Oxidative stress. A disturbance in the balance between free radicals and antioxidant defences. In today's world, it's sadly unavoidable. Work, pollution, compromised food and water supplies. So what can we do?

Clean, antioxidant rich nutrition is key, as is filtered water, exercise, and stress management, but what can we do topically to help the largest organ we have - our skin?

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring antioxidant that can be found in the skin of grapes, peanuts, all berries, and even dark chocolate. It's used as a pokey skincare ingredient, delivers great clinical results, and interestingly, has similarities in chemical structure to Bakuchiol, but..... it's not quite as special.

The mechanisms and sequences by which free radicals interfere with cell damage is complex, but lipid peroxidation seems to be one of the key factors, and this results in cellular membrane damage. This cellular damage causes a shift in the net charge of the cell, changing the osmotic pressure, leading to swelling, and eventually cell death (AKA ageing).

Direct application of low molecular weight antioxidants to the skin has the added advantage of targeting antioxidants to those areas of the skin needing the protection most.

Sytenol ® A Bakuchiol has antioxidant power 60x stronger than resveratrol and natural a-Tocopherol, and is far superior due to its free radical scavenging activity. It not only interferes with different free radical-producing systems, but also increases the function and effectiveness of endogenous antioxidants. Think of it as a precursor to our own biochemical tool kit. To get into the nitty gritty science of it, it effectively quenches superoxide-, hydroxy-, peroxy-, and peroxynitrile radicals, plus singlet oxygen non-radicals, in addition to inhibiting lipid peroxidation (the culprit for cell damage).

Many studies have established that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are two central factors contributing to the aging process and Bakuchiol was shown to be very effective at a) protecting mitochondrial functions against this, and b) being very adept at ATP synthesis. Now ATP (known as cell energy), is vital to the health and function of a cell, so anything that aids this, and further promotes this, is a win-win in terms of skincare. As Sytenol ® A Backuchiol is the purest form of Bakuchiol that exists, it's an active that plays a hugely important role in anti-ageing formulations.