Marine algae skin care products can be high value anti-age skincare solutions. This is because marine algae nourishes, detoxifies, protects and lends its life-extension properties to skin. It’s why PHYTO5 formulates various types of algae into a number of our natural skincare products.
PHYTO5’s Wood element Skin Toner is a good example of a high value marine algae skin care product. (Wood element skin Toner helps lighten age spots while energizing skin.)
The brown algae in Wood Skin Toner is Laminaria digitata extract. Brown algae are most often used for masks, creams, shampoos, lotions or toners. It’s an extract rich in trace minerals, proteins, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. This seaweed mineralizes, revitalizes and moisturizes skin. It also firms and tones skin working to prevent wrinkles and fine lines.
Another type of brown algae is Fucus vesiculosus, commonly known as bladderwrack, is formulated in Algoderm base Mask. The brown algae powder reduces wrinkle depth, corrects small skin imperfections, and improves skin’s texture. Fucus vesiculosus helps stabilize moisture in skin drawing it to the surface from deep within the skin's layers.
Fucus vesiculous is anti-age antioxidant rich and works to defend skin’s surface from harmful effects of airborne pollutants. The algae is mineral rich and composed of a full array of essential amino acids. This helps facilitate the movement of water through skin’s uppermost layers.
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Marine algae skin care products combat radiation and its damaging effects.
Skin is constantly exposed to ultraviolet radiation and other environmental aggressors and toxins. These stressors often lead to cell membrane and DNA damage. They deactivate enzymatic action while they encourage a host of acute and chronic disorders.
Bioactive compounds in marine algae protect skin from ultraviolet radiation.
“Microalgae are useful to protect the population from the damage caused by UVA, UVB, UVC, and UV-vis radiation with high risks such as outdoor works, high-grade burns, skin cancer, etc.”
Marine algae offers properties for skin you might not get from your diet.
It’s challenging to consume a perfect diet replete with every nutrient the body needs. And so skin often suffers because it doesn’t have the raw materials it needs to remain beautiful, radiant and youthful.
“The information available on the protective effects of microalgae on human skin suggests that they can be implemented in the dermatological field as cosmetics and sunscreens since some of the main advantages are that they stimulate and improve blood circulation, revitalize and firm the skin, they are toning, they are rebalancing, detoxifying, and naturally moisturizing.”
Marine algae skin care products at their core benefit from the amazing action of the single-celled bioforms of algae.
Algae and micro-algae are simple, nonflowering aquatic plants including seaweeds and many single-celled bioforms.
These organisms have had to develop strategies and mechanisms to defend themselves against the challenges of their environment. This natural and never-ending quest for survival has forced them to produce beneficial secondary metabolites.
Secondary metabolites in marine algae zero in on defeating a number of challenges including:
solar radiation
predators
having to compete with other plants for resources
the innate urge to establish themselves as well rooted non-displaceable residents of their environment.
In our blog on nutrigenomics, xenohormesis and longevity codes we get from plants, we discussed exactly these concepts. Plants like algae found in marine algae skin care products work to pass their survival and longevity codes on to you. You can consume them through the mouth or through the skin. This is the primary unhailed benefit of consuming algae and using it in marine algae skin care products.
Marine algae skin care products benefit from the algae’s very diverse composition and functions.
Algae brims with vitamins and minerals like magnesium and zinc. But highly potent antioxidative enzymes like beta-carotene(1) and lutein(2) give marine algae its power.
Though both are known for protecting eyesight, they boost algae’s ability to improve skin’s hydration and elasticity.
Marine algae offers many distinct phenolic antioxidative substances all possessing a wide scope of important physiological properties.
And because algae have been naturally exposed to oxidative stresses as mentioned above, they’ve adapted by developing several bioactive compounds extremely useful in marine algae skin care products.
Seaweeds contain many bioactives as recent scientific studies have proven. These biologically active compounds include:
polysaccharides(3)
proteins and peptides(4)
phenolic compounds and polyphenols(5) and
phlorotannins (6), pigments and amino acids.
Without adequate proteins, for example, aging is accelerated. It shows up in the face more quickly than anywhere else in the body.
But the amino acids in marine algae fill and maintain skin cell membranes helping achieve a more youthful appearance through these actions:
helping prevent rough skin texture
lessening wrinkles
toning up flaccidity of skin.
While algae offer calming properties to human health, they are hostile to:
substances that are allergenic
fatty plaque in arteries
microbes
blood clotting and
carcinogens.
Marine algae skin care products are composed of algae of several colors.
Not all marine algae are green.
Brown and a number of red algae, along with green and blue green algae, are all rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids, sugars, lipids and other bioactive compounds. Brown algae demonstrate eight interconnected phenol rings (phlorotannins[6]) that trap electrons to search for and neutralize age-causing free radicals.
Japanese brown algae, Undaria pinnatifida, or wakame, is a principle ingredient in PHYTO5’s Face Exfoliation product.
This Japanese brown algae is rich in fiber, nutrients, minerals and vitamins. It boasts a calcium content ten times that of milk. It intensely nourishes, revitalizes and restores radiance to skin.
We formulate wakame algae in Ageless Perfection Cream. This Japanese brown algae and other ingredients work to reduce and eliminate brown spots associated with aging or sun damaged skin. Perfection Cream works to inhibit melanin production that causes new spots to form.
An active ingredient in wakame called coben decreases and regulates the production of melanin in skin leading to hyperpigmentation (dark spots).
The high mineral content of marine algae is incredibly important for skin.
Marina algae minerals help create an epidermal barrier that protects skin from environmental aggressions.
They’re also instrumental in preventing and soothing inflammation of the skin. This is important for people who suffer from psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, hyperpigmentation, acne, wrinkles and even hair loss.
Marine algae also contain starch, vitamin B, iron, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, copper and calcium. All provides important skin firming and moisturizing benefits.
Marine algae skin care products are all around skin protective and restorative.
Marine algae skin care products provide a strengthening effect for skin making it more resistant to abrasions.
Some algae like aphanizomenon flos aquae or spirulina, when applied directly to skin as a paste constituted with a bit of water, hasten skin healing. Use it for rashes and bug bite reactions.
Marine algae skin care products provide a myriad of skin benefits:
anti-age
skin texture conditioning
hydration
nourishment
detoxification
mineral replenishment(7)
reduction of puffiness
protection against solar radiation
pore refining
lessening of fine lines
blemish prevention
skin damage repair
collagen repair
treatment of seborrhea
anti-inflammatory action
hair conditioning.
Marine algae skin care products generously share the benefits of algae without discrimination to any skin type. This makes marine algae skin care products perfect for natural and sustainable skin treatment aiming to truly nourish skin and mitigate the effects of aging.
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Endnotes:
(1) Beta-carotene is a plant pigment that is an isomer of carotene, important in the diet as a precursor of vitamin A. (An isomer is each of two or more compounds with the same formula but a different arrangement of atoms in the molecule and different properties.)
(2) Known as the “eye vitamin,” the term lutein comes from the Latin luteus meaning yellow, lutein is a xanthophyll (an oxygen containing yellow carotenoid plant) and one of 600 known naturally occurring carotenoids (any of a class of mainly yellow, orange, or red fat-soluble pigments, including carotene, which give color to plant parts such as ripe tomatoes and autumn leaves). Lutein is synthesized only by plants, and like other xanthophylls is found in high quantities in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and yellow carrots.
(3) Polysaccharides are carbohydrate molecules with the ability to mimic the natural carbohydrate fraction found in the top layer of skin. They replenish skin and help skin to naturally hydrate and retain water. They are also vital for skin repair and skin renewal.
(4) Peptides work to rebuild and repair damaged cells and signal skin to produce collagen thereby slowing the aging process.
(5) “Phenolic compounds constitute a group of secondary metabolites which have important functions in plants. Besides the beneficial effects on the plant host, phenolic metabolites (polyphenols) exhibit a series of biological properties that influence the human in a health-promoting manner. Evidence suggests that people can benefit from plant phenolics obtained either by the diet or through skin application, because they can alleviate symptoms and inhibit the development of various skin disorders. Due to their natural origin and low toxicity, phenolic compounds are a promising tool in eliminating the causes and effects of skin aging, skin diseases, and skin damage, including wounds and burns.” —Magdalena Działo et al in The Potential of Plant Phenolics in Prevention and Therapy of Skin Disorders
(6) “Research on seaweeds provides a continual discovery of natural bioactive compounds. The review presents new information on studies of the potential and specific antiviral action of phlorotannin and their derivatives from marine brown algae. Phlorotannin is a polyphenolic derivative and a secondary metabolite from marine brown algae which exhibits a high quality of biological properties. Phlorotannin has a variety of biological activities that include antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, anti-diabetic, anti-allergic, antibacterial, antihypertensive and immune modulating activities. These phlorotannin properties were revealed by various biochemical and cell-based assays in vitro. This distinctive polyphenol from the marine brown algae may be a potential pharmaceutical and nutraceutical compound.” —V. Maheswari et al in Phlorotannin and its Derivatives, a Potential Antiviral Molecule from Brown Seaweeds, an Overview
(7) Though all algae are mineral rich, the composition of minerals depends upon the mineral composition of the seabed source from which the algae is harvested.
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Sources:
Araújo, Rafael G et al. “Effects of UV and UV-vis Irradiation on the Production of Microalgae and Macroalgae: New Alternatives to Produce Photobioprotectors and Biomedical Compounds.” Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 27,16 5334. 22 Aug. 2022, doi:10.3390/molecules27165334
Jorge Miguel, Goncalo Paxe. Natural Skin Care Tips. Germany, epubli, 2020.
Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology. United Kingdom, CRC Press, 2014.
Balasundram, N., Sundry, K., and Samman, S. (2006) Phenolic compounds in plants and agroindustrial by-products: Antioxidant activity, occurrence, and potential uses. Food Chemistry, 99, 191-203. Beauchamp, C., and Fridovich, I. (1971).
Microalgae Biotechnology for Food, Health and High Value Products. Germany, Springer Nature Singapore, 2020.
Działo M, Mierziak J, Korzun U, Preisner M, Szopa J, Kulma A. The Potential of Plant Phenolics in Prevention and Therapy of Skin Disorders. Int J Mol Sci. 2016 Feb 18;17(2):160. doi: 10.3390/ijms17020160. PMID: 26901191; PMCID: PMC4783894.
Algae Materials: Applications Benefitting Health. United States, Elsevier Science, 2023.