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Hyaluronic Acid %’s
Hi all!
I’m curious about how hyaluronic acid %’s are conveyed based on their content in formulas. How do some companies claim above 60% hyaluronic acid in serums? Is this % expressed as a portion of another material? Or perhaps in solution?
Thank you!
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8 Replies
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They’re basically lying - probably in the fine print it says something more truthful. Example: https://www.timelessha.com/products/hyaluronic-acid-serum-100-pure#ingredients
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You can’t dissolve more than 2% of High molecular weight HA in water (maybe a bit more but it will become clumpy). That 60% claim means 60% of that 2% solution in water. I also think it’s very misleading.
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This is exactly what I was wondering. So if a company advertises, say, 65% hyaluronic acid, it can be assumed that they are using 65% of the hyaluronic acid maximum in water?
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It’s basically a play on words … in the example that @JonahRay linked, they’re referring to the hyaluronic acid being 100% pure HA, but state that they are using a 1% concentration of 100% pure HA.
Post a link to the 65% example … as @ngarayeva001 stated, depending on the molecular weight of the HA, you’ll get 2% HA max into solution. You can get more using a super low molecular weight HA, but it’s going to be pricey.
I’m sure your 65% example is a similar play on words.
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Thanks @MarkBroussard, @JonahRay and @ngarayeva001 for your feedback.
Here’s one other example of what I was referring to: https://www.sephora.com/product/water-drench-hyaluronic-cloud-serum-P222818?icid2=products%20grid:p222818:product.
This % explanation makes sense now.
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@enthusiash Haha! I know this one! It caused me cognitive dissonance when I just got into formulating. I understood very quickly (after wasting a small fortune worth of ingredients) that it’s absolutely impossible to dissolve that much of high molecular weight HA in water. Then, when I realised that ingredients must be listed in decending order (some companies ignore it, but it’s FDA reqiurement and a company of Peter Thomas Roth’s size would not take that risk), I found out that math doesn’t add up. Sodium Hyaluronate is the 4th ingredient. If it’s at 75% how much are the ingredients above it in the list? You can argue that it’s some type of ultra low molecular weight HA, but math is math. I bet they use 2% max.
- Water/Aqua/Eau
- Saccharide Isomerate
- Sorbitol
- Sodium Hyaluronate
- Lactobacillus/Olive Leaf Ferment Extract
- Opuntia Tuna Fruit Extract
- Honey Extract
- Algae Extract
- Eriodictyon Crassifolium Leaf Extract
- Hydrolyzed Silk
- Saccharomyces/Zinc Ferment
- Saccharomyces/Copper Ferment
- Saccharomyces/Magnesium Ferment
- Saccharomyces/Iron Ferment
- Saccharomyces/Silicon Ferment
- Pentylene Glycol
- Butylene Glycol
- Glycerin
- Urea
- Sodium Pca
- Trehalose
- Polyquaternium-51
- Triacetin
- Propylene Glycol
- Diazolidinyl Urea
- Methylparaben
- Propylparaben
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Honestly I’d expect the top 3 ingredients (not counting water) to be near 2% at best anyway. When I first started I was trained incorrectly on making labels. we were buying a premade 1% solution of Sodium Hyaluronate so if I used 10% of that I left it at that place in the LOI, even after I crossed out the repeated water
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Again, this is a play on words … they are referring to the trademark VIZ 1000 ingredient combination of which 75% of that trademarked combination of ingredients is Hyaluronic Acid. They don’t claim how much of the VIZ 1000 complex is in the product … probably 2% or less.
They are not claiming that the entire product contains 75% Hyaluronic Acid, only that the VIZ 1000 “complex” contains 75% HA. It’s a play on words that can have a deceptive interpretation by consumers.
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