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Is n-acetyl glucosamine a fluff ingredient?
Wondering if it’s a hyped up ingredient. It’s very expensive so I want to check in first with you guys.
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21 Replies
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A quick heuristic - If an ingredient is hyped, it’s likely just a fluff ingredient.
I’m not impressed with the evidence supporting the use of n-acetyl glucosamine in skin care.
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But @Perry you’re not impressed with any ingredient!
jk -
esthetician922 said:But @Perry you’re not impressed with any ingredient! jk I mean im not gonna disagree 😂
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haha @czkld
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It’s a great and active ingredient (if used in edible cosmetics which are actually eaten on a regular basis)…Seriously, in cosmetics, I can’t see any benefit. If you want to go in that direction, use chitosan (cationic polymer of glucosamine). -
@esthetician922 - Ha!
I could see how someone would get that impression. In truth, there are ingredients I think are impressive in terms of performance. (I actually like pretty much all chemicals as I find them fascinating).
But here are some examples of ingredients that I think are impressive…
Petrolatum - nothing better for preventing TEWL
Mineral oil - best emollient
Glycerin - best humectant
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate - most efficient cleanser
Methylparaben - most effective, least reactive preservative against fungi
DMDM Hydantoin - most effective preservative against bacteria
Dimethicone - best silicone for hair
Zinc oxide - best all-around sunscreen active
Carbomer - best gelling agent
EDTA - best chelating agent
Glyceryl Monostearate - best pearling agent
PVP - best overall hair holding polymerI could go on but that will give you a sense of what I think is impressive.
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@Perry do you have a favorite silicone alternative?
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@lewhitak Now @Perry is torturing his brains how to give you a smart answer such as “Sure, dimethicone and silanoles” 🙂 .Silicones are so different of what ‘nature’ has to offer that it’s simply impossible to get an alternative. A plan B maybe but that’s not an alternative, it’s an emergency solution.I wonder whether undecane/tridecane are really useful as volatile cyclosiloxane replacements.
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I read that paper (not independent) on 4% niacinamide +2% NAG. Made it, used for three months. No skin brightening noticed. I think however that niacinamide (in its own)reduces appearance of pores.
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@Pharma - you’re right! @lewhitak - I can’t really say I have a favorite silicone alternative. That’s mostly because the term “silicone” refers to a wide variety of compounds to do different things and the term “alternative” implies some kind of function. To give an answer to the ‘best silicone alternative’ I’d need to know which silicone is in the formula being used for what function. There are a lot of things that silicones do including shine, slip, detangling, defoaming, TEWL prevention, emollience, solvent, etc.
I will add that in my previous response I referred Dimethicone & Carbomer both of which have numerous variants. The exact one you use would depend on the other things in the formula.
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@Pharma haha! Totally agree, I have come across nothing that replicates the feel.
I’m stuck in my current project which requires no silicones but the expectation on skin feel seems to be based on creams which do contain silicones! It’s driving me up the wall.
I will check those out, it would be amazing if they work in my application! Thank you.
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Regarding the N-Acetyl Glucosamine -
I’ve used a serum containing 4% Niacinamide + 2% NAG and it was nice, but not necessarily groundbreaking. I believe the goal was to offer a less irritating method of achieving similar results to an AHA without the low pH and sun sensitivity. I felt like my skin looked better and tolerated the product well, but that is entirely anecdotal.
However, as @ngarayeva001 wrote, the paper wasn’t independent research and I haven’t looked anything up recently to see if more has been done with it since it is patented. -
@Perry
I agree with your list minus sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate. I know I’ll be the black sheep for saying it. I’ve worked with acne clients for 15 years and those two are terrible for acne prone skin. That’s my 2 cents but it’s based off of Dr. Fulton’s research and he wrote the book on acne. 🙂 -
@Perry, it’s impossible to disagree with your list (although I didn’t know GMS is a pearliser) but those are functional ingredients. It would be great to know if there are active ingredient that work as advertised in your opinion. I know if it does something beyond ‘improving appearance’ it’s OTC, but nevertheless is there an active ingredient that doesn’t cause skepticism?
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@ngarayeva001 - I guess it comes down to what you mean by “active ingredients.” I lump functional and active ingredients in the same category. If there is some specific function that an ingredient is supposed to do, it’s easier to have an opinion.
For example, one benefit is skin lightening. Evidence shows that for skin lightening, the best ingredient is hydroquinone. Now, some will suggest kojic acid, retinol, niacinamide, etc. but if you are just looking for what works best in the most situations, nothing is better than hydroquinone.
So, if you pick the category of benefit, I could give you my opinion of which ingredient is best for that.
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I went into a hustle of getting hydroquinone through friends in Russia (because where else you get such an ingredient in DIY quantity), passivating steel I was using for making a product and multiple trials and errors to stabilise the emulsion (ph, different antioxidants etc)… and wasn’t impressed at all. I used 2% Hydroquinone lotion s
from November to February (very little sun in London during this time). I want to hope that it’s not because hydroquinone is not an impressive ingredient but because I am not a good formulator (although I took dupont’s formula as a starting point). -
@Perry, yes it makes sense. For a shampoo SLES is the ‘active’ ingredients. And actually you listed zinc oxide, which can be argued is the best anti-aging ingredient as most of aging comes from the sun (and UVA in particular). Just curious what is you opinion of retinol as brightening and anti-aging ingredient? I am not referring to retinoids as a general class but the ingredient with INCI retinol.
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HQ has to be higher than 2% to see a difference imo. I had some strong stuff from the Philippines and it lightened my melasma so quickly. I got scared of it though and threw it out. lol who knows what else was in there since it was just in an unmarked jar. maybe mercury.
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@esthetician922
I would be scared, too!! There have been numerous reports of ridiculous amounts of mercury in bleaching creams from the Philippines. Scary! -
It was a new ingredient for me so I was on the conservative side. It’s a pain to formulate with but I might try again in winter. I wouldn’t risk going over 4% though.
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@Perry I apologize, I missed your response! I am looking for an alternative to dimethicone for use in something like a hand gel for forming a bit of a barrier and for reducing the drag in the formula from using something like vegetable oils.
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