Unlike the rest of the skincare industry, we use only dry, standardized pharmaceutical plant extracts. They differ from liquid extracts in many ways, especially when it comes to the concentration of active ingredients.
In dry extract this concentration is usually between 50% and 100%, whereas it’s usually between 1% and 2% in liquid extracts. That's how we can achieve up to 100 times higher concentrations of bio-actives than the industry standard.
Let's Do a Little Math:
Common practice:
Liquid extract (e.g. Edelweis):
0.5% - 5% extract containing 1% plant extract
= 0.005% - 0.05%
of active ingredients in the end product.
NOAGE practice:
Dry Extract (e.g. Panax Ginseng)
0.2% - 0.5% extract containing 100% standardized plant extract
= 0.2% - 0.5%
of active ingredients in the product.
A picture says a thousand words.
Difference Between Dry and Liquid Extracts
Generally, liquid plant extracts are used in skin care formulations. They are mainly composed of water, glycerin, and plant extracts. The plant extract concentration is usually approx. 1-2%.
In dry extracts, however, the concentration of active ingredients ranges from 50% to almost 100%. In the cream formula, the usual level of each individual extract is from 0.2% to 2%.
You get the numbers.
But are you wondering why everybody doesn’t use dry extracts?
The main reason is that dry extracts are far more expensive, and they are generally more difficult to handle. They are mainly used in the preparation of drugs. With dry extracts, you also get an analysis of each production batch so you know exactly how much of each active substance is in the extract.
Liquid extracts, on the other hand, don't come with this analysis - just a general list of ingredients, but you never know how much of a required substance is in the extract. Depending on the producer, crop, and technology of extraction, content can vary up to 80%.
In this way, formulating skin care products look more like wishful thinking than hard science.
Our Method
All our formulations are based on data from clinical studies and chemical analysis for each active substance contained in the formula.
Only in this way can we be sure that the product functions as intended.
When formulating, it is essential that the active ingredients in the formula are of sufficient quantity and in proportion with the others to perform as expected.
The cream is a very complex system of different materials and active substances, which must be in an exact ratio for it to act as intended. We have only a limited percentage of complete products that we can use for active ingredients.
For a product like a cream to perform at its maximum, it must be stable, gentle, non-irritant, able to help transport active ingredients to the deeper layers of skin, protect the skin and enhance the skin's ability to heal. At higher extract concentrations, the emulsions become unstable.
It is therefore crucial that the active ingredients are sufficient and that a synergistic effect between the active ingredients and carriers is achieved. To do this, we must have a complete understanding of the content of the extracts, their concentrations, their functions and their interactions with other actives in the formulation.
The usual practice of adding a variety of different extracts (up to 40) to the product results in a product that looks attractive but lacks its advertised effectiveness.
By law, there is no requirement to declare the type, potency, or chemical composition of an extract in the INCI list. In fact, highly concentrated dry extracts share the same INCI name as their much more diluted liquid counterparts.
This praxis, of course, serves the industry well, since the concept is mainly based on unproven claims, aggressive marketing campaigns and reduced production costs.