Making things simple
Whittling a 10-step skin regimen down to 3 steps
A FEW years ago, not having a 10-step skin regimen meant taking a gamble for getting beautiful skin. But now a homegrown brand founded during the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic aims to simplify skincare regimens from 10 or 11 steps to a plain old three, while still giving the same results.
During a press conference earlier this month, The Unbranded Skincare co-founder and tech exec Mells Limcaoco recalled her days working from home during the past two years which were, it turns out, hectic. On top of work, she had to cook and fix things around the house (as well as watch K-dramas). “We didn’t have time to do the 10 steps,” she said. So, she and her friend and co-founder, Mia Bulatao, cooked up the scheme to make a threestep skincare routine of their own.
Unbranded Skincare’s range only has three products: The Unbranded Cleansing Wash, The Unbranded Day Shield, and The Unbranded Overnight Cream. The cleansing wash works triple time as a make-up remover, cleanser, and toner. It is made with squalene sourced from olives that is meant to actively restore lipidic barriers in the skin, as well as other ingredients such as green tea, lotus, angelica, guava, bee venom, calamansi extract, tea tree oil, and niacinamide (a favorite among beauty enthusiasts).
The Day Shield protects skin from photoaging, skin darkening, and pimples, and helps maintain moisture while creating a brighter complexion and fuller, firmer skin overall. It is made from a fermented extract of Aureobasidium pullulans, otherwise known as Black Yeast, which is rich in Beta Glucan that enhances the soothing and protective properties of all the other ingredients by efficiently transporting their effects faster and deeper into the layers of the skin.
It can also be used as a make-up primer.
Finally, the last item in the range is the Overnight Cream, made with Centella asiatica (a.k.a. Gotu kola, kodavan, Indian pennywort and Asiatic pennywort), a key ingredient that improves blood circulation in the skin. Improved circulation leads to proper distribution of nourishment, the initiation of repair, acceleration of healing, improvement of skin integrity, prevention of scarring, and protection from free radicals. The Overnight Cream also contains Vitamin B3, an important component in the improvement and restoration of overall skin-cell-health.
During the press conference, Ms. Bulatao said that they have reformulated the products to contain more squalane, collagen, allantoin, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and Centella asiatica. “It’s still the same formulation, except that we added a lot of the ingredients that our customers love,” she said.
Hold on though: a lot of beauty enthusiasts might rail against all-inone products, due to bad memories of shampoo-conditioner-body wash combinations, among other things. Ms. Bulatao explains: “It’s not an allin-one. They’re three, but complementary products,” she said. “We put only the ingredients that the skin needs. That’s it.”
She explains that sometimes, people just don’t need that many steps for skin maintenance. “When you put so much there, you’re layering so much onto your skin. They’re superfluous already.”
Who might benefit from a simplified skincare routine? “It’s for busy people.”
The three products can be found on theunbrandedskincare.com, as well as on beautybar.com.ph.