Peptide Skincare & BeautySkin science and ingredient guides

Product and ingredient reference

Paula's Choice Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner (Discontinued)

Paula's Choice Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner (Discontinued) Paula's Choice Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner ingredients explained: Aqua, Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Leaf Extract (Anti-Irritant), Epilobium Angustifolium (Willow Herb) Extrac

Paula's Choice Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner (Discontinued) Paula's Choice Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner ingredients explained: Aqua, Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Leaf Extract (Anti-Irritant), Epilobium Angustifolium (Willow Herb) Extract (Anti-Irritant), Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract (Antioxidant), Sodium Hyaluronate (Water-Binding Agent), Glycerin (Humectant), Methyl Gluceth-20 (Skin-Conditioning Agent), Sodium Pca (Water-Binding Agent), Allantoin (Anti-Irritant), Butylene Glycol (Water-Binding Agent Humectant/Slip Agent), Caprylyl Glycol (Preservative), Hexylene Glycol (Preservative), Bisabolol (Anti-Irritanting Agent), Panthenol (Anti-Irritating), Polysorbate 20 (Emulsifier), Peg-90M (Stabilizer), Sodium Chloride (Ph Adjuster), Sodium Citrate (Ph Adjuster), Citric Acid (Ph Adjuster), Potassium Phosphate (Ph Adjuster), Phenoxyethanol (Preservative) Show all ingredients by function Aqua solvent Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Leaf Extract (Anti-Irritant) antioxidant, soothing goodie Epilobium Angustifolium (Willow Herb) Extract (Anti-Irritant) Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract (Antioxidant) soothing, antioxidant, moisturizer/​humectant Sodium Hyaluronate (Water-Binding Agent) skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 Glycerin (Humectant) superstar Methyl Gluceth-20 (Skin-Conditioning Agent) moisturizer/​humectant Sodium Pca (Water-Binding Agent) Allantoin (Anti-Irritant) soothing Butylene Glycol (Water-Binding Agent Humectant/Slip Agent) moisturizer/​humectant, solvent 0, 1 Caprylyl Glycol (Preservative) moisturizer/​humectant, emollient Hexylene Glycol (Preservative) solvent, emulsifying, perfuming, surfactant/​cleansing 0-1, 0-2 Bisabolol (Anti-Irritanting Agent) Panthenol (Anti-Irritating) soothing, moisturizer/​humectant Polysorbate 20 (Emulsifier) emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing Peg-90M (Stabilizer) viscosity controlling Sodium Chloride (Ph Adjuster) Sodium Citrate (Ph Adjuster) chelating, buffering Citric Acid (Ph Adjuster) buffering Potassium Phosphate (Ph Adjuster) Phenoxyethanol (Preservative) preservative 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. Camellia Oleifera is a type of green tea plant that's mostly known for the oil that comes from its seeds. As for the leaves, it has similar properties as the better known and more often used Camellia Sinensis leaves. You can read all the geeky details about green tea and why it's awesome by clicking here, but in short, it has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory magic properties. We don't have description for this ingredient yet. When it comes to grape and skincare, the seed extract and the seed oil steals most of the show. The reason for that is that the seed contains the majority of the skin goodies, the antioxidant superstar polyphenols. The fruit also contains some, but it's less potent. However - according to manufacturer info - the fruit extract is not only an antioxidant, but it's also a soothing, moisturizing and nourishing agent. It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF, hyaluronic acid (HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water. As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephen writes on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution". In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checked Prospector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight). What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate and cheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists. If you wanna become a what‑it‑does antioxidant | soothing soothing | antioxidant | moisturizer/humectant skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant irritancy, com. moisturizer/humectant moisturizer/humectant | solvent moisturizer/humectant | emollient solvent | emulsifying | perfuming | surfactant/cleansing soothing | moisturizer/humectant emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing chelating | buffering

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