Skin-identical ingredients – How to recognize a good face cream

What care does highly sensitive skin need?

Do you actually know what is really important in good skin care? Especially if you are struggling with sensitive, dry or oily skin, with redness, pimples or skin diseases, choosing the right ingredients in your skin care is essential. It is about using ingredients that are naturally found in the skin's protective layer. Such biomimetic substances - i.e. based on nature's example - can be integrated particularly well into the skin. They strengthen our body's protective shell in its lamellar structure and regenerate the skin's functionality.

What is the importance of a healthy skin barrier?

According to the corneotherapy approach, the primary goal of any effective skin care is to restore and strengthen the skin barrier as part of the horny layer (stratum corneum). This forms the protective shield of our skin. How can we imagine the skin barrier?

The structure of the barrier layer of the epidermis resembles a brick wall: So-called horny cells (corneocytes) form the uppermost layer of the epidermis. They correspond to the bricks of a brick wall. The horny cells are held together by the skin's own lipids (fats), which correspond to the mortar of a brick wall. The skin's own lipids make up up to 50% of the skin barrier.

What are ceramides?

Ceramides (Latin: cera = wax) are lipids found in the skin. The skin barrier is made up of around 60% different ceramides. They form the "glue substance" between the horny cells of the epidermis. Ceramides are formed by phosphatidylcholine as a membrane lipid. Phosphatidylcholine is therefore a precursor of all ceramides.

Phosphatidylcholine as a precursor of all ceramides

Depending on the individual skin needs, phosphatidylcholine forms different proportions of the 9 different types of ceramide that occur naturally in the skin barrier and ensure its functionality. An inappropriate distribution of ceramides in a cream - or even just one type of ceramide in high concentration - can therefore do more harm than good.

In the formulations of myrto facial care, you will therefore not find the ingredient name "ceramides", but rather phosphatidylcholine in its hydrogenated, i.e. stabilized form as "hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine". This means that the individually necessary, naturally perfect mixture of ceramides can be produced by the body itself.

What are the functions of ceramides?

Ceramides are still considered an insider tip in skin care. Their job is to strengthen the skin barrier and keep the skin supple and firm. They minimize moisture loss from the skin (TEWL = trans epidermal water loss), stimulate the formation of collagen and thus delay the skin's aging process. Ceramides, as an essential component of the skin barrier, prevent harmful irritants such as allergens, bacteria or viruses from penetrating the skin from the outside. They thus counteract inflammation, impure skin and pimples.

Skin-identical facial care with DMS creams

Our DMS face creams were developed to give sensitive and problematic skin exactly the care it really needs. DMS stands for "Derma Membrane Structure". DMS creams mimic the skin barrier by being made up of microscopic, lamellar lipid layers between which water-containing substances are stored. This highly effective skin care is biomimetic. That is, it follows nature's example.

You can tell the difference from normal oil-in-water or water-in-oil emulsions by looking at the ingredients in the INCI list of a cream, especially the skin-related lipid substance "Hydrogenated Phosphatidylcholine". With phosphatidylcholine, you can be sure that the other active ingredients in a formulation - such as vitamin C or niacinamide - penetrate particularly deeply into the skin, are gentle on the skin and have a long-lasting effect.

lamellar lipid structure

Skin-identical face creams have a lamellar lipid structure - just like the skin barrier. The oily and aqueous components of such biomimetic creams are connected via phosphatidylcholine as the skin's own emulsifier. The minimalist formulations rebuild and strengthen a weakened skin barrier.

Valuable skin-identical ingredients are:

• Phosphatidylcholine ✓ occurs in hydrogenated form as "Hydrogenated Phospatidylcholine".
• Ceramides ✓ are naturally formed by phosphatodylcholine.
• Linoleic acid ✓ is also contained in phosphatidylcholine at around 60%, and high amounts are also found in grape seed or argan oil.
• Linolenic acid ✓ is mainly found in pomegranate seed, evening primrose or hemp oil.
• Hyaluronic acid ✓ binds up to 1000 times its molecular weight in water.
• Squalene ✓ is contained, for example, in amaranth seed oil, in saturated form as squalane.
• Beta-glucan ✓ builds up the skin barrier, binds moisture deeply and has an anti-inflammatory effect.

What are the benefits of skin-identical facial care?

• Optimized skin compatibility
  Biomimetic DMS creams, with their lamellar lipid structure, are as skin-friendly as possible - not only for hypersensitive, itchy or irritated skin, but also for skin conditions such as neurodermatitis, rosacea, acne or psoriasis. The explanation: ingredients that occur naturally in our skin in this or a similar form can be integrated particularly well.
• strengthening the skin barrier
  An intact skin barrier is the fundamental prerequisite for long-term youthful and firm skin. DMS creams regenerate and strengthen the skin barrier. They are able to "merge" with the skin barrier and repair porous areas of the skin barrier.
• Deep effect through liposomal encapsulation
  Skin-identical lipids such as phosphatodylcholine have the ability to encapsulate active ingredients as liposomes (ancient Greek: fat bodies) with the help of their phospholipid double layers and transport them into deeper layers of the skin. Liposomal encapsulation extends the duration of the active ingredients' effects and also improves their skin compatibility. The skin-identical natural active ingredient phosphatodylcholine, obtained from the sunflower, is an essential component of all myrto face creams and most of our face serums.
• Improved immune protection of the skin
  Harmful microorganisms such as bacteria or viruses, allergens and irritants are repelled by a strong protective skin barrier, so that blemishes, pimples or pustules do not even form.
• No unnecessary additives
  The myrto facial care products contain a minimalist number of exclusively high-quality natural ingredients. They do not contain any fillers. They are free from additives such as alcohol, fragrances, common emulsifiers or synthetic preservatives.