Ingredients

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Colloidal Oatmeal

We grind both the oats and the bran (the outer shell chock full of additional nutrients) it into a super-fine, dust-like powder so that it’s easily absorbed into the skin.

Colloidal oatmeal has been shown to restore and maintain the skin’s barrier function. This is imperative for a thriving, healthy skin microbiome flourish. It’s loaded with micronutrients including polyphenols – powerful antioxidants derived from plants that have photoprotective and free-radical-fighting capabilities.

Oats are also rich in vitamins, minerals, and lipids – healthy fats that nourish and protect skin and keep dirt and impurities out. Caffeic and ferulic acids in oats boost the effectiveness of other antioxidants, including vitamin C.

Oatmeal contains avenanthramides – a family of antioxidants unique to oats that demonstrate anti-inflammatory properties and protection against skin irritation. Oatmeal with the bran also contains high concentrations of other powerhouse antioxidants including tocotrienols, tocopherols and flavonoids.

Oatmeal is one of just a few plant sources of coenzyme Q10, which exists inside just about every single one of the 40 trillion or so cells in and on our bodies. Unfortunately, like so many of the things that keep us looking youthful, our body starts making less of it in our 20’s, so it’s an excellent candidate for both topical and dietary supplementation.

Oats with the bran is a rich source of vitamin E, a vitamin that is notoriously unstable and has been shown mostly ineffective when applied topically in many traditional beauty products. But when combined with other antioxidants and immediately frozen, its therapeutic qualities can be better retained, making a Lumanitas Facial a rare product that can deliver a natural dose of this beneficial vitamin.

Saponins in oatmeal act as very gentle cleanser – removing pore-clogging debris and excess sebum without stripping skin’s natural protective oils or altering its microbiome.

Finally, oats with the bran chelp control harmful bacteria on damaged skin, creating conditions for a healthy microbiome to thrive. It improves dryness, lessens irritation and accelerates healing. Overall, oatmeal is one of the single best substances from the natural world for the body, inside and out.

Vegetable Glycerin

Glycerin is another substance that exists naturally in our bodies but wanes over time – one of the many reasons our skin loses moisture as we age. This loss is most visible on the outermost layer of the epidermis – the stratum corneum.

Vegetable glycerin is a water-soluble compound that penetrates well into the stratum corneum. On skin, it functions as a powerful humectant (a “water-magnet”) that prevents transdermal moisture loss, helping to keep skin cells hydrated. It has been shown to ward off irritation and act as a barrier against elements such as wind and pollution. It’s also demonstrated an ability to help keep external microbes off the skin and can accelerate the healing processes in inflammatory conditions such as acne.

Glycerin is also an excellent emollient, helping to smooth skin and make it more supple. It helps prevent stripping of skin’s precious lipid barrier during cleansing and increases the appearance of firmness.

A little bit about the three main building block hydrators in good skincare products:

To be effective, any personal care product that aims to cleanse and moisturize should contain all 3 elements. Vegetable glycerin is a gentle, proven ingredient that helps get us there.

Raw Honey

Honeybees are natures little scientists. They create a miraculous substance comprised of plant matter, enzyme activity and living bacteria that helps keep human skin looking younger and impedes wrinkle formation.

Everything begins with nectar, which is about 80 percent water. Honeybees, through the process of hydrolysis, take complex sugars found in flower nectar and turn it into simple sugars that we taste as sweet. The bees’ wings then fan most of the water content out of this elixir, leaving behind the supersaturated solution we consume as honey.

Honey is unquestionably sweet and delicious, but it’s also full of vitamins, proteins, minerals, amino acids, and organic acids that make it deeply conditioning. It’s a rich source of antioxidants and flavonoids that help speed cell turnover and scavenge free radicals. As a natural humectant and emollient, it both hydrates and conditions the outermost layer of skin.

Honey has antimicrobial properties that can help clear conditions like acne by controlling the good-to-bad bacteria ratio on skin. Its anti-inflammatory properties help calm reactive and sensitive skin and can speed up the healing process in existing breakouts and flare-ups of inflammatory conditions.

Honey is also a gentle, effective cleanser. It works well as an exfoliant by softening dead skin cells and excess sebum and so they can be sloughed off and rinsed away.

Raw honey – the type we use in all Lumanitas Facials – contains bee pollen and propolis, which enhance the myriad beneficial properties already in honey. Raw honey is also teeming with live bacteria, helping to balance and support a thriving skin microbiome.

Yogurt

Well before kombucha, supplements and those little bottle shots found now in most grocery stores, yogurt was the original excellent source of probiotic bacteria.

Applying probiotics topically modifies skin’s barrier function by colonizing it with helpful bacteria. This is especially beneficial for skin with any inflammatory conditions which are often worsened by a lopsided good-to-bad bacteria ratio.

Probiotics in yogurt have been clinically shown to inhibit the growth of P. acnes – a bacteria that directly causes acne. This probiotic strain also has immunoregulatory effects that can help reduce acne breakouts.

Two of the most common probiotics abundant in yogurt, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum, have well-known acne fighting and eczema soothing properties. Streptococcus thermophiles, a particularly powerful strain found in yogurt, has been shown to increase ceramide production.

Yogurt, like other dairy products, is rich in lactic acid – an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) derived from the fermentation of lactose. Lactic acid (LA) is a mild, well-researched AHA that is safe to use on even sensitive skin. It is also a unique AHA in that it’s been shown to moisturize as it exfoliates. It increases cell turnover and helps clear away excess sebum, environmental contaminates and dead skin cells. It reduces the appearance of lines and wrinkles by thickening and firming the skin.

The molecules of lactic acid are small enough to permeate into deeper layers of the skin, significantly increasing its efficacy. It naturally brightens by treating hyperpigmentation and smoothing skin’s surface. LA is also antimicrobial (keeps potentially harmful bacteria at bay) and helps lock in moisture by reducing transdermal water loss.

Lastly, the probiotic and lactic acid mix yogurt provides help restore a healthy microbiota to the skin even more that probiotics alone.

Extras

Some of the amino acids, vitamins and beneficial substances that occur naturally in our ingredients are so great that we add more of them to supercharge our superfood formulas.

Niacinamide – helps skin build proteins, locks in moisture, improves acne and eczema, accelerates cell turnover, repairs damaged DNA, helps prevent hyperpigmentation from sun exposure, reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) – encourages collagen production, reduces under-eye darkness, hydrating and brightening, improves barrier function, protects against sun damage, smooths wrinkles and fine lines, helps fade some scars.

Glycine – stimulates collagen production, prevents transdermal water loss, fights oxidative damage caused by free radicals.

Lactic Acid – exfoliates dead skin cells, firms skin surface layer, smooths out fine lines and wrinkles, brightens and hydrates, reduces hyperpigmentation and age spots, lessens the effects of inflammatory conditions such as acne, stimulates cell renewal.

It is important to note that in all of these, the molecules are small enough to penetrate the skin. So often, the latest “it” ingredient sounds, in theory, like it will work wonders. And perhaps it would, if its molecules were small enough to break through the cellular brick wall that is the outermost layer of our skin. But alas, most of these ingredients are far to large to break through even the outermost layer of skin, making them relatively useless.

We use small amounts of sea salt derived from kelp and fruit pectin to help bind other ingredients to make the silkiest, most effective facial.

Allergy Warning

Our products contain tree nuts, honey, dairy, marine-life products, and gluten. If you are sensitive or allergic to any of these substances, you should consult a dermatologist before using any of our products.