Clarity Bioactive Clearing Serum

For years, our understanding was that hyperkeratosis (overproduction) and bacterial overgrowth caused acne. So, for years, treatments for acne pretty much exclusively centered around exfoliating excess skin cells (i.e. salicylic acid) and killing bacteria (i.e. benzoyl peroxide).

While it is true that hyperkeratosis and bacterial overgrowth do contribute to breakouts (and their treatments are effective), now we know that they aren’t actually the root cause of acne. The true root cause of acne begins with two important steps: inflammation and free radical damage.

Our Clarity serum is designed to target this true root cause of acne by quenching free radicals with a synergistic antioxidant network, extinguishing inflammation with potent botanical anti-inflammatories, and protecting against future sources of inflammation like skin barrier disruption, addressing hyperkeratosis and bacterial overgrowth before they can begin.

Oils are a broader term for lipid extracts from plants, but oils are really just a combination of fatty acids, hydrocarbons, and other lipid compounds.

The different lipids in oils have different effects on the skin. For example, oleic acid, a type of fatty acid found in high levels in many plant oils, is highly comedogenic and disruptive to the skin barrier.

On the other hand, linoleic acid, another fatty acid in plant oils, fights acne, repairs the skin barrier, and balances the skin microbiome.

Different oils have different lipid compositions, some with high levels of oleic acid and other comedogenic / disruptive lipids, and some with high levels of linoleic acid and other acne-fighting lipids.

In other words, you have some oils that can be categorized as disruptive / acne-causing and others that can be categorized as acne-fighting, all based on what lipids the oils is made up of.

To make matters more complicated, many oleic acid-rich oils are often labelled as non-comedogenic (i.e. argan oil, marula oil), when they actually contain high levels of comedogenic lipids. So, you may have used oils that were labelled “non-comedogenic” when they actually had high levels of oleic acid, which may have lead to breakouts.

Our Clarity serum is mindfully formulated for acne-prone skin, with oils hand-selected for a non-comedogenic, blemish-fighting lipid profile, making it an exceptionally compatible oil for acne-prone skin.

To read more of the in-depth science behind oils for acne-prone skin, visit our blog post here.

You can absolutely use a moisturizer with Clarity! However, you may find that you don’t need to.

Moisturizers are traditionally emulsions, a blend of oil and water together. These moisturizing emulsions moisturize the skin in three ways: increasing hydration using humectants, acting as an occlusive barrier, and enhancing skin barrier repair with lipids.

Facial oils made with barrier-repairing, linoleic acid-rich oils actually have all of these same properties. In fact, they achieve these effects even more effectively than moisturizers due to the higher lipid content.

And while facial oils don’t contain humectants, the exceptionally high antioxidant content of our Clarity serum encourages the production of our skin’s natural humectants like hyaluronic acid, proteoglycans, and glycosaminoglycans, all while creating a lipid barrier to seal in moisture.

The benefit of using a facial oil as a moisturizer is that many emulsifiers used in moisturizers can be comedogenic for very sensitive acne-prone skin types, making non-comedogenic oils a better-tolerated option.

Oils shouldn’t sit on the skin. If you have had difficult getting a facial oil to absorb, there are three main reasons why. To unlock the incredible healing power of oils, we have to address all three!

Firstly (and most commonly), you may not be using a linoleic acid-rich oil. Our skin drinks up linoleic acid, utilizing it to create barrier-repairing ceramides, while other fatty acids aren’t used as readily. So, if you’re using an oil higher in other fatty acids, the oil may sit on the skin because it’s not being properly broken down.

Since Clarity is an exceptionally high linoleic acid serum, the fatty acids are easily absorbed and utilized!

Secondly, your skin may not be properly pH-balanced. To utilize linoleic acid and create ceramides, the skin must be in an acidic pH (between 4.5 and 5.5), otherwise linoleic acid won’t be absorbed. This can happen if you’re using alkaline cleansers or not using a pH-balancing toner.

Thirdly, your skin may be dehydrated. Hydrated skin absorbs all topicals better. You may be dealing with dehydration because of a disrupted skin barrier, sun damage, or nutrient deficiency in the skin (depleting your natural hydrating extracellular matrix).

To address these issues properly and experience the benefits facial oils have to offer, we recommend a comprehensive regimen that includes a gentle, hydrating cleanser, a hydrating, pH-balancing toner, and (if not pregnant or breast-feeding) a retinoid, alongside your high linoleic acid facial oil (like Clarity).

Absolutely, you can use Clarity if you have perioral dermatitis! While oils are sometimes advised against while experiencing a perioral dermatitis flare, it’s important to distinguish what compounds within oils themselves are problematic.

Contrary to popular belief, not all facial oils are created equal. Plant oils used in cosmetics are often dominated by linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, or oleic acid (while butters are mostly dominated by palmitic or stearic acid).

Plant oils high in oleic acid have the potential to flare perioral dermatitis due to the skin barrier-disruptive effects. Plant oils high in linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, on the other hand, actually help to repair a damaged skin barrier.

In Clarity (and all of our oil-based products), we only ever use oils dominated by fatty acids that are safe and reparative for the skin barrier.

Many skincare products are formulated with plant extracts. Some of these extracts are taken from the whole plant while others are distilled fractions that specifically isolate certain compounds in botanicals.

Essential oils fall into the latter category — they are distilled fractions of the lighter molecules present in plants, which tend to be the aromatic molecules that give plants their characteristic aromas. As a result, the end products are highly aromatic oils made up of dozens, if not hundreds, of different compounds.

While many essential oils are used for their aromatic properties to give skincare products a characteristic scent, many of these aromatic compounds actually have highly therapeutic properties and contribute to the health benefits the of plants they’re distilled from.

For example, when you sip on a chamomile tea, part of the soothing, digestion-boosting effects are attributed to chamomile’s essential oils.

That being said, there are many things to consider when determining the therapeutic value of an essential oil for the skin specifically — namely, quality, biocompatibility, phototoxicity, photosensitivity, dosage, composition, and therapeutic properties.

At Sana Haus, we honor the aromatherapeutic values used in our essential oil-containing formulas, but that’s never the first and foremost factor in our formulations.

Instead, we hand-select essential oils from a short list of our approved essential oils for their therapeutic, bioactive properties — like their ability to dampen inflammation, soothe irritation, or support a healthier skin barrier — at very conservative dosages. So, you can rest assured that the essential oils we select for our formulas, when we do, have been carefully chosen to support the health of your skin.