Sana works by helping the skin do its thing. Give skin support in adverse conditions, and it’s amazing how beautiful and healthy it’ll stay. Dry, damaged skin often develops because the natural barrier is compromised, or because the barrier simply can’t adapt quickly enough to external stressors, like dry air, sun, or stretching.

So what is Sana’s answer? We chose the organic botanicals and extracts best suited to support skin when it needs help. Why? Because those botanicals mimic natural lipids, waxes and anti-oxidants in your skin. Evolutionarily, plants have been at it for millions of years – a lot longer than people have – which starts to explain their remarkable array of defenses to moisture loss, oxidation, and external contaminants.
We don’t rely on synthetics for a host of health and environmental reasons. But even from a functional perspective, we’d rather start from scratch. Synthetics are often just cheap derivatives of the real thing. In some cases, synthetic skin care ingredients act by altering the chemistry of the skin. Every day we learn new things about the mystery of skin and its –and the body’s – reactions to synthetics. We’d rather help skin do its thing, naturally.
Skin hydration is the single most important thing for overall skin health. Naturally supporting the skin’s barrier, while nourishing and anti-oxidizing, is what Sana is all about…

Skin replenishes itself all the time. Water travels through the skin layers from the bottom up, and skin cells do the same. Over the course of a few weeks skin cells rise from the bottom layers, eventually forming the bricks at the surface, before eventually shedding invisibly off the skin. It is essential for healthy, vibrant skin to replace the old with the new. When we exfoliate, we are giving the shedding process (also called desquamation) an extra push. Just be careful not to push too hard…gentle exfoliation is a good thing, aggressive exfoliation can cause skin trauma.

The shedding process is not just about making skin look good. The dead cells can be filled with toxins. Desquamation is a form of detoxifying your skin. And it’s one more reason to drink water…it doesn’t just flush your fluids, it flushes your skin by making sure the cells shed properly!

It’s all about water. When the skin loses too much water – either because the barrier is compromised or simply can’t keep up with its environment – the skin is in trouble in more ways than one. Ever wonder about ashy, scaly skin? That happens because the skin stops shedding properly without water. Pliability? The lipid layers need moisture to function. Physical barrier? Cracks and fissures form when there’s not enough moisture at the surface, allowing even more moisture to evaporate and more contaminants to get in. Germ-Killing? Even the anti-microbial function of the skin is compromised when there isn’t enough water.

It’s not that tough to stop. Just drink water and feed your barrier.

Your skin is a wall, but it’s not made of concrete. It’s designed to retain most of the skin’s moisture and to keep most external contaminants out. Most, but not all. The skin releases some moisture to keep the outer layers hydrated, to cool skin down when the body is overheating (AKA, sweating), and it sheds moisture-carrying skin cells all the time. It also absorbs moisture from the outside world.
This semi-permeable system is effective, but there are risks. There’s lots of bad stuff out there – some of which is in the very products people rub on their skin to make it look or feel better. Some synthetics permeate the skin’s barrier and go right into the body, where they can stay put. Take sunscreen chemicals – a recent study showed levels of estrogen-like sunscreen chemicals in the blood stream and umbilical cord of people. Other studies have shown the average American has hundreds of synthetics in their bloodstream, many of which got there through topical application.
The point? It’s very important to pay attention to what you put on your skin. That goes double for mothers and babies, who are at particular risk for permeation and systemic damage. It means people should pay particular care in certain areas of their bodies, where skin is thinner or there are mucous membranes (like lips). They should keep their eyes out for nanoparticles (found in many skin care products and in particular in sunscreen), which are designed to permeate the barrier. Fortunately, Sana makes it easier.

Let’s be clear: your skin is designed to lose water to evaporation…the key is losing the right amount. The dryness of the air has a big impact on how quickly moisture evaporates from skin. We call it the atmospheric humidity gradient, or more generally, the osmotic gradient. Between the seasonal humidity fluctuation and heaters, humidity can get as low as 10-15 in the winter. The drier the air, the stronger the barrier needed to maintain the proper hydration equilibrium. Let’s look at an example: Prune Fingers. So why exactly do your fingertips get wrinkly when you go in the bath? Guesses? Do your fingers shrivel because all the water is gone? Nope, they’re actually over-hydrated from soaking in water. The skin cells fill up like balloons, making skin expand and forcing it to form waves. You have too much skin for your fingers!

Next question: how long does it last? That’s the osmotic barrier in effect…the greater the differential between skin hydration and air humidity, the greater the stress on the barrier to maintain the status quo. Next time you go to the desert, unless you feed and water your skin properly, you’ll see that it will de-hydrate to match the dry air. And you don’t want that!

Skin is a physical barrier to keep intruders out. It doesn’t like loiterers, either. Skin effectively attacks all kinds of microbes and germs at the skin surface. It secretes antimicrobial peptides with waxy stuff called sebum. Sebum is a good sealant – it helps build the wall, reducing skin permeability and keeping good in and bad out. It’s also an acidic lipid, which makes the skin less than hospitable for intruders. The acidity is called the acid mantle.

Sebum isn’t all good. Like a lot of things relating to the skin, hormones control sebum production…which is why sebum levels sometimes go out of control at puberty. And too much sebum is not a good thing: it is such a good sealant, it locks everything in, including dirt, and is closely linked with acne. Too little ain’t so great, either, since the acid mantle is an essential defense against intruders.

So what does bathing and soap have to do with sebum? Lots.

Soap can cause havoc. It affects the acid mantle in two ways: First, surfactants strip the skin of sebum and other important natural lipids by binding to proteins. Second, the alkaline pH of soap can interfere with the normal acid barrier, raising the pH (e.g., 5.5 to 7.5), and making infection and cracking, fissured skin more likely.

Not only that, skin pH effects the normal shedding process. The dead skin cells normally degrade and shed under acidic conditions. When the skin’s acid mantle is impaired, the natural exfoliation process gets impaired as well…which can lead to scaly xerosis. The skin is very good at repairing itself, and can usually correct the damage after a few hours, BUT chronic washing, say 10 times a day, can permanently alter the acid mantle. Seriously, wash carefully!

Over-hydration of the skin can compromise the barrier function, meaning that substances are more easily absorbed into the bloodstream. It’s called percutaneous absorption. It is usually a short term phenomenon, but it can make the skin more vulnerable to waterborne allergens and irritation. Not just that, the production of Natural Moisturizing Factor, the water magnet that brings water to the skin’s surface, is impeded by over-hydration…which can lead to under-hydrated skin down the line.

Just a couple of reasons to think twice about what you’re putting on your skin. And the skin of your loved ones. But keep in mind, drinking lots of water won’t overhydrate your skin. Rather, overhydration is usually a function of prolonged exposure to water and/or an overly powerful barrier (watch the overly occlusive skin care products!).