Over the last few years, I feel ingredients are becoming just as well-known as products themselves. I remember years ago, clients would ask about certain products on the market, but now, years later, they ask about ingredients.
I thought I would give you a run down of some of my favourite ingredients that I like to use in my clinic and also what products contain them.
VITAMIN A AND RETINOL
There is a huge buzz about retinol over the last few years. Even though it has been used for a very long time in skincare, it suddenly has become very popular. Retinol is a form of Vitamin A that is used in skincare to help with cell turnover, lightening and brightening the skin amongst other things too.
I like retinol but it must be used in a product that is very well formulated with very high quality delivery systems to prevent irritation to the skin. Luckily, Nimue uses encapsulated Vitamin A to allow it to be released at the correct point in the skin to cause minimum irritation. Vitamin A esters are in numerous products in the Nimue range.
If you wish to learn more about the Nimue products, please click here to book an online skin consultation with me.
HYALURONIC ACID
An ingredient that can actually hold up to a thousand times it's own weight in water. I've used hyaluronic acid for years in my skincare products and in treatments. I love how hydrating it is and have used it in The Face Cream (one of the reasons it's so hydrating and yet so lightweight) and also the Vitamin C serum too.
PEPTIDES
Peptides are amino acids (proteins) that when applied to the skin, act like messengers which can trigger skin cells to boost collagen and elastin production. This is be very beneficial to the skin from an anti-ageing perspective. They can also stimulate the skin to perform other tasks. Nimue use a peptide complex (which is a botox like ingredient) in their products to help reduce muscle contractions, smooth expression lines and also to form a barrier to increase hydration (Peptide complex is in the Nimue Skin Refirmer).
I use peptides in my Hydrating Face Mask as an MMP inhibitor (MMP stands for Matrix Metalloproteinase) to prevent the breakdown of collagen and elastin in the skin.
VITAMIN C
An amazing antioxidant for the skin and also can be used to help brighten and lighten the skin. It's very important that you use products that contain high quality and stable forms of vitamin C as it can oxidise very easily.
Nimue use a delivery system which encapsulates the vitamin C to prevent oxidation and in my products I use a very stable form of vitamin C again to prevent oxidation of the product. Vitamin C is found in my Vitamin C serum and is a great antioxidant for the skin. Combined with a complex of seven Swiss alpine plants, it can help to lighten and brighten the skin.
GLYCOLIC ACID
A wonderful ingredient that I've been using for many years in my clinic (and even before then!).
Glycolic acid is wonderful at helping to boost the collagen production, gently exfoliate and hydrate the skin, as well as allowing it to be more permeable to let products penetrate in better.
Nimue uses glycolic acid throughout it's product range as part of their triply alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) complex to give the wonderful results that Nimue does.
I hope you have found this useful,
Thank you so much for reading,
Emmaline x