Hi, I’m Sherry. I’m a cosmetic chemist. And let’s do my ingredient breakdown of the Ordinary’s new Sacramycy’s ferment 30% milky toner. And let me just say, milky toners are taking over 2024 by a storm.
Every single brand is coming out with their milky toners, and I’m here for it. As always. In my longer deep dives, I like to go through product claims first and then the ingredients to see if they kind of match up to their claims. They’re saying it’s a 30% concentration of Sacramycy’s ferment yeast and within that they have a ferment technology that contains 3% fermented and se tell glucosamine, otherwise known as Nag for short.
They’re claiming that the Naceto glucosamine, the nag, is exfoliating the skin, helping to support smooth skin texture and boosting skin radiance. Now, even though it contains an exfoliating ingredient to help with skin texture, they’re claiming that it provides all day lasting hydration, promoting a stronger skin barrier after 8 hours. And this is supported by the squirling in the formula, particularly saying that this is more geared towards a dry skin type. Like also have some other claims that clinical testing on 38 people after one single application gave people gentle exfoliation for smoother, hydrated skin. It smooth the appearance of skin texture, reduced the appearance of textual irregularities.
It also encouraged brighter, more radiant skin, provided all day lasting hydration, promotes that stronger skin barrier after eight hours, I could just said and helps to reduce the appearance of dark spots. So forgot to mention, yes, this is 100% unsponsored. I used to be on their PR list, but I didn’t receive PR for this. I actually bought it myself. And so all opinions are completely my own.
Let’s get on to the ingredients list because see, this is has a very simple, straightforward ingredients list for a milky toner and we only really have one star ingredient in the product. Well, it technically two one star ingredient is obviously the sacramyces ferment of otherwise known as the yeast extract in the inky list if you don’t know what sacrimyes is or sacrimy’s Sarah vessel, in fact, a yeast, it’s actually called baker’s yeast, which is more common name for it. And you’ve probably used it in baking whilst you’ve baked your lovely breads, the fermented version of sacramyses. So it’s filtered and then fermented actually has a lot of beneficial ingredients. It gives amino acids, minerals and means it even gives beta glucan, which is amazing humectant for the skin and has been shown, according to some manufacturers to have brightening and antioxidant properties. But going back to what the ordinary have said about their product, this is not just any old sacrifices ferment filtrate.
It actually contains a technology with 3% fermented N acetyl glucosamine or nag. For sure. This is where the magic happens. This is where they’re talking about these exfoliating properties of this toner. This is the star of the show. This is NSE, tell glucosamine, Nag for short. And this is actually found in our skin. Naceto glucosamine is what is giving the so called exfoliating benefits of this toner.
It helps to normalize the exfoliation of the Straton corneum but it also has some other benefits. It helps to increase skin hydration. It also has some brightening properties and wound healing properties. Let’s talk about the exfoliating properties of nag, because they’re boasting this as a gentle exfoliating toner, and that’s actually coming from the nag.
So Nag can exfoliate the skin via two main pathways. The first pathway, which I’ve already explained in a previous video, literally three videos ago, if you look at the top of my page, is through the pathway of hydration. Now nag is a precursor to hyderanic acid, and nag is naturally found in our skin, which means it’s got moderate hematin properties. So it’s going to increase our skin’s ability to hydrate itself, which is going to be really important for our skin’s natural rate of exfoliation. We have certain enzymes in our skin called proteins enzymes, and they’re heavily reliant on an optimal levels of hydration in order to function efficiently.
And what do they do? They essentially digest the corneodesmozones, essentially the glue that holds our dead skin cells together, but making sure that we have an optimal level of hydration our skin is going to help with our natural rate of exfoliation of our skin. So that’s the first way that nag helps to exfoliate our skin, through the pathway of hydration. The second and more interesting way that nag has been shown to exfoliate the skin makes it very different from traditional AHS and BHS. Nag essentially binds to sticky receptors on the surface of our skin cells.
What do I mean by sticky? These are called CD44 receptors, and they’re essentially responsible for cellular adhesion. This molecule called Nag is a competitive inhibitor. It’s going to competitively try to bind to our sticky CD44 reception on the surface of our skin. And by binding to these receptors, it’s going to inhibit the process of our skin cells trying to stick back together after they’ve already dissociated from one another.
If you think about it like this, we have our top layer of dead skin cells on our stratum corneum, and we have these dead skin cells all stuck together. Now, once they dissociate, they do have a tendency to try and stick back together. What nad does, it binds to these sticky receptors on the surface of our dead skin cells, preventing the readhesion of our dead skin cells to one another. So it’s preventing our dead skin cells that have already dissociated from coming back together and clumping together, which means it’s a lot easier for our skin to naturally shed off our dead skin cells. And that in itself is really cool stuff. That means it’s going to help normalize our skin’s natural exfoliation rate. It’s not forcing it by any means, and that’s why it’s such a gentle alternative to AHA’s and BHA. And that’s where the so called exfoliating benefits of this toner comes from.
It comes from the nag that’s exfoliating through the pathway of hydration and through making our skin cells less sticky. Now let’s just look at the other ingredients. There’s really not much going on. We have some non ionic emulsifiers and Surfac turns because this is an oil in water emulsion. We have squared Lane as the third ingredient in a water based formula.
So this is an oil in water emulsion, which is what makes this a milky texture. And that’s really all there is this formula. It’s really straightforward. Yes, it’s more marketed towards dry skin types because it is an emotion. But then again, I have tried this last night in this morning, and it’s very light.
So if you have oily skin, get away with using one layer of this. Also wanted to mention the concentration of the nag. It’s only 3%, which is within the optimal range. Normally, it’s formulated between 1 and 4%, but you can find some that up to 10% and still without any irritation for sensitive skin. It’s in fact, nag is a recommended exfoliant alternative to chemical exfoliant for those who have rosatia and sensitive skin. Into the Ordinary’s website, they are saying that you can use this both morning and night. So it’s not like a traditional chemical exfoliant where you’re limited to using it approximately one to two times a week. So yeah, please, so be alarmed by the fact that they’re saying that this is an exfoliating toner and it’s exfoliating your skin.
It definitely doesn’t exfoliate the way that aha and BHA does. Just think of it as something that’s going to help normalize our skin’s natural rate of exfoliation as opposed to inducing an exfoliation of our skin. With that being said, everyone’s skin is different. So even though they may be marketing that this can be used daily, I think that is appropriate. But if you have very sensitive skin, obviously, just start low and slow and see how it goes for you. What do you guys think?
Is this a smash or a pass? Let me know of your thoughts in the comments. And also let me know if you want me to do a texture swatch video.