Every formula in this catalogue is published the way a component datasheet is published. Concentration in percent w/w. Working pH. Molecular weight. The layer it reaches. The measured change against vehicle, the window it took, and the reference it came from.
Then, because it is the more useful list — everything we left out, and why.
SPECIMEN DATA. THE FORMULARY, ACTIVES AND EVIDENCE REGISTER ARE ILLUSTRATIVE PLACEHOLDERS.
Nothing switches off at thirty. Collagen synthesis has been falling by roughly one percent a year since the mid-twenties; turnover has been lengthening; the barrier has been taking longer to close.
What happens around thirty is that the accumulated deficit crosses the threshold of visibility under ordinary light. That reframes the whole category. There is no repair product, because there is no single event to repair — there is a rate, and there are molecules with a published effect on that rate.
Move the scrubber. The honest question is never what fixes this — it is how much of the slope a given molecule takes back, over what window, at what irritation cost.
CURVES ARE A SIMPLIFIED LINEAR MODEL FOR ILLUSTRATION. INDIVIDUAL RATES VARY WITH GENETICS, UV DOSE AND SMOKING STATUS.NOTHING SWITCHES OFF AT THIRTY. THESE SLOPES START IN THE MID-TWENTIES — THIRTY IS WHERE THE ACCUMULATED DEFICIT CROSSES INTO VISIBILITY.
| PRIMARY ACTIVE | Expand◇ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ASCORBIC 15%30S-SR-01 | L-Ascorbic AcidA-04 | 18.0% | £68 | |
| 02 | PEPTIDE MATRIX30S-SR-02 | Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1A-02 | 10.0% | £84 | |
| 03 | GLYCOLIC 8%30S-SL-03 | Glycolic AcidA-06 | 11.5% | £44 | |
| 04 | RETINAL 0.1%30S-SR-04 | RetinaldehydeA-01 | 5.1% | £96 | |
| 05 | AZELAIC 10%30S-TR-05 | Azelaic AcidA-05 | 18.0% | £58 | |
| 06 | CERAMIDE BARRIER30S-CR-06 | Ceramide NPA-07 | 12.0% | £52 | |
| 09 | MINERAL SHIELD 5030S-SH-09 | Zinc OxideA-12 | 26.0% | £46 |
Retinal
The strongest retinoid available without a prescription pad. Converts faster than retinol, irritates less than tretinoin.
One oxidation step from retinoic acid. Binds nuclear RAR after conversion; upregulates procollagen I and III, accelerates keratinocyte turnover, downregulates MMP-1.
Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 + Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7
A forgery, essentially. We hand the fibroblast a fake breakdown signal and it rebuilds.
Azelaic Acid
Treats redness, post-inflammatory pigment and breakouts at once. Almost nothing else does all three.
Zinc Oxide (non-nano)
The single highest-return active in the formulary. Every other product here is repairing what this one prevents.
The ingredient list tells you what is present. It never tells you what was considered and rejected, which is the more informative document. This is ours.
8 ENTRIES — ENFORCED AT COMPOUNDINGA routine is a schedule, not a shopping list. Order matters, nights matter, and two of these actives should never meet on the same face on the same evening.
Tell the builder what you are treating and how much irritation your barrier will currently absorb. It returns a dated, ordered protocol card with conflicts resolved — and it will tell you when the answer is fewer products, not more.
| REF | DESIGN | BLINDING | N | WK | Δ | GRADE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REF-01 | Randomised, vehicle-controlled | 112 | 12 | -31% | A | |
| REF-02 | Split-face, vehicle-controlled | 64 | 24 | +18% | A | |
| REF-03 | Open-label cohort | 48 | 8 | -27% | B | |
| REF-04 | Randomised, active-controlled | 96 | 16 | -24% | A | |
| REF-05 | Split-face, vehicle-controlled | 72 | 12 | -41% | A | |
| REF-06 | Randomised, vehicle-controlled | 120 | 12 | +39% | A | |
| REF-07 | Ex vivo skin explant | 24 | 6 | +46% | B |
Every sunscreen on earth is tested at 2 mg/cm². Almost nobody applies 2 mg/cm². The gap is the whole product.
Ten percent niacinamide is not twice as good as five. The dose–response curve flattens and the complaint rate does not.
The flaking at week three tells you a retinoid is present. It tells you nothing about whether it is working.