Serum
Facial Treatment
Canadian Canada
Canadian Canada

What's inside

What's inside

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Ingredients Side-by-side

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3.02
Overall rating
5
4
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1
What people say
Pilling 46% Great Value 43% Works Well 41%
1.67
Overall rating
5
4
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1
What people say
Broke Me Out 100% Irritating 50% Oily 50%

Ingredients Explained

These ingredients are found in both products.

Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.

Dimethyl Isosorbide (often shortened to DMI) is a sugar-derived solvent made from sorbitol. It's used to dissolve tricky ingredients and help them mix smoothly into a formula.

Many actives sit as gritty crystals when undissolved, so DMI swoops in to full dissolve them. This helps improve texture, stability, and how evenly an active is distributed.

It does have a penetration-enhancing reputation that is a bit more nuanced than marketing suggests; a cell study on human skin found that 10% DMI didn't significantly boost the permeation of Hydroquinone, Salicylic Acid, or Octadecenedioic Acid compared to controls (though it did improve their solubility in the formula itself).

Typical usage concentrations usually range from 1-10% depending on the formula's needs; this ingredient is also well tolerated at these levels.

Learn more about Dimethyl Isosorbide

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