparticles do stay on the surface of the skin where they should be.
All in all, Titanium Dioxide is a famous sunscreen agent and for good reason, it gives broad spectrum UV protection (best at UVB and UVA II), it's highly stable, and it has a good safety profile. It's definitely one of the best UV-filter agents we have today, especially in the US where new-generation Tinosorb filters are not (yet) approved.
A thick, high molecular weight silicone that is usually diluted in another, lighter silicone fluid (like dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane). The dimethiconol containing silicone blends leave a silky smooth, non-greasy film on the skin.
A common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier.
The number at the end refers to the oil-loving part and the bigger the number the more emulsifying power it has. 20 is a weak emulsifier, rather called solubilizer used commonly in toners while 60 and 80 are more common in serums and creams.
A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It works mainly against fungi.
It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5). It’s not strong enough to be used in itself so it’s always combined with something else, often with potassium sorbate.
A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oil mixes (aka emulsions).
A fatty acid that can be found naturally in the skin. In fact, it's the most common saturated fatty acid found in animals and plants.
As for skincare, it can make the skin feel nice and smooth in moisturizers (emollient) or it can act as a foam building cleansing agent in cleansers. It's also a very popular ingredient in shaving foams.
Super common little helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA.
So citric acid is an exfoliant, that can – just like other AHAs – gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it more smooth and fresh.
Expand to read more
There is also some research showing that citric acid with regular use (think three months and 20% concentration) can help sun-damaged skin, increase skin thickness and some nice hydrating things called glycosaminoglycans in the skin.
But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. Probably that’s why citric acid is usually not used as an exfoliant but more as a helper ingredient in small amounts to adjust the pH of a formulation.
A really multi-functional helper ingredient that can do several things in a skincare product: it can bring a soft and pleasant feel to the formula, it can act as a humectant and emollient, it can be a solvent for some other ingredients (for example it can help to stabilize perfumes in watery products) and it can also help to disperse pigments more evenly in makeup products. And that is still not all: it can also boost the antimicrobial activity of preservatives.
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Expand to read more
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside – putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
A super commonly used 5 unit long, cyclic structured silicone that is water-thin and does not stay on the skin but evaporates from it (called volatile silicone). Similar to other silicones, it gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.
It's often combined with the non-volatile (i.e. stays on the skin) dimethicone as the two together form a water-resistant, breathable protective barrier on the skin without a negative tacky feel.
- A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
- A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
- Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
- Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits at higher concentrations up to 20-40% (around 10% is a good usability-effectiveness sweet spot)
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
- A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
- Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
- Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
- Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
- Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis
Probably the most common silicone of all. It is a polymer (created from repeating subunits) molecule and has different molecular weight and thus different viscosity versions from water-light to thick liquid.
As for skincare, it makes the skin silky smooth, creates a subtle gloss and forms a protective barrier (aka occlusive). Also, works well to fill in fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a plump look (of course that is only temporary, but still, it's nice). There are also scar treatment gels out there using dimethicone as their base ingredient. It helps to soften scars and increase their elasticity.
Expand to read more
As for hair care, it is a non-volatile silicone meaning that it stays on the hair rather than evaporates from it and smoothes the hair like no other thing. Depending on your hair type, it can be a bit difficult to wash out and might cause some build-up (btw, this is not true to all silicones, only the non-volatile types).
A spherical texturizing powder that's used as a texture enhancer and soft focus agent. It's claimed to give silicone type softness to the formula and also works as a (temporary) wrinkle filler.
A light, velvety, unique skin feel liquid that is a good solvent and also makes the skin feel nice and smooth (aka emollient). It's often used in makeup products mixed with silicones to give shine and slip to the product. It's also great for cleansing dirt and oil from the skin as well as for taking off make-up.
Polyethylene is the most common plastic in the world. It is a super versatile polymer (molecule from repeated subunits) and when it comes to cosmetics, it is often referred to as microbeads. Well, it used to be referred to as microbeads, as it was banned in 2015 in the " Microbead-Free Waters Act" due to the small plastic spheres accumulating in the waters and looking like food to fish. Well done by Obama.
But being versatile means that polyethylene does not only come as scrub particles but also as a white wax. In its wax-form, it is still well, alive and pretty popular. It thickens up water-free formulas, increases hardness and raises the melting point of emulsions and water-less balms. It is particularly common in cleansing balms and stick-type makeup products due to its ability to add body, hardness and slip to these formulas.
An oily liquid (ester) that makes your skin nice and smooth, aka emollient. It is described as highly emollient or substantive, but with a light and easy spreading and nonoily skin feel.
Hello, our favorite molecule that helps us wake up in the morning and then keeps us going through the day. As a super well-known stimulant from coffee, tea and plenty of other soft drinks, Caffeine needs no introduction. So we will skip right to the part where we talk about what the hell it does in so-so many cosmetic products.
Looking at the research, we were surprised to find how versatile Caffeine is. It is a small, water-loving molecule with pretty good skin penetration abilties. Once in the skin, it has nice antioxidant properties, meaning that it reduces the formation of evil free radicals and it might even be useful in preventing UV-induced skin cancers.
Expand to read more
A well-known thing about Caffeine is that it improves the microcirculation of the blood vessels. Though conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence says that this property is helpful for dark under-eye circles and puffy eyes, we have to mention that the double-blind research we have found about a 3% caffeine gel concluded that "the overall efficacy of the selected caffeine gel in reducing puffy eyes was not significantly different from that of its gel base." But you know, the proof is in the pudding.
Another thing Caffeine is used for in body care products is its anti-cellulite effects. In theory, it can speed up the lipolysis process (the "fat burning" by our cells) and stimulate the draining lymph system that might lead to the improvement of cellulite. But here again, the evidence that it actually makes a measurable, let alone visible, improvement on actual human beings is limited (we could find only some animal skin studies or caffeine being combined with other actives).
Last, but not least, we have to write about caffeine and hair growth. The theory is that it can inhibit the activity of the 5-α-reductase enzyme that plays an important role in hair loss and allows a renewed growth phase of the hair. We have found some recent and promising research to back this up. A 2017 study compared a 0.2% caffeine liquid with a 5% Minoxidil (an FDA approved active to treat baldness) solution and found that "a caffeine-based topical liquid should be considered as not inferior to minoxidil 5% solution in men with androgenetic alopecia", or English translation means that the caffeine liquid was pretty much as good as the FDA-approved Minoxidil stuff. Not bad!
Overall, we think that caffeine is a very versatile and biologically active ingredient. Even though some of its effects are more hyped up than backed up, it is still a nice to have on many ingredient lists.
A pretty famous and better-researched peptide consisting of five amino acids (the building blocks of all proteins). It was created in a joint effort by the French ingredient supplier, Sederma and the cosmetics industry big shot, Procter&Gamble.
The amino acid sequence of the peptide is lysine–threonine–threonine–lysine–serine (KTTKS). Sometimes, it's also called collagen pentapeptide, as it's a subfragment of skin-structure-giving type I collagen. The KTTKS amino sequence is then attached for better oil solubility and skin penetration to palmitic acid and BOOM; we get Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4.
Expand to read more
Though most research is manufacturer sponsored, the clinical studies about Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 are promising. In short, it can reduce fine lines, wrinkles and improve skin texture significantly (and at crazy low concentrations, the studies were done with just 3 ppm that is 0.0003%).
There are also studies comparing Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 with anti-aging gold standard, retinol. One of them compared 3ppm Pal-KTTKS with 700 ppm (0.07%) retinol and found that they showed similar wrinkle improving ability with the peptide showing better skin tolerability.
Bottom line, if you are into peptides, this is a good one to try.
We don’t have description for this ingredient yet.
Though its name does not reveal it, Carnosine is a peptide, a small, two amino acid (β-Ala-His) one. It is naturally present in high concentrations in muscle and brain tissues, but the one used in cosmetic products is biomimetic, meaning that it is synthetically produced in a lab to copy the natural thing.
A 2017 review paper on topical peptides writes about Carnosine that it is a "well-documented aqueous antioxidant with wound healing activity".
Expand to read more
Other than that we can write about manufacturer-done in-vitro (in the lab, not on real people) studies that show Carnosine to have anti-glycation properties. Glycation is the not-so-nice process that happens when we bombard our body with too much sugar that results in damaged body proteins and eventually in more wrinkles.
Also, a manufacturer done in vitro study shows that carnosine might have collagen-boosing magic power. However, the 2017 research paper also mentions that even though Carnosine is a small molecule, it is water soluble and does not penetrate the skin past the top layers so we have some doubt if the collagen-boosting works in real life. We could find one anti-aging study made on real people that mentions Carnosine, but it was combined with a bunch of other anti-aging actives so it is pretty much impossible to know what Carnosine did or did not.
One last thing to mention is that there is also a manufacturer done clinical study (done on real people) that shows carnosine being effective against the damages caused by infrared (IR) radiation. (source)
An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid).
Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier.
Expand to read more
Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. fragrance, preservatives or chemical sunscreens) in the product.
Research also shows that it might be useful for wound healing as it promotes fibroblast (nice type of cells in our skin that produce skin-firming collagen) proliferation.
If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. A study shows that a nail treatment liquide with 2% panthenol could effectively get into the nail and significantly increase the hydration of it.
As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Panthenol might make your hair softer, more elastic and helps to comb your hair more easily.
It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.
According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.
A high-molecular-weight silicone elastomer (rubber-like elastic material) that is usually blended with a base silicone fluid (such as dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane) to give the formula a silky smooth feel and to act as a thickening agent.