Adaptogenic Meets Photogenic
On the one side we have an adaptogen. On the other side we have a camera. In the middle, we have a face.
The adaptogen is Schisandra. The camera is probably a mobile phone. The face is yours.
What is an adaptogen?
It is a natural substance, such as an herb, that a lot of smart people think can help the body adapt to stress. Adaptogens can exert a normalizing and balancing effect upon bodily processes. And of special note to old guys and gals everywhere, adaptogenic herbs are often considered to have anti-aging properties.
The term adaptogen was first coined by a Soviet scientist, Dr. Nikolai Lazarev in the 1940s. He and his team were looking for tonics to enhance the stamina and endurance of soldiers. And the first herb which was studied?
Hint: It’s in Dew It and Soak It Up.
Answer: Schisandra chinensis.
To be fair, the bulk of the studies on the adaptogen Schisandra are about ingestible extracts of this five-flavored berry: as in take your Schisandra and nourish your skin from within.
What we did was infuse our topical skincare products with Schisandra. We believe that what you put on your skin, enters your skin. So, the skin-benefits of Schisandra are being applied to your skin. Directly.
And there is a reason why we think that makes good sense. Bear with me, this gets a little wonky. The epidermis, the top layer of your skin, has an interesting relationship to the second and deeper layer, the dermis. According to an NCBI study on The Roles of Vitamin C in Skin Health, “The epidermis is a challenged environment for nutrient delivery, as it lacks the blood vessels that normally deliver nutrients to cells… Delivery is further compounded by the chemical nature of these outer epidermal layers in which there is little movement of extracellular fluid between cells due to the complex lipid/protein crosslink structure forming the skin barrier. All of this makes it likely that dietary nutrients are not easily able to reach the cells in the outermost layers of the epidermis, and these cells receive little nutrient support.”
The way I read this is that it’s hard for the benefits of the extracts to reach the outer layer. All of the studies on how Schisandra impacts the skin are mostly related to the dermis, not the epidermis.
We don’t want any layer to be left out, so that’s why it’s important to apply Schisandra topically on the epidermis, so it can share the love that the ‘deeper’ layer has been feeling.
Especially if you want to look good for the camera.
What is a camera?
It’s that tool that you love and hate. When the photos are great: love. When someone takes a bad photo of you, well, “please don’t share.”
A good close-up sees the quality of your skin. In fact, as higher definition cameras become standard issue on phones, the skin is going to come under greater scrutiny.
What is a face?
We are getting a bit stupid now. We all know what a face is.
You’ve heard of the expression, “the camera loves his/her face.” Unfortunately, that does not apply to everyone, but what we can say is that when you apply an adaptogen (Schisandra) to the face then the camera will capture better-looking skin.
And so that’s how adaptogenic meets photogenic.