Behind the scenes with VoluSmooth - how we created a brand new ingredient and what it means for your skin

Hi everyone!

I’m so thrilled to share with you all a very special ingredient complex we’ve been quietly cooking up for over three years with forty brilliant chemists!

I wanted to share more about why we created the ingredient complex, the behind-the-scenes process we went through, and what this ingredient complex can do for you.

Peach & Lily was founded to help you transform your skin — that’s our single-minded mission. I grew up with severe eczema and problem-skin. I know what it feels like to struggle with visible rashes, bleeding, and itchiness. It made me feel like I had no control over my skin and I sometimes felt hopeless. I went to esthetician school twenty years ago to see what I could learn to improve my skin. That started a journey of constant learning and hands-on practice to finally transform how my skin looks and feels.

I started Peach & Lily to help you do the same. And the Peach & Lily Collection was created to help everyone – all skin types, skin tones, skin issues are welcome! – see visible improvement for their skin.

The Peach & Lily Collection is 100% worry free: clean, non-toxic, effective, gentle, spa-grade, cruelty-free. We obsess over every last ingredient and every sensorial effect and evaluate results with incredibly high standards – because your skin deserves the best.

Even if it takes a village of chemists and many rejections from labs and lots of “that’s not possible” type answers, we push to create unparalleled formulas for you.

There are two very commonly-raised issues from our skin community that inspired the development process of our Skin Shield and the hero ingredient, a first-of-its-kind proprietary complex called VoluSmooth™: 

1. “I wear SPF daily and have a meticulous skin routine, but why do my dark spots, breakouts and dullness persist?”
2. “I love my primer/makeup base and the beautiful smooth finish that evens out texture, but I feel like it’s making me break out and making my skin worse. What can I do?”

 

Here’s what’s happening. For question 1 that we see come up a lot, one silent attacker on our skin is pollution. Many studies show that pollution is a leading skin-damager like the sun’s harmful rays. Pollution-damage looks a lot like sun-damage! For question 2, I understand. It’s a vicious cycle. You want to wear beautiful priming products to cover texture left behind from breakouts or the look of visible pores and fill in lines – but then when you use the wrong products, it only exacerbates the underlying issue.

All of this led to a vision to create a beautiful, smoothing, blurring, skin-texture-evening, bounce-creating, cushiony finish – and here’s the catch – that also actively combats things like pollution-damage and is good for your skin. That’s the dream — having a primer that makes your skin look beautifully smooth right away but also improves your skin from within over time.

Over three years ago, we enlisted the partnership of forty chemists to make this dream come true for you!

I know the complexity that goes into creating one-of-a-kind Peach & Lily formulas, but creating a novel ingredient complex was a whole new challenge. It was incredibly fascinating and exciting to see each day bring the vision of what we wanted to create for you one step closer.

Creating ingredient complexes is a lot like cooking: there’s some science involved (things will boil in scalding hot water, oil and water don’t mix, and other facts that no great chef can bend or get around) and then there’s a whole lot of art involved. Certain ingredients detract from each other and some enhance the other. Vaporizing something first results in a totally different outcome than using that ingredient in a different format. There are literally millions of permutations of ingredient combinations and process steps. The skill, patience, and creativity of the chemist can create vastly different outcomes. Similar to how the Executive Chef of a three-star Michelin-ranked restaurant has a different artistic touch (read: extreme skills, lots of patience and practice, innate creativity and talent, among other elements that sets this person apart) than an average line cook, cosmetic chemistry has a lot of talent and art involved.

So, we sought out the best chemists, collaborated deliberately, and took our time. We wanted the ingredient that would act as a skin protector and provide a beautiful finish to be 100% plant-based and highly skin-compatible. This means every skin type (even the most sensitive skin types) would be able to use this ingredient complex with zero irritation and experience soothing benefits.

We considered a wide plant variety range (I now know the latin name of countless botanicals) and spent a lot of time seeing how various plant extract mixes work together.

Behind the scenes, this requires a ton of testing. We isolated variables to see which element gave that beautiful finish, and that calming effect and that glow.

After years of iterating, we saw the most amazing complex come to life: VoluSmooth™ which includes bamboo stem extract, mulberry leaf extract, and burdock root extract. That’s it. There’s no other filler ingredients or harsh chemicals. VoluSmooth™ is entirely plant-based/vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free and super-effective.

It’s a first-of-its-kind silicone alternative that not only gives skin a smooth, stunning finish – but it helps your skin actually improve from within while fending off damage.

As a side note, given that we formulate and make the Peach & Lily Collection in Korea where the beauty innovation and natural beauty world is so advanced, I love that these three ingredients are more commonly used in everything from Korean cooking to Korean herbal remedies as a nod to our Korean heritage.

Bamboo stem extract is really incredible – it can provide some of the sensorial and textural benefits of silicone (without the film-y, pill-y element) and it serves to strengthen and fortify your skin barrier so that your skin can better fend off damage.

Mulberry leaf extract is rich in antioxidants and helps calm signs of irritation. It’s also rich in flavonoids which can help discolored skin look more even and radiant.

Burdock root extract is one of my favorite ingredients as it’s a powerhouse in helping to quell inflammation. It has been historically used to help those with eczema (me!), psoriasis and acne.

Together, these ingredients comprise VoluSmooth™ which powers the Skin Shield Blurring Primer.

Creating this complex was a labor of love for our Peach community, and after three years, I’m thrilled to finally introduce you to a good-for-your-skin, protective complex that also makes skin look and feel smooth and plumped up with vibrancy.

Meet VoluSmooth™ the plant-based gamechanger in your new Skin Shield Blurring Primer. I hope this helps you tremendously in your skincare journey!

 

Cheers to radiance!

 

Xo Alicia

 

Behind the scenes with VoluSmooth - how we created a brand new ingredient and what it means for your skin
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