Oxygen is quite clearly a good thing. Good for human life that is. Even in this era of, let’s say, competing information sources, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who would deny that oxygen is fundamental to life on earth.

It’s one of those paradoxes that makes life so sweet that oxidation is also one of the largest factors in physical aging, the process that causes the cellular breakdown that leads to wrinkles, thin skin and loss of elasticity.

When people talk about skin care, they are very often talking about fighting the effects of physical aging, whether they say so or not. (Or perhaps they are talking about obscuring signs of physical aging, but that is more about beauty than skin care, a nuanced difference that we take very seriously at Skin Actives Scientific.)

If our environment is aging us, then we need tools to fight the effects, thus the overwhelming need to make sure that your skin care routine is plentiful in antioxidant rich active ingredients. 

With this in mind, over the course of a decade Skin Actives Scientific developed ROS* BioNet, our patented, in-house blend of critical antioxidants designed to maximize your ability to fight physical aging.

Today we’ll take a look at ROS* BioNet™ and why you should be looking for it in your favorite Skin Actives products.

What is Oxidation?

But first, let’s start with the basics.

The definition of oxidation is larger than the word might lead you to believe. 

The process of oxidation is quite simply when a molecule loses an electron. Electron loss can damage a molecule because, let’s be frank, that electron served a purpose in its chemical makeup. Deprived of the electron, this molecule is now the subject of free radical damage. There are many different types of molecules floating around in our environment looking for electrons to balance themselves out. These molecules are called free radicals. 

When scientists were first learning about the process of oxidation, they noticed that oxygen triggered the process and so they named the reaction after that molecule. Subsequently, scientists have discovered many other types of molecules that oxidize as well, but the name has stuck. 

Air Pollution and Sun Damage to Skin

As the twenty-first century continues forward, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the concern that free radicals surround us. It’s true that you can find free radical activity almost anywhere from the air that you breathe to the food that you eat. Your skin even generates its own free radical activity, through the proper maintenance of cells.

What’s important to remember is that nature, the source of free radicals, insists that they be balanced out. When your skin is functioning perfectly in a balanced environment, the oxidants you create should be balanced out by the antioxidants your body generates on its own. 

Unfortunately that is not the world we live in.

Free radicals can be found in air pollution, fried food, and can even be generated in excess by exposure to UV light from the sun. Maintaining a healthy diet is a good way to moderate your free radical exposure. But when it comes to your skin, the topical application of antioxidants has been scientifically shown to combat free radicals and promote healthy functioning of the skin barrier.

For this reason, Skin Actives set out to create a free radical fighting antioxidant blend. 

What is ROS* BioNet?

ROS* BioNet is Skin Actives’ patented formula of antioxidant proteins blended into one easy source. Like all Skin Actives products, ROS* BioNet is formulated at the strengths that are best for your body in terms of safety, absorption, and your body’s ability to utilize the ingredient.

So what’s in ROS* BioNet?

ROS* BioNet is composed of Skin Actives’ great high tech, bio-identical proteins.

Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) - Our founder, Dr. Hannah Sivak explains superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the following way:

“In our cells, we have our own SODs, but we can protect our skin by supplementing them with topically applied SOD. The fact that SOD is unlikely to enter live cells is not a problem. Lipid peroxidation occurs everywhere in the skin, not just in the live cells. The role of SOD is to eliminate the free radicals resulting from lipid peroxidation and to prevent the chain reactions that would eventually reach deeply into the skin, and topical application of SOD will certainly help to achieve this aim.”

Thioredoxin - Thioredoxin is one of Skin Actives’ bioidentical proteins. The way it functions however, is very much like an antioxidant. Thioredoxin is a naturally occurring chemical, as Dr. Sivak describes here:

“Thioredoxins are found in nearly all known organisms and are essential for life in mammals.This is an enzyme I became familiar with in my days as a plant biochemist, long before Wikipedia (or the internet, for that matter) was invented. Thioredoxin is “everywhere,” including the regulation of the most abundant protein on earth, Rubisco (the enzyme that “fixes” carbon dioxide making life possible for every plant and animal, including us).”

Glutaredoxin - Glutaredoxin works together with glutathione to form the biologically necessary glutathione system. The interaction between these two chemicals has benefits for your skin health. In addition to its work as an antioxidant, glutaredoxin has been shown to “bind iron sulfurs”.

If you’d like to hear more from our founder, check out her blog on skin care, the skin care industry, and chemistry, here.

Advanced Ageless Skin Care

Just because it’s a proprietary blend doesn’t mean you don’t have access to ROS* BioNet’s pollution damage fighting action! 

While you won’t find it anywhere else, Skin Actives has already been formulating with ROS* BioNet for over a year now. If you’ve tried any of the products from our Advanced Ageless line, you’ve probably already noticed the difference that a blend of awesome antioxidants can make. 

If you haven’t tried them yet, stop by and check them out. You’ll find all your Skin Actives favorites in Advanced Ageless versions, complete with more antioxidant power to scour free radicals than any other products in our range. 

Meanwhile, you can add ROS* BioNet directly to your favorite serum, cream or lotion with a vial of these great proteins suspended in Skin Actives’ very own Sea Kelp Coral. 

Thanks for reading, Skin Actives Community! We’ll see you next week for more skin care topics, check back here on Tuesday for the latest.