What The F* Are Active Ingredients?
A buzzword in the skincare industry these days is “active ingredients”—which sounds well and good, but what does it really mean when it comes to figuring out what skincare products will be the most effective for your face? Alas, we caught up on all things active ingredients and building a sustainable and ethical business with Jina Kim, the founder of skincare line Circumference.
Jina originally studied physiology and chemistry, but segued into working for a creative agency that led her to help launch sustainable fashion line Girlfriend Collective. That experience was a crash course in learning what it takes to build a company that benevolently considers the interconnectedness of the environment, societal practices, and the economy.
Jina sent The Dandy Circumference’s Active Restorative Moisturizing Cream, Active Botanical Refining Toner, Pure Balancing Botanical Face Oil and we had a blast trying out the collection. As for our favorite: we’re going to have to go with the Active Botanical Refining Toner. In our experience, it’s rare to find a toner that feels like it’s actually taking off makeup/dirt/grime without making our skin feel super dry. Growing up, we often used Erno Laslo’s Light Controlling Lotion—which is still a favorite because it’s just a classy and clean-smelling toner—but it does unfortunately dry out your face.
Tried and tested: Circumference’s skincare trio make for a solid and natural-scented regimen that is simple, effective and gets the job done. So yes, we are officially fans.
There's a lot of talk in the skincare industry now about active ingredients. On Circumference's site, it says "The key to true efficacy is bioactivity." What makes an ingredient highly bioactive and how did you go about figuring out the most bioactive ingredients for skin?
When we talk about bioactives, we’re talking about plant-derived ingredients that are filled with all kinds of rich micronutrients. Much like what we consume in food, these are filled with all kinds of active ingredients—antioxidants, enzymes, polyphenols, fatty acids, etc—that have really amazing benefits for skin and overall health.
Identifying those ingredients is the real challenge. Where we source plants from, how it’s cultivated and harvested, who tends to those plants, how we extract, and the process all has an integral part in upholding the integrity of those highly bioactive ingredients.
We go the extra length and run a series of what’s called “composition” testing—a process in which we break a plant down to its molecular level to get objective measures of what nutrients it holds. This gives us full visibility into what micronutrients we’re actually extracting and formulating around.
Circumference sources from independent producers where the ingredients actually grow, which makes sense and is awesome! Is this less common for skincare brands?
The truth behind the curtains is that it’s incredibly easy to white label formulas through contract manufacturers and therefore, it is very common in the industry. The process only takes a few weeks from start to finish, but the downside is that there is 0 transparency in how products are made, where ingredients are sourced from and how they’re processed and formulated.
Our full-circle approach is the antithesis to this process, requiring considerable care and time. We source our own ingredients and find local partners who are willing to meet our high quality standards to preserve the integrity of Circumference’s bioactives and even composting what we can back into the soil.
You are upcycling the byproducts from the winemaking process and using the ingredients in your formulations--specifically with the moisturizer. What other types of byproducts are you looking into using? Or what else could you hypothetically use?
Our WasteNot initiative takes cues from the food industry in how they equip consumers with incredibly valuable knowledge such as where ingredients are sourced and how they’re cultivated, harvested, prepped and ultimately plated before they’re served.
We’re continually testing and formulating with the Vitis Vinifera (Grape Leaf) Extract that we sourced in partnership with Bedell Cellars, but also working to identify other bio-waste/byproduct materials we can utilize and add to our roster for 2021.
What's your skincare routine, morning and night?
My morning and evening routines are actually fairly similar as I’m a pretty firm believer in consistency to achieve results.
MORNING:
Toner
So I actually don’t start my mornings with a cleanser. Our skin rests and heals with your own healthy, natural oils overnight, so unless I’m having some serious breakouts, I usually reach for a gentle toner instead. I typically use our Circumference Active Botanical Refining Toner but have actually been testing out a toner from a brand called Eath Library called Wise Awakening.
The point of a toner is to quickly feed your skin with various healthy micronutrients such as fatty acids and antioxidants that our skin craves. The Eath Library toner in particular has a lot of ingredients that are based on ancient Korean medicine such as ginseng, goji, and dogwood—all of which I especially appreciate because they’re not typically found in US based skincare products but they’ve been historically used in Asia for medicinal purposes.
Lastly, I don’t usually use a cotton pad and will shake a few drops directly onto my palm and pat and massage it into my skin lightly.
2. Vitamin-C Serum
In my opinion, Vitamin-C serums are one of the most important daily serums that you should be putting on every single day. My daily is our Circumference Vital-C Antioxidant Day Serum and the combination of Vitamin-C and Niacinamide works wonders on my skin. Vitamin C is an incredible antioxidant that protects your skin from free radicals such as UV rays and pollutants and Niacinamide helps minimize pores and refines skin texture. Together, with consistent use, your skin will thank you with healthy regeneration, leading to glowing, radiant skin.
3. Moisturizing Cream
We recently launched our Circumference Active Restorative Moisturizing Cream just a month ago and it has truly been a life saver as the weather in NYC got cold and dry very fast this year! It’s an incredibly nourishing, rich cream but absorbs quickly and has a nice matte finish.
4. Finish with a Face Oil
For extra cold, dry days, I finish with our Pure Balancing Botanical Face Oil. A good, quality face oil is very effective in helping lock in your skin’s moisture so you get longer lasting moisture throughout the day. It just takes a few drops on your palms and gently pat it in your skin and you can also gently massage it in.
EVENING:
1. Tatcha Pure One Step Camellia Oil Cleanser
This has been my go-to cleanser for years now. I massage the cleanser directly on my dry skin and massage it into my skin from top to bottom. Oil cleansers are a must if you wear make up. The oils really help break down your makeup and is really great at lifting it off your skin, ready to rinse off.
2. The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser
I follow the oil cleanser with this squalane cleanser, which is actually a very simple, no-fuss cleanser. The 2nd step to a double cleanse is to make sure you’re effectively washing off any remnants of makeup, dirt and grime off your skin. In addition, the 2nd cleanser, which should typically be more like a gel cleanser will help clear out your pores.
With a background in physiology and chemistry, you must be really attuned to the formulations of your products. Especially the toner, because it actually removes excess oil/dirt that most face cleanser don’t and also doesn't dry out the skin. Did you start by mixing things yourself at home? Or how did the process of actually creating the products kickstart?
I wish I had the know-how in the beginning to mix things myself, but I do find tremendous value in learning by being hands on in the process and working with our chemists.
Circumference was founded with my husband, Chris, revolving around the idea of developing and implementing new and innovative sustainable practices in the beauty industry. We were fortunate to be introduced and connected with all kinds of manufacturers, suppliers, chemical distributors, etc and really got a no-holds-barred view at how the industry works behind the scenes. With very little knowledge, we just took on as many conversations as possible and ended up meeting a woman (a dear friend of ours now!) took a liking to our aspirations. She was working with a small independent extraction company at the time and had similar aspirations of finding more sustainable ways of building this industry.