Skin ByLauren Ingredient Glossary

The beauty of the skin you are in…

Let’s keep it real. I am sick of the greenwashed labels. Synthetic fragrance hiding behind hero products. Hyaluronic acid that just sits on the surface and calls itself hydration. Cheap oxidizing seed oils used to bulk out formulas.

I am tired of it. As someone who has spent years and money on things that didn't work, didn't absorb and didn't tell the truth about what was inside them it was time to matter into my own hands.

Aging gracefully isn't about fighting your skin. It's about knowing it. Feeding it. Letting it express itself fully in every layer that comes with living in a real human body over time. Your skin is not a problem to be solved. It is the most intelligent organ you have.

Every formula is anhydrous meaning, no water, no fillers, no bulking agents. Every ingredient is there because it works, because it penetrates, because its nature. Nothing is on the label to make the product look good.

This is what I created when I stopped settling in life and learnt to channel my perfectionism into an aligned output. Real. True. Organic. And it actually works!

Skin ByLauren · Ingredient Glossary

Lets start with what you won't find here and why.

Hyaluronic acid Hyaluronic acid is everywhere in skincare because it photographs well and markets easily. What it doesn't do is penetrate, it sits on the surface and pulls in water particles from the air, creating temporary plumpness that disappears the moment it dries. So we use squalane instead. It actually absorbs.

Retinol Effective in theory. Destabilising in practice. Retinol degrades rapidly, causes sensitivity, peeling, and photodamage and requires a functional skin barrier to tolerate it. We use bakuchiol: clinically comparable results, none of the inflammation.

Water as a base Water is the most common first ingredient in conventional skincare and the most effective way to dilute everything else. It requires preservatives to prevent bacterial growth, emulsifiers to bind it with oil and thickeners to give it texture. Every formula of ours is anhydrous. Nothing is watered down.

Synthetic fragrance Fragrance on an ingredient label can legally represent hundreds of undisclosed chemical compounds, many of them hormone-disrupting. Every scent in our line comes from a named botanical source.

Parabens & synthetic preservatives Used to extend shelf life in water-based formulas. We don't need them because we don't use water. Our preservation comes from rosemary CO2, vitamin E, and the inherent stability of anhydrous oil-based formulas.

PEGs & synthetic emulsifiers Petrochemical-derived compounds used to make formulas feel smooth and blend easily. They compromise the skin barrier over time and act as penetration enhancers for everything else on the label including ingredients you don't want going deeper. We use sunflower lecithin instead.

Mineral oil & petrolatum Cheap, occlusive, inert. They create the feeling of moisture by sealing the surface while blocking the skin's ability to breathe, regulate and absorb anything genuinely beneficial. Nothing from a petroleum refinery belongs in a skin formula.

What we DO use

Carrier Oils

Jojoba Oil The closest oil to human sebum on earth, your skin recognises it as its own. Balances oil production rather than adding to it.

Moringa Oil Packed with behenic acid for a dry, silky finish heavier oils can't achieve. One of the most nutrient-dense botanicals available. I am obsessed with this oil.

Olive Squalane Identical to the squalene your skin produces naturally and starts losing in your twenties. Weightless, non-comedogenic, absorbs in seconds.

Fractionated Coconut Oil Lightweight, rinse-off carrier that dissolves makeup and daily build-up without stripping. Used only in the Cleansing and Body Oil its job is to carry and release, not to sit.

Cacao Butter Raw, cold-pressed, unrefined. Solid at room temperature, melts instantly on contact. Deep moisture without water, wax or emulsifiers.

Castor Oil One of the most deeply penetrating oils on earth, with a natural affinity for fascia, lymph, and joints. Where other oils sit on the surface, castor moves in.

Arnica-Infused Oil Arnica montana flowers infused into natural carrier oil a centuries-old remedy for bruising, swelling, and inflammation. Paired with DMSO to carry it into tissue rather than sitting on top.

Coffee Oil Cold-pressed from green coffee beans. Stimulates microcirculation, supports lymphatic drainage, tones the skin. You feel it working immediately. Bye-bye cellulite.

Specialty Oils

Raspberry Seed Oil One of the highest natural sources of vitamin E in the plant kingdom. Delivers antioxidant protection from within the formula itself.

Pomegranate Seed Oil Contains punicic acid, a rare omega-5 fatty acid found almost nowhere else in nature. One of the most researched oils for skin regeneration and cellular renewal.

Prickly Pear Seed Oil One tonne of fruit yields one litre of this oil. Exceptionally high in vitamin E and linoleic acid, lightweight, fast-absorbing, deeply hydrating.

Sea Buckthorn Oil Over 190 bioactive compounds, rich in beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. Contributes the warm golden tone to our formulas and serious skin-repair activity beneath the colour.

Carrot Seed Oil (CO2 Extract) A supercritical CO2 extraction, not steam-distilled. This preserves the full carotenoid and antioxidant spectrum that heat destroys. Photoprotective, repairing, deeply pigmented.

Actives

DMSO (Pharmaceutical Grade) The most effective transdermal penetration enhancer known, it carries every active through the skin barrier into the tissue where it actually works. This is what makes ByLauren Skin fundamentally different from every other skincare brand.

MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) Organic sulphur, a building block of collagen, keratin and elastin. Dissolved into DMSO it becomes fully bioavailable through the skin, feeding the structural proteins your body rebuilds with.

Bakuchiol The plant-based retinol alternative with clinical research behind it. Stimulates collagen, reduces fine lines, improves texture without the irritation, peeling, or sun sensitivity retinol causes.

THD Vitamin C The only oil-soluble vitamin C stable in anhydrous formulas. It doesn't oxidise on contact with air. It penetrates deeper and reaches the cells where brightening and collagen synthesis actually happen.

CoQ10 (Ubiquinone) Your skin produces this naturally but levels decline with age. Powers cellular energy production and neutralises free radical damage, dissolved fully into the oil base so it absorbs rather than sits.

Pearl Powder (Saltwater, Hydrolyzed) Ground from saltwater pearls, higher in amino acids, calcium and nacre than freshwater. Used in Chinese medicine for over two thousand years. The glow in Pearl Primer is real mineral light, not synthetic shimmer.

Magnesium Oil Topical magnesium chloride dissolved directly into the DMSO pre-mix. Supports muscle relaxation, nerve function, and helps dissolve calcium deposits in joints and tissue.

Antioxidants & Emulsifiers

Rosemary CO2 Extract Here to protect the formula, not add scent. Prevents oxidation and rancidity in our most active oils – naturally, without synthetic preservatives.

Vitamin E (Tocopherol) Natural mixed tocopherols that protect both skin and formula from oxidative damage. Works synergistically with vitamin C when one falls, the other regenerates it.

Sunflower Lecithin A natural phospholipid structurally similar to cell membranes. Helps oil-based ingredients absorb into skin rather than sit on top. Used in the smallest effective amount.

Essential Oils

Frankincense Sacred resin. Anti-inflammatory, skin-repairing, emotionally grounding. Present across the entire range because its benefits are universal and its presence is timeless.

Jasmine Hand-picked, solvent-extracted Balinese jasmine. Deeply floral, intoxicating, unmistakably evening. The scent that signals your night ritual has begun.

Frangipani Warm, creamy, tropical. The daytime counterpart to jasmine's depth. The scent of beginning your morning with intention.

Helichrysum The immortelle – the everlasting flower. One of the most potent skin-regenerating essential oils available, traditionally used for scarring, inflammation, and cellular renewal. Expensive because it takes an extraordinary quantity of flowers to yield a single drop.

Peru Balsam Warm, resinous, quietly vanilla. Adds depth and acts as a fixative anchoring the other essential oils so they last longer on skin.

Lavender Calming, balancing, universally skin-safe. The bridge between therapeutic function and sensory pleasure.

Black Pepper Warming, circulatory, lymphatic. Real synergy with DMSO both drive movement deeper into tissue. In every body elixir for good reason.

Vetiver Distilled from roots, not leaves or flowers. Deep, smoky, grounded. Anchors the body elixir scent profiles and brings a quietly luxurious earthiness.

Eucalyptus Cooling, opening, anti-inflammatory. Counterbalances the warming oils in Rolling Joints to create the hot-and-cold sensation that signals deep tissue activity.

Cedarwood Woody, dry, grounding. Supports the musculoskeletal focus without competing with the therapeutic oils.

Sweet Orange Bright, uplifting, traditionally lymphatic. Lifts the deeper base notes in Lymph & Love and keeps the formula from becoming too heavy.

Lime Sharp, clean, energising. A top note that hits first and fades revealing the depth beneath.

Sandalwood Thirty years for a tree to mature before it yields oil worth extracting. Warm, creamy, woody. The foundation of the men's line.

Ginger Warming, digestive, circulatory. Paired with DMSO it creates genuine deep warming activity in the tissue not surface heat.