Some active ingredients in skincare can be very unstable and difficult to work with, such as vitamin A, vitamin C and oxyresveratrol. They begin to lose effectiveness as soon as you open the bottle or in some cases while they are unopened on the shelf. Using unstable actives on the skin can cause irritation, or even skin damage.

Medik8 takes stability in skincare very seriously. We scrupulously research new ways to stabilise effective ingredients. In our pure vitamin C serum, Pure C15™, we use a rechargeable antioxidant network combining vitamin C, E and glutathione. This allows the active ingredients to constantly swap electrons with each other so that they don’t lose effectiveness or turn into damaging free radicals. In White Balance® Brightening Serum, we stabilised the delicate oxyresveratrol by keeping it separate from the serum until activation, in clever click-activated packaging. This ensures that the oxyresveratrol does not lose its power while sitting on the shelf.

There are numerous technologies and trade-screts which allow Medik8 to enhance stability to exceptional levels and this is a huge part of the Medik8 difference.

Pure vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) is notoriously difficult to stabilise. It reacts with oxygen and then becomes inactive or harmful to skin (actually adding free-radicals). For some of our most unstable ingredients, for example ascorbic acid in Pure C15™, we use a manufacturing process called nitrogen blanketing. This process involves the bottles being filled and sealed in an incubator box filled with nitrogen. This stops the formula coming into contact with oxygen before opening, guaranteeing stability on shelf. The process is slow and only semi-automated - another reason Medik8 believe in Think. Lab. Make. Tell.

Intricate formulas require care to produce. Handcrafted in small batches, Medik8 serums guarantee freshness and potency. Many effective ingredients in skincare are unstable and difficult to work with, so having a hands on approach ensures each customer benefits from powerful and effective formulas. Providing lab-fresh products to customers is one example of the many ways Medik8 ensures freshness and potency of all our formulas.

The most effective ingredient in anti-ageing skincare is vitamin A (retinol). Let’s be honest, formulated poorly, it can cause some irritation. When delivered at high enough levels to have a visible effect on skin ageing, it can often be too much for many people’s skin. They can get an itchy rash, break out or develop areas of dryness. Time and money wasted on these traditional kinds of retinol products is common consumer feedback. One solution is just to decrease concentrations to minimal, barely effective levels but that is not our way. So Medik8 decided to do something different about it.

Medik8 developed a set of Time Release delivery systems to encapsulate the active. This gently, slowly and continuously releases the vitamin A, to prevent overwhelming the skin and minimising irritation. The Time Release technology has the added benefit of protecting the vitamin A from its environment, to enhance its stability over time. Each of our vitamin A products has a different encapsulation system, yet all benefit from minimised irritation and enhanced stability.

Chirality is all about getting the best results out of active ingredients and limiting any unnecessary irritation.

Chirality comes from the greek word for hand. Just like our hands, chiral molecules have a mirror image. Imagine gloves as a representation for an active ingredient and your left hand is a skin receptor. Two gloves look exactly the same, but your left hand won’t fit comfortably inside the right glove. If a box is filled with pairs of gloves, only half of them will be useful to your left hand even though the box appears to be full. By using chirally correct molecules (the left glove) it will fit comfortably with your skin. When an ingredient is written with an ‘L’ in front, for example L-ascorbic acid, the ‘L’ describes that the chirally correct form of the molecule has been used.

Chirality is important in skincare for two reasons. Firstly, there isn’t much point adding double the active ingredient in order to achieve the same result as half a chirally correct ingredient. Especially if the ingredient is known to be irritating. Secondly, using the part of the molecule which won’t be used by the skin will either be inactive (and therefore useless) or be damaging to skin.

Medik8 filter all of its active ingredients to only use chirally correct molecules that will be accepted by the skin and give you great results. For those ingredients that don’t have a chiral form, we always choose the correct and most effective format to avoid irritation and guarantee results.

Medik8 are proud to have patented our best technologies and breakthroughs in skincare. Our revolutionary Copper PCA Peptides™ (previously known as Firewall) mineral antioxidant peptide serum was a result of years of independent research. The incredible copper PCA antioxidant technology found in the serum isn’t available anywhere else.

Found in Medik8’s pigmentation solution, the skin brightening technology of oxyresveratrol (Oxy-R) has been patented. Found in Medik8’s original research, this incredible active inhibits melanin production for improved pigmentation and skin tone without any bleaching.

We have several other patented technologies by virtue of exclusive collaborations and we have numerous patent-pending inventions that have made their way into key Medik8 products. Innovation is at the heart of Medik8.