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Mixing products at home is easier than you would expect. We had a few customers come to Skin Actives and try mixing some products for themselves. Here is a short video describing their experiences:
Lauren and the rest of the lab crew are continuing to experiment with Pullulan. Our hope is to have a mask ready for launch by the end of July, and we are also looking forward to introducing a new product for the elimination of black heads, using a concentrated Pullulan mix and our Alpha-Beta Exfoliator. Adventurous home formulators can start experimenting with it this month.
A preview of our new home page can be found here. Let us know what you think!
We are trying to find new ways to get the word out about Skin Actives. One thing we like to do is send out samples to bloggers. Jessie wrote a review of our Pain Relief Cream on her blog - http://jessiereview.blogspot.com/2014/06/skinactives-review.html.
"If there is one thing everyone knows about me, It's I have a lot of back problems. I have had two back surgeries and so many blocks I cant keep track so needless to say i'm always in pain. When I got the chance to review Skinactives Pain Relief Cream I jumped at it, and I am so glad I did because this pain relief cream is incredible it took almost all my back pain away in the area that I rubbed the cream in and for me that's hard for any pain relief cream to do. All you have to do is massage a small amount into the problem areas once per day to alleviate aches and pains. You can purchase Skinactives Pain Relief Cream for only 13.00 at http://www.skinactives.com/Pain-Relief-Cream.html"
Please contact your favorite product reviewers and bloggers know about us. we will be happy to send them samples. Please also let all your friends know about us, or even better, create a cream or other product for them to use.
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 Tightening Collagen Serum with Pullulan
This is our Collagen Serum, the most popular product we sell, tweaked with Pullulan and additional texture changes.
We will include a 1 fl. oz. bottle with orders over $150, and a 10 ml tube with orders over $50. Try it out!
[Bonus products are added automatically. No code is required, and they will not show in the shopping cart.]
Our June bonus items were a Tightening Eye Cream and an antioxidant moisturizing cream:
To make the tightening version of our eye cream at home, mix a small amount of pullulan slowly, up to a quarter teaspoon into half an ounce of our Bright-I Cream. Add four or five drops of ELS.
To make the antioxidant cream, simply mix Astaxanthin into a jar of our Canvas Cream until it is a light orange color. Add a tube of Mangiferin (1.2 grams) and mix well.
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A complete list of our ready to use products can be found here.
All our 'make your own' ingredients can be found here.
Looking for a great gift? Ideas can be found: http://www.skinactives.com/Gift-Ideas.html
Skin Actives Gift Certificates can be purchased: http://www.skinactives.com/giftcert.php
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This ready to use formulation is now our preferred delivery method for our best water soluble antioxidants. The formula has now been updated to include our ROS* Terminator ingredients including Thioredoxin and Glutaredoxin. Hannah has also included a rare antioxidant, 3-Deoxyanthocyanidin from Sorghum bicolor.
ROS* are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen, e.g. oxygen ions and peroxides. ROS* form as a natural byproduct of respiration, and our body (including skin) has the means to deal with them. However, during times of environmental stress, like exposure to UV or heat, ROS* levels can increase dramatically, causing significant damage to cell structures. This syndrome is known as oxidative stress.
The antioxidant serum works to destroy ROS* and protect your skin. It is indispensable to anyone living in polluted environments or those who are frequently exposed to the sun. It is our number one recommendation for smokers.
More information on antioxidants and the skin can be found here.
Ingredients:
Distilled Water (Aqua), Lactobacillus/Kelp Ferment Filtrate, Sodium PCA, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C), Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), Carnosine (L-), Carnitine (L-), Tetrahydrocurcuminoids (Tetrahydrodiferuloylmethane, Tetrahydrodemethoxydiferuloylmethane, Tetrahydrobisdemethoxydiferuloylmethane), Ferulic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG, Green Tea, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract), Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone, Aloe Polysaccharides (Aloe barbadensis Leaf Extract), 3-Deoxyanthocyanidin, Lycopene, Glutathione, Glutaredoxin, Thioredoxin, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Catalase, Porphyridium extract, Fucoxanthin, Astaxanthin, Citric Acid, Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.
Reviews:
"I LOVE the Antioxidant Serum with ROS. It soaks in immediately and leaves my skin soft and feeling tightened. I feel like I have seen fine lines disappearing after using the serum for a few weeks. I have had issues with rosacea and my skin tends to be very sensitive, but my skin really reacted well to this serum. I would definitely buy this serum. The only thing I didn't love about it was the smell, just because it smells a little fishy to me, but I don't smell it on my face. I have not used your Antioxidant serum before, but this one is awesome."
"This goes on very nicely and is not sticky or drying or flaky at all. I am happy to report it does not flare up my Rosacea and somehow using this after the celestite spray takes all red out of my face, even better than the celestite spray + the Rosacea serum! how can this be? :)
I am also glad about the new improved antioxidant serum including the ROS terminator in it, as I was wanting to try that, but a little bit afraid to because I didn't know how or if it would effect my redness, so I was waiting to see if it would be available in a sample. I am having my husband use this as well and when this is available for purchase I will purchase this for him (and me) to replace his coral serum and maybe even my Rosacea serum(or I will layer them) I had previously used the usual anti oxidant serum last year and liked it but I did not re-order as I really was liking the rosacea serum better. I really hope this will be available soon as we are both using it, I will run out sooner!"
See all the unedited reviews here.
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Pullulan
http://www.skinactives.com/Pullulan.html
 Pullulan is a polysaccharide consisting of maltotriose units, it is a α-1,4- ;α-1,6-glucan. Three glucose units in maltotriose are connected by an α-1,4 glycosidic bond, and the consecutive maltotriose units are connected to each other by an α-1,6 glycosidic bond. Pullulan is produced by the fungus Aureobasidium pullulans.
As an edible, mostly tasteless polymer, the chief commercial use of pullulan is in the manufacture of edible films that are used in various breath freshener or oral hygiene products. Pullulan is also used as a carrier for other chemicals by scientists trying to elicit an immune response (vaccination) to cancer cells or just for drug delivery.
In skin care, I consider pullulan to be a “make-up†type of ingredient because its tightening effect is almost instant but it will wash away. Long-term, it will enhance the immune response and make the skin more resistant to infections.
Other brands using Pullulan: Borghese Body contour crème, Kinerase extreme lift eye serum and Zirh Platinum total recharge facial serum.
Directions: At this moment we recommend Pullulan only for experienced formulators.
We have been experimenting with various concentrations of Pullulan in our standard products. It can be used at almost any concentration, our preference is 0.5%. We recommend mixing a smaller quantity first and adding it slowly until the optimal consistency is found.
Each tube contains enough powder to go four times higher than that in 4 fl oz of cream.
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The new website design is taking shape. As part of the website redesign we have been filming new information videos. The new videos can be found on our YouTube channel.
Here is a another sample clip:
Glycans in skin care
We know that genetic information is carried by our genes in DNA, and by the RNA and proteins resulting from the DNA-carried information. But glycans also carry information in processes like cell growth and apoptosis, folding and routing of glycoproteins, cell-cell interactions and cell adhesion and migration.
Lectins are proteins that recognize specific glycan configurations and are involved in recognition of pathogens. The carbohydrate-binding activity of most lectins resides in a small portion of the protein. For a history of 130 years of research on lectins, see the review by Nathan Sharon and Halina Lis (2004)
People old enough to remember the Cold War may remember a particularly nasty example of lectin use in a political assassination: ricin. How does ricin kill? It binds to human cells containing either terminal N-acetyl galactosamine or beta-1,4-linked galactose residues. Another example of a very relevant lectin is the influenza virus hemagglutinin, responsible for the attachment of the virus to the host cells, a prerequisite for infection. 
At Skin Actives, we have been using Glycobiology research for quite a while, and have written in our newsletter about the benefits of yeast beta glucan. Dectin-1 is a lectin, a small trans-membrane receptor which recognizes beta-1,3 and beta-1,6-glucans, granting humans innate immunity.
Lectins and the Skin
The first human lectin was identified in 1974, but the work on skin lectin receptors lags well behind that on receptors present in other human organs. There is a receptor lectin in fibroblasts and keratinocytes that recognizes rhamnose (a methyl pentose) not synthesized by humans. From the point of view of skin aging, an issue so dear to the skin care industry (including us at SAS!) it is known that applying rhamnose containing glycans to the skin stimulates cell proliferation, decreases elastase-type activity, stimulates collagen biosynthesis, and protects hyaluronan against free radical mediated degradation. This is a very useful effect, even if we don’t know what the primary function of this receptor lectin is supposed to be. Based on what we know about lectin receptors, we can hypothesize that they have something to do with the beneficial bacteria that live on our skin, but the receptor could also be just an evolutionary leftover. Living organisms, even viruses, possess sophisticated enzymatic systems devoted to making the glycans and also the lectins to recognize them, so I am sure there are more interesting stories to be discovered by scientists that will be later used in medicine and even skin care.
People with skin conditions characterized by excessive cell division, like psoriasis, should avoid glycans that promote cell division (dectin-1 seems to be over-expressed in psoriatic skin), but glycans that modulate the immune response, like fucoidans and yeast beta glucans, should be fine.
Lectins may have implications for allergy: galectin-3 is highly expressed in epithelial cells including keratinocytes and is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory skin diseases by affecting the functions of immune cells. For example, galectin-3 can contribute to atopic dermatitis and may also be involved in the development of contact hypersensitivity by regulating migration of antigen presenting cells. Human milk contains non-digestible oligosaccharides, another connection to the role of glycans in allergy.
Among the cell-cell recognition related lectins, there is one receptor involved in the uptake of melanosomes by keratinocytes, but we are a long way from being able to use this information for a therapy in melasma and hyperpigmentation.
Glycan vs. Polysaccharides (see also Newsletter September 2012 and polysaccharide refresher)
The terms glycan and polysaccharide were originally synonyms meaning "compounds consisting of a large number of monosaccharides linked glycosidicallyâ€. Nowadays the term glycan may also be used to refer to the carbohydrate portion of a glycoconjugate, such as a glycoprotein, glycolipid, or a proteoglycan, even if the carbohydrate is only an oligosaccharide.
Glycans usually consist only of monosaccharides linked by O-glycosidic linkages. For example, cellulose is a glycan (or, to be more specific, a glucan, because it is made of glucose) composed of β-1,4-linked D-glucose. Chitin is a glycan composed of β-1,4-linked N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Glycans can be homo- or heteropolymers of monosaccharide residues, linear or branched.
Glycans at Skin Actives Scientific
We use many glycans in our products: hyaluronic acid, pullulan, Aloe barbadensis pectin polysaccharides (rich in uronic acid), apple pectin, galactoarabinan, oat beta-glucan, Laminaria Japonica fucoidan, oat beta glucan, Opuntia (prickly pear) glucan.
 Our Glycan-7 booster blend is a combination of plant and fungal extracts that will promote collagen synthesis and fibroblast division and modulate the immune response. This mix includes glycans from aloe, apple, larch, yeast, oat, and brown algae. This group of seven is just a selection from the many glycans we offer that benefit the skin.
Aloe Vera - The gel obtained from Aloe barbadensis plant improves skin hydration, has anti-inflammatory properties and aids healing of cuts, grazes, burns and insect bites. The polysaccharides in this extract include acetylated mannans.
Apple pectin is a complex polysaccharide that contains rhamnose. Fibroblasts contain receptors for rhamnose (more about this later), and binding of rhamnose to the receptor leads to increased synthesis of collagen and strengthened epidermal-dermal junction. Apple pectin helps thicken skin thinned by aging.
Larch arabinogalactans - In native North American Indian tribes, larch was used as a poultice on sores, ulcers, burns and to alleviate itching. When biochemists looked into larch, they found that arabinogalactans stimulate dermal fibroblast activity and proliferation, and promote keratinocyte differentiation and the production of keratinocyte growth factor. Note: Dr. Andrew Weil, a proponent of integrative medicine (which incorporates scientifically proven botanicals into the daily practice of medicine) uses this active in his Origins line.
Yeast beta glucan - The cell wall of yeast is very complex, with a structure that includes beta(1--> 3)-glucan, beta(1--> 6)-glucan, chitin, and mannoprotein. When we come in contact with these special glycans, our immune system is activated so that, when a pathogen is encountered, we are better able to deal with it and stop an infection. Apparently, this response may also prepare us to stop our own "gone bad" cells, those that have lost the capacity to control cell division and have become cancer cells. A great advantage to allergy sufferers: yeast beta glucan (and that of other fungi) seems to decrease the tendency to allergic response and inflammation, and as an added bonus it tightens your skin. A recently discovered lectin is dectin-1, a small cell surface protein that recognizes beta 1,3 and beta1,6-glucans and is a source of innate immunity, i.e. immunity that does not require previous exposure to pathogen.
Fucoidans are sulfated polysaccharides that when applied to the skin increase the density of collagen bundles, decrease activity of proteases (enzymes that break down dermal proteins), increase scavenging of free radicals, and increase cell proliferation. In addition to helping with healing and collagen synthesis, fucoidan inhibits the replication of many viruses, including herpes, human cytomegalovirus, and HIV-1.
Prickly pear (Opuntia fruit) extract - This beautiful fruit contains methylated rhamnogalacturonans (L-arabinose and D-xylose are also represented), giving this extract medicinal powers in treatment of burns, edema, and asthma.
Oat beta glucan - Cereal beta-glucan is a mix of linked (1 -> 3) (1 -> 4)-beta-D-glucan with anti-inflammatory properties.
References:
Sharon, N. and Lis H. (2004) History of lectins: from hemagglutinins to biological recognition molecules, in Glycobiology, 14: 53R–62R.
Faury G, Ruszova E, Molinari J, Mariko B, Raveaud S, Velebny V, Robert L. (2008) The alpha-1-rhamnose recognizing lectin site of human dermal fibrolasts functions as a signal transducer. Modulation of Ca++ fluxes and gene expression. Biochim.Biophys.Acta. 2008. pp. 1388-1394.
Noss, I; Doekes, G; Thorne, PS; Heederik, DJJ; Wouters, IM (2013) Comparison of the potency of a variety of beta-glucans to induce cytokine production in human whole blood Innate Immunity 19: 10-19.
Oh JH, Kim YK, Jung JY, Shin JE, Chung JH. (2011) Changes in glycosaminoglycans and related proteoglycans in intrinsically aged human skin in vivo. Experimental Dermatology. 20:454-6
Larsen, Larissa, Chen, Huan-Yuan; Saegusa, Jun, Liu, Fu-Tong (2011) Galectin-3 and the skin. J Dermatological Science, 64: 85-91.
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