Fawwnity 3% CTM Serum

Your skin makes glycerin on its own (mostly from sebaceous oil breakdown) and shuttles it to your outermost layer of skin, or your epidermis, via aquaporin-3.

Aquaporin-3 is a transporter that is essential for normal skin hydration, elasticity, and repair. Interestingly, mice lacking in AQP3 have dry and less elastic skin that can be fully corrected with glycerin.

This ingredient is non-irritating, plays well with almost every ingredient, and works across all skin types. Typical use is anywhere between 3-10% but can go up to 79% in some leave-on products.

Just know very high concentrations (>40%) can feel tacky in low humidity.

Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.

You might have heard of "niacin flush", or the reddening of skin that causes itchiness. Niacinamide has not been found to cause this.

In very rare cases, some individuals may not be able to tolerate niacinamide at all or experience an allergic reaction to it.

If you are experiencing flaking, irritation, and dryness with this ingredient, be sure to double check all your products as this ingredient can be found in all categories of skincare.

When incorporating niacinamide into your routine, look out for concentration amounts. Typically, 5% niacinamide provides benefits such as fading dark spots. However, if you have sensitive skin, it is better to begin with a smaller concentration.

When you apply niacinamide to your skin, your body converts it into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). NAD is an essential coenzyme that is already found in your cells as "fuel" and powers countless biological processes.

In your skin, NAD helps repair cell damage, produce new healthy cells, support collagen production, strengthen the skin barrier, and fight environmental stressors (like UV and pollution).

Our natural NAD levels start to decline with age, leading to slower skin repair, visible aging, and a weaker skin barrier. By providing your skin niacinamide, you're recharging your skin's NAD levels. This leads to stronger, healthier, and younger looking skin.

Another name for vitamin B3 is nicotinamide. This vitamin is water-soluble and our bodies don't store it. We obtain Vitamin B3 from either food or skincare. Meat, fish, wheat, yeast, and leafy greens contain vitamin B3.

The type of niacinamide used in skincare is synthetically created.

What's the point of that? Skin is oily and doesn't let water-loving ingredients through easily. Once this modified version gets past the surface, the enzymes in your skin snip off the tail and releases regular TXA where you want it.

This is a delivery party trick so any benefit comes from getting the same active deeper (not from the molecule doing something different).

Independent researchers tested the same trick in 2024 using shorter tails: they got 2-3x more into the skin than plain TXA and it converted back to TXA within two hours.

Unfortunately, the evidence for this is thin at this moment; the two studies that get cited come from the company that sells it.

A 2025 study measured how much TXA ended up in skin: 2.1x more than a 3% plain TXA formula and 3.8% more than a 1% one. It was written by a supplier and only measured how much TXA got in, not whether anyone's dark spots faded.

A 2021 study had 35 women using a 2% serum twice daily for 8 weeks; pigmentation went down about 17%, redness down about 34%, and it was well-tolerated. These numbers are nice but nobody got a placebo and nobody got regular TXA for comparison. And the supplier funded + wrote this study.

There's also a finished trial on acne marks with no published results yet.

So there is a missing piece that nobody has published a study putting this head to head against regular TXA and measuring what actually happens to pigmentation. "Better penetration" is a reasonable guess that it works better.

Supplier and reseller pages throw around numbers like 60x more effective and 97x the penetration. We couldn't find any published source for either; the only peer reviewed figures are the 2.1x and 3.8x abov and those are absorption numbers from the supplier's own paper.

The fatty tail makes the molecule about three times heavier, so only about a third of the ingredient by weight is actual Tranexamic Acid. Formulators usually treat 3% Cetyl Tranexamate Mesylate as roughly 1% TXA.

So a product advertising "3% next generation tranexamic acid" is not giving you more active than a 3% TXA serum. It may get more of it into your skin (which is the whole point of the derivative) but the numbers on the front of the box aren't comparable.

At this time, Cetyl Tranexamate Mesylate is mechanically feasible and probably a real improvement in delivery. But "look for Cetyl Tranexamate Mesylate for an effective formulation" goes further than the evidence does.

Other suppliers solve the same problem by wrapping plain Tranexamic Acid in liposomes or niosomes and at least one of those (a niosomal TXA and Niacinamide cream) has been through a randomized double blind trial against hydroquinone.

Calling any one form the best is premature until someone runs the comparison.

It plays several roles in a formula:

Typical use levels for this ingredient sit around 1-10% and the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel has affirmed safety at concentrations up to 25% in leave-on products.

Multiple assessments have found it to be non-irritating and non-sensitizing to most people.

However, there have been some cases of allergic contact dermatitis in patients with chronically compromised skin barriers.

Cetearyl alcohol has a comedogenic rating of 2 and irritancy rating of 1. Both of these numbers come from the 1989 study that used rabbit ears; a "2" means mildly comedogenic and a "1" means low irritancy.

Here's the catch: rabbit skin is more sensitive than human skin and throws a lot of false positives. A 1996 reappraisal found that ingredients rated 1-2 in the rabbit ear tests are generally safe for humans.

Remember comedogenic ratings are unable to assess the entire formula of a product or how it will react on your skin. Just be sure to patch test if you are unsure about certain ingredients.

This ingredient is not fungal acne safe. Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol with chain lengths that fall within the range that Malassezia can metabolize.

A 2019 study has also observed Malassezia growth in the presence of this ingredient, confirming it to be not-fungal acne safe.

Yes! This ingredient comes from the seeds of a tree. The name 'Locust Bean Gum' can be misleading.

Because it is not a free-fatty acid, this ingredient is fungal acne safe (there's nothing for Malassezia to feed on).

When added to products, Tamarindus Indica Seed Gum helps thicken and create a gel-like texture.

Tamarindus Indica Seed Gum is a humectant. It helps draw moisture from the air to your skin. This keeps your skin hydrated.

Emulsion stabilizing ingredients help stabilize a product. They work by stabilizing two non-mixable ingredients. An example would be oil and water.

Industry-reported use ranges from 8% in rinse-off products and 2% in leave-on formulations.

Though this ingredient works well with most skin types, some people with sensitive skin may experience a reaction such as allergic rashes, closed comedones, or itchiness.

On a cellular level, it disrupts the cell membranes of microbes by poking holes that make the cell leak. This shuts down the chemical reactions the microbe needs to make energy so it can no longer survive.

Another perk of this ingredient is that it stays functional across a wide pH range (3-10).

You'll often see it paired with boosters like Ethylhexylglycerin; one study showed that a 1:9 ratio of Ethylhexylglycerin to Phenoxyethanol damages bacterial membranes as effectively as doubling the Phenoxyethanol concentration on its own.

Typical use concentrations range from 0.3-1% depending on the formula, and this ingredient is capped at 1% int the EU.

Safety-wise, the fear mongering does not hold up to the evidence. The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety and FDA consider it safe as a preservative at up to 1%, including for children of all ages.

Adverse systemic effects only showed up in animal studies at exposures roughly 200x higher than what people get from cosmetics. And despite its very widespread use, this ingredient is a rare sensitizer and allergic reactions are uncommon.