In the movie Field of Dreams, there is a famous line: “If you build it, they will come.”
In the realm of skin care, I have been talking about high or optimized concentrations of proven ingredients in effective delivery systems for decades. But short of creating my own line, it’s hard to find others that encapsulate that approach (literally and figuratively).
And then, Your Best Face did. I had the philosophy, but they built the line.
Here are some of my favorite products from Your Best Face:
#1: Your Best Face Correct Eye Cream ($150.00, FutureDerm.com/Shop)
I know it probably sounds like I’m gushing, but Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream is one of my all-time favorite products.
Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream is like a Swiss army knife for undereye issues, addressing just about every possible issue. Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream brightens and firms the undereye skin, reduces undereye puffiness, treats hyperpigmentation with its lightening ingredients, and eliminates dark circles due to blood pooling as well.
As you might imagine withYour Best Face, the ingredients are truly superior. Spin traps, Matrixyl 3000®, Haloxyl®, and Cupuacu Butter make this a must-have.
Let’s start with spin traps. Also known as phenyl butyl nitrone, spin traps have the ability to catch an electron as it spins out of control and actually returns it to its normal orbit before it can do any damage (Cosmetic Dermatology). Numerous studies have shown that spin traps have anti-inflammatory and age-reducing effects. Your Best Face is one of the only skin care lines I know of featuring this ingredient.
Another magical rare treatment in Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream is Haloxyl®. A mix of the ingredients palmitoyl pentapeptide-7, chrysin, N-hydroxysuccinimide and EDTA, Haloxyl® has been found to facilitate the release of two substances found in blood, bilirubin and iron, which in turn makes the undereye area look lighter and less inflamed (Formulating, Packaging, and Marketing of Natural Cosmetic Products, 2009).
Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream also includes Matrixyl 3000®. At the 2002 World Congress of Dermatology in Paris, Matrixyl 3000®was reported to decrease wrinkle depth by 68% and wrinkle density by 47% with twice-daily use over the course of six months. Matrixyl 3000® demonstrates this firming ability by stimulating fibroblasts to produce collagen and increasing hyaluronic acid production in the skin.
Lastly, Cupuacu Butter, also known as Theobroma grandiflorum seed butter, has been shown to have skin-softening, hydrating properties. In fact, Cupaucu butter has been made into biocompatible nanospheres that are capable of penetrating the skin at its deepest layers (Soft Materials, 2010). In Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream, expect the addition of Cupuacu butter to add in a deeply hydrating, almost plumping effect.
The overall experience when using Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream is pleasant. The cream is medium-light, easily spreadable, and dispenses easily. It glides across the skin without pulling or tugging. Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream absorbs into the skin rather quickly, and is suitable for applying primer or concealer on the area within a minute after a normal application. A must-have for any serious anti-aging regimen!
Ingredients: reverse osmosis water, cetearyl olivate (and) sorbitan olivate, Eyeseryl® (water, acetyl tetrapeptide-5),
ceteareth-6 olivate, Haloxyl® (hydroxysuccinimide, chrysin, palmitoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3), Leucidal®
(leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate), licorice root ex-tract, Syn®-Hycan (tetradecyl aminobutyroylvalylaminobut-
yric urea trifluoroacetate, magneisum chloride, glycerin),Uplevity™(water, acetyl tetrapeptide-2, caprylyl glycol), eth-
ylhexyl palmitate, Syn®-Tacks (glycerin, palmitoyl dipeptide-5 diaminobutyroyl hydroxythreonine, palmitoyl dipeptide-5
diaminohydroxybutyrate), Matrixyl® synthe’6™ (glycerin, water, hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin, palmitoyl tripeptide-38),
Tego® Pep 4-17 (tetrapeptide-21, glycerin, butylene glycol, water), dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer (and)
silica, ethoxydiglycol, alpha arbutin, Matrixyl™ 3000 (glycerin, butylene glycol, carbomer, polysorbate-20, palmitoyl
oligopeptide, palmitoyl tripeptide-3), Renovage (triglyceride, teprenone), olive leaf extract, Relistase™(glycerin, acetyl-
arginyltryptophyl diphenylglycine), polyquaternium-10, caffeine, cupuacu butter, aspen bark extract, spin trap
(phenyl butyl nitrone), Homeostatine® (enteromorpha compressa extract, caesalpina gum), sorbitan olivate, trans res-
veratrol, tetrahydrodiferyloylmethane, Sepilift DPHP (dipalmitoyl hydroxyproline), vitamin e, lipochroman-6
(dimethylmethoxy chromanol), dimethyl isosorbide, co-enzyme Q10, vitamin B5, quercetin dihydrate, alpha
bisabolol, alpha lipoic acid (R-lipoic acid), violet leaf absolute, oakmoss absolute
Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream contains some ingredients like hydrators and vasoconstrictors that will make a difference in your undereye skin quickly, especially if it has significant damage to begin with. However, most of the ingredients in Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream will take a full 4-6 weeks of twice-daily use to see a marked difference.
#2: Your Best Face B Concentrate ($45.00, FutureDerm.com/Shop)
I’m a huge fan of Your Best Face B Concentrate for any time of the day. I think it works best after applying a potentially drying treatment, like a concentrated retinoid or an AHA treatment, but it can also be used fine on its own.
Your Best Face B Concentrate is like Skinceuticals B5 Serum, except it also packs the extra punch of having the additional B vitamins niacinamide (vitamin B3) and inositol (vitamin B8), as well as beneficial compounds Syn-Hycan® and Leucidal® to boot. Definitely a fave!
The B vitamins added are definitely a bonus: Niacinamide (vitamin B3), for one, does it all, from reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmented spots, red blotchiness, and skin sallowness (yellowing) to alleviating some of the symptoms of rosacea by increasing hydration and barrier function (Cutis, 2005). On the other hand, inositol (vitamin B8) is an anti-inflammatory agent with a mild photoprotective (UV protective) effect, as demonstrated in the journal Comparative Medicine. Inositol has been shown to increase blood flow and healing rates after injury (Burns, 1996).
The other compounds in Your Best Face B Concentrate provide great benefits as well. Derived from a fermentation process, Leucidal® has the ability to fight acne, combat skin dryness, and prolong the life of your skin care products. Its small but significant lactic acid content also leaves skin feeling smoother and a bit more exfoliated and less lined. For more, read the full post on Leucidal here. As for SYN-HYCAN®, though the studies are limited, reports show SYN-HYCAN® may stimulate fresh hyaluronan and stronger collagen fibrils, resulting in a visible remodeling effect and a firmer skin (The Center for Chem).
Your Best Face B Concentrate is a clear, transparent, medium-to-thick texture serum. It is completely scentless. It spreads easily across the skin — in fact, I only needed one pump for my entire face, and a half pump for my neck. It absorbs well after a little rubbing, and dries without any stickiness or tackiness. I love Your Best Face B Concentrate particularly after applying a potentially drying treatment, like a concentrated retinoid or an AHA treatment.
Overall, Your Best Face B Concentrate because it’s a great “on-the-go” product — I love to slather it on coming in after potentially irritating retinoids or AHAs, or on its own after washing my face following a workout. It feels light and soothing on the skin.
Reverse osmosis water, vitamin B5 (dl-Panthenol), Syn-Hycan® (tetradecyl aminobutyroylvalylaminobutyric urea trifluoroacetate, magnesium chloride, glycerin), sodium hyaluronate, vitamin B3 (niacinamide), vitamin B8 (inositol), sodium PCA, Leucidal® (leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate)
#3: Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate ($55.00, FutureDerm.com/Shop)
Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate is designed to be used in combination with your existing regimen. With six-plus rare antioxidants combined in a lightweight formula, Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate can be mixed together with your favorite lightweight alcohol or glycol-based serum to give it a “boost.” It’s like getting the exciting addition of six antioxidants into your skin care regimen without having to throw out the proverbial bathwater!
One of these boosting ingredients is Leucidal®. To make Leucidal®, healthy bacteria called Lactobacillus are cultured. The resulting brine has been found to have the ability to fight acne, combat skin dryness, and prolong the life of your skin care products (ActiveMicrotechnology.com). Leucidal® also contains antimicrobial peptides called bacteriocins that may fight acne — they are capable of providing broad spectrum antimicrobial protection. (ActiveMicrotechnology.com).
Another beneficial ingredient in Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate is resveratrol. Scientists did this with reservatrol as well, with great results. In a 2008 study published in Photochemistry and Photobiology, human skin cells treated with resveratrol were found to actually prevent damage from UVB rays (short wavelength UV rays, which causes skin burning). Reservatrol also prevented inflammation, including redness and swelling, in the skin cells. Resveratrol prevented the skin cells from forming oxidation-inducing hydrogen peroxide as well. (Did you know that your skin produces hydrogen peroxide when it’s under stress?! So weird, but so true.)
Lastly, super antioxidants lipochroman-6 and glutathione are included. Lipochroman-6 is an antioxidant that protects yourself from, well, yourself. It neutralizes potentially damaging oxidative molecules of a specific kind called RNS oxidative species (Personal Care). Lipochroman-6 also protects your cell’s tyrosine. On the other hand, glutathione also protects your skin’s nutrient stores, but is naturally found within the skin. Glutathione levels decrease 30-35% over the course of one’s lifetime (The Prescription for Nutritional Healing). In addition to protecting your cells internally from the stress response, glutathione also protects against pollution, sunlight, and other external stressors. In fact, together with vitamin C, glutathione is actually one of the major water-soluble antioxidant metabolites naturally found in the cell, (Cosmetic Dermatology). In your skin, glutathione is naturally most abundant in the outermost layers of skin, and decreases as you move deeper within layers of your skin.
By topically applying glutathione, you may temporarily increase glutathione levels, protecting your skin from certain forms of stress. And that’s a beautiful thing!
Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate has a lightweight texture. It has a smooth, almost slippery, feel as it glides across the skin. Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate absorbs into the skin fairly quickly.
If you are using a vitamin CE serum with a lightweight alcohol base (like Skinceuticals CE Ferulic), you can combine a few drops of it with Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate to prevent it from feeling drying against the skin.
Like all antioxidant concentrates, I recommend Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate in the AM.
#4: Your Best Face Prep Microderm Cream ($80.00, FutureDerm.com/Shop)
I’m a huge fan of exfoliating, and Your Best Face Prep Microdermabrasion Cream ($80.00, FutureDerm.com/
TEGO Pep 4-Even is an ingredient you don’t hear much about, but it works extremely well. When the skin undergoes stress (including UV exposure), skin cells called keratinocytes recruit pigment-producing cells called melanosomes to essentially produce melanin (skin pigment). That’s where tetrapeptide-30, also known as TEGO Pep 4-Even, comes in. Tetrapeptide-30 has been shown to prevent the activation of melanosomes when the skin cells are under stress, resulting in a smoother skin tone and less hyperpigmentation (PersonalCareEvonik.com).
As in Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream, Matrixyl 3000® is a super peptide that may firm the skin. Among peptides,Matrixyl 3000® has been touted as “the most potent fibroblast stimulator,” and it has been said to have notable collagen-stimulating properties (Bioorganic and Medical Chemistry Studies, 2010).
As in Your Best Face B Concentrate and Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate, Your Best Face Prep Microdermabrasion Cream also includes Leucidal®, is a probiotic-based ingredient created by the fermentation of Lactobacillus bacteria in a defined growth medium. Lactobacillus is capable of restricting the growth of other microorganisms by acidifying its environment. However, in addition to acidifying its environment, Lactobacillus also produces novel antimicrobial peptides, also known as bacteriocins, that are capable of providing broad spectrum antimicrobial protection. (ActiveMicrotechnology.com).
Another beneficial ingredient in Your Best Face Prep Microdermabrasion Cream is Leontopodium alpinum extract, or Edelweiss extract. When ingested, Edelweiss extract has been found to have significant anti-inflammatory properties (Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2006). However, as all good FutureDerm readers know, food is not skin care, as the digestive tract has very different properties than the skin. In one experiment, cultures of skin cells were subjected to different stressors, including UV light, LDL lipoprotein, and a pro-inflammatory substance called LPS that is regularly used in laboratory experiments to induce inflammation. When edelweiss extract was applied to the skin, significantly less pro-inflammatory factors were released. In turn, less inflammation was noted (Mediators of Inflammation, 2012). The active portion of the extract was found also to be leontopodic acid.
The formula is supposed to be “creamy and smooth” while gliding on the skin. It is creamy and a little goes a long way, but it is also grainy. It feels like there are thousands of little sand-like particles in the formula, which is a wonderful thing, given the smaller the exfoliation bead, the denser the exfoliation experience. It is yellowish, like a mustard, in color. Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of rinsing skin care products off for at least a full minute, so I rubbed it on my face in gentle, circular motions for about a minute. I then applied a little more. I am relieved Your Best Face clearly states you can leave this on the face for up to 30 minutes before rinsing off. I was surprised at how well it performed — my skin felt silky smooth.
I’m definitely a huge fan of Your Best Face Prep Microdermabrasion Cream — it’s an incredible “boost” for any skin care junkie!
ingredients
aluminum oxide crystals, reverse osmosis water, olivem (cetearyl olivate, sorbitan olivate), meadowfoam seed oil, oliwax (hydrogenated olive oil (and) olive oil (olea europaea) (and) olive oil onsaponifiables), Pentavitin (saccharide isomerate),phytic acid, TEGO Pep 4-Even (tetrapeptide-30 (and) glycerin (and) water), edelweiss extract, vitamin B5, Relistase(glycerin (and) acetylarginyltryptophyl diphenylglycine), TEGO Pep 4-17 (Tetrapeptide-21 (and) Glycerin (and) Butylene Glycol (and) Water), allantoin, ethoxydiglycol, niacin, vitamin E (tocopheryl acetate), Leucidal (leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate), coenzyme Q10, Matrixyl 3000(glycerin (and) water (and) butylene glycol (and) carbomer (and) polysorbate 20 (and) palmitoyl oligopeptide (and) palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7), olive leaf extract,licorice root extract, aspen bark extract,glucuronolactone, spin trap (phenyl butyl nitrone), tetrahydrodiferyloylmethane (turmeric root extract), ferulic acid,tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA), lipochroman-6 (dimethylmethoxy chromanol), sodium hyaluronate, vitamin B6 (coenzyme B6 as pyridoxal-5-phosphate), blood orange oil, bergamot oil (bergaptene-free/non-photosensitizing), vanilla absolute
#5: Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil ($80, FutureDerm.com/Shop)
Of all the essential oils that have passed over my desk, Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil is my favorite, because it contains a proven antibacterial compound (tea tree oil), embedded in a ton of potent antioxidants and skin-calming vitamin E. Essential oils are not always great for the skin, because they can introduce prooxidant compounds and irritation, and Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil is the first I’ve encountered to address both.
I recommend Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil for three reasons: First, it contains (what else?) tea tree oil, which is superb for acne. In fact, an Australian study involving 124 subjects showed tea tree oil was just as effective as the most commonly used acne treatment, benzoyl peroxide (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1990). Tea tree oil was also found to be far less damaging to the skin, because benzoyl peroxide is widely believed to work by causing oxidation (yes, exactly what antioxidants are designed to fight).
Doctors recommend a 5% solution of topical tea tree oil to treat acne, applied once or twice daily. A 5% solution was the strength that was proven effective in positive Australian studies.
Second,Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil contains powerful antioxidant systems known as spin traps, which are capable of capturing the free radicals sometimes present in essential oils, as some pure essential oils “can act as prooxidants affecting inner cell membranes and organelles such as mitochondria” (Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2008). By having a powerful source of antoxidants with spin traps and lipochroman-6, Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil combats the issue.
Third, Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil contains skin-soothing ingredients like vitamin E, as well as spin traps and lipochroman-6. 
This means, unlike other tea tree oil treatments that can be harsh and drying, Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil has soothing and antioxidant properties.
Overall, if you have mild to moderately acne-prone skin, I recommend giving Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil a try. A little goes a long way, and this highly fragrant oil keeps acne at bay!
Bottom Line
Let’s recap with a summary:
- #1: Your Best Face CORRECT Eye Cream ($150): The best for most undereye concerns, including fine lines and wrinkles, dark circles, and skin dryness and sagging. The ingredients are truly superior: Spin traps, Matrixyl 3000®, Haloxyl®, and Cupuacu Butter make this a must-have!
- #2: Your Best Face B Concentrate ($45): A fantastic vitamin B serum with niacinamide, inositol, Leucidal®, and SYN-HYCAN®. Perfect for all but the most oily skin types. Bonus points if you apply after a potentially irritating product.
- #3: Your Best Face Antioxidants Concentrate ($55): With Leucidal®, resveratrol, Lipochroman-6, and glutathione. An incredible AM boost whether alone or combined with a Vitamin CE Serum.
- #4: Your Best Face Prep Microdermabrasion Cream ($80): An incredible anti-aging granular scrub that doesn’t irritate the skin with proper use. With Tego 4-Pep Even, Matrixyl 3000, Leucidal, and Edelweiss extract. For all skin types.
- #5: Your Best Face Private Reserve Tea Tree Oil: Best for mildly to moderately acne-prone skin. With tea tree oil, vitamin E, spin traps, and lipochroman 6.
Your Best Face is a dream skin care line for the scientifically-minded beauty product consumer. Definitely in love with these products!