There's a reason why Acure Organics is one of the leaders in natural hair, skin and body care - because they work. Acure's clinically proven range is based on scientific nutritional support to enhance your skin and hair's ability to regenerate itself to give you results. But what goes into these products and how does Acure do it? We spoke with their President and Formulator, Amy Halman, an award-winning, licensed esthetician to find out just what makes Acure Amazing.
Why was it so important when creating the Acure range that the products be all natural and/or certified organic?
So many people are starting to understand and seek out natural, unprocessed, organic foods, which is awesome, but they don't quite make that connection to why natural and organic should have anything to do with their skin care choices. But if you knew how powerful the skin is as a vital organ you would get it! It’s literally your first line of defense, like a suit of armor, but it is also highly absorbent. It can potentially absorb up to 70-75% of anything you apply topically. This is why prescription topical medications and hormone therapies actually make a difference, because when applied to the skin, the active ingredients can travel right into the bloodstream versus going through the digestive tract in a pill.
Another side of that is that what goes in and on the body also goes out through our drains and into our soil and waterways, which is a huge burden our planet and future generations to come.
How do you ensure you're using the highest quality, most natural ingredients possible in your products?
Simplicity is the key to our formulas. In keeping each ingredient as close to its natural state as possible, we feel that our products deliver visible, more potent results. We prefer to source high-quality ingredients locally, whenever possible.
When sourcing ingredients from around the globe, we seek fair trade resources to support fair wages and healthy working conditions for workers and their families but it also assures these ingredients are still being produced in the traditional method for maximum potency. We strongly support organic agriculture and use as many certified organic ingredients as possible. Using ingredients that haven’t been exposed to pesticides is crucial to healthy skin. By using organic ingredients, you not only keep pesticides off of your body, but out of the soil, air, and water as well.
Acure Organics is known for their use of plant stem cells. Can you explain to us what plant stem cells actually are?
Plant Stem Cells are ’universal cells" that contain all of the beneficial markers that a specific plant carries. That basically means it is a single cell that contains the power of the whole body of the plant, not just the flower, the root, the leaf or the bulb, for 1000 times the potency of a common plant extract!
How and why are plant stem cells used in skincare? Are they scientifically proven to give results?
Because of their high potency, when used in a targeted manner, they drive impactful results in the skin and hair at a cellular level. The argan stem cell, for example, is the only clinically proven plant stem cell to actually penetrate into the interfollicular layers of the skin and not only support your collagen and elastin and boost moisture, it also stimulates and boosts your own dermal stem cells into action, resulting not only in cellular regeneration and repair in the epidermal layers of the skin but also follicular regeneration in the scalp for optimal hair regrowth and moisture. There are so many unique stem cells that have significant clinical data to support their contribution and efficacy when applied topically in skin care formulation.
Another great thing about this cutting edge plant stem cell technology is that it is beyond biodynamic. You can extract these actives from a plant without ever having to harvest the plant itself, so that it remains a live and viable crop for generations to come.
Can you tell us more about your star ingredient the 'Chlorella Growth Factor' and how it makes a product more effective?
Chlorella Growth Factor is a corner-stone ingredient in most of our formulas. Our CEO and Founder, Jon Guerra, actually studied with a team of scientists that were working with this ingredient for wound site healing. They found that not only did it significantly impact wound site healing, but had intense benefit in healthy tissue as well.
A complete vegetarian resource, it is powerful at boosting moisture, protecting your collagen and elastin structures from the sugar enzymes that break them down and it optimizes cellular regeneration, which slows significantly after your 20’s. The most amazing thing is that at just 1% concentration applied topically, it can stimulate up to 333% new collagen expression in the skin by actually feeding the enzymes that work to produce your collagen. So much better than the typical collagen creams that claim to replenish by applying bovine collagen to the surface, which is often too large of a molecule to even fit through the pore!
PHOTO1_rightNatural shampoos and conditioners can be so drying but the Acure Argan Oil and Argan Stem Cell Shampoo and Conditioner are so incredibly moisturizing and nourishing, how?!
First and foremost, it’s all about the pH. A wet scalp and hair is most stable at a more acidic pH of 4-4.5. Often times, products are much too basic or high on the pH scale, resulting in a compromised hair cuticle. This is a shampoo that will always be drying no matter how many awesome ingredients and a conditioner that will never be nourishing enough. The cuticle structure of the hair looks like scales on a fish.
When you disrupt the healthy pH, those scales flair out, creating a porous structure that loses all its own healthy proteins, amino acids and moisture and takes in all the nasty external factors like pollution, the elements and UV exposure, which easily break the hair down. This leaves you with frizzy, dry, damaged and hard-to-control hair. But when you use a shampoo, conditioner and styling aids that are balanced to mirror your hair’s natural more acidic pH, this seals and compacts the hair cuticle, locking in essential moisture and proteins and creating shine, resilience and control, naturally.
Additionally, this formula has the added benefits of oils like pumpkin seed, sea buckthorn and argan oils. These oils contain amino acids and essential fatty acids that help nourish the scalp and dry, damaged hair. Also, argan stem cell, which I mentioned earlier, actually has the clinically proven power to boost moisture and hair cell regeneration at a root and follicle level.
Really great to note that all of our hair care formulas are colour safe as well.
Everyone loves Acure Pure Argan Oil but most people don't know it's not just for hair! Can you talk us through some of its other uses?
Argan oil has astonishing healing, conditioning and anti-aging properties to keep skin and hair nourished and revitalized. It is also a high-weight molecular protein in a low-weight molecular oil, which means it’s highly nutritious but absorbs rapidly, for easy use on not only the hair but also the body and face.
For those with oily skin that can sound crazy, but not when you consider the fact that water can't cut oil, oil cuts oil. Often, excessively oily skin is an underlying dehydration. If completely unrefined and cold-pressed, argan oil is over 80% polyunsaturated essential fatty acid content and these essential fatty acids protect cellular integrity and affect cell fluidity, helping to prevent loss of moisture from the skin. A favorite tip I tell everyone is to use it as a pre-cleanse"¦2-3 pumps massaged into the face, neck and chest to break up make up, debris and excess oil, then follow with your favorite cleanser. It leaves you with such a deep cleanse and a glowing, hydrated moisture balance. One of my favorite parts of ending the day!
For the body, this makes argan oil ideal for massaging stiff arthritic joints and aching muscles and also helps to alleviate dry skin, rough patches, and reduce the appearance of scars and stretch marks.
What makes our argan oil all the more powerful is that it is 100% cold pressed, first pressing of the nut. The minute you refine oil like argan, it loses 60% of that essential fatty acid power. Ours is also fairly traded and USDA certified organic, produced in the same traditional hand-pressed method that has been used for centuries.
Acure Organics skin care range suitable for sensitive skin? Who would benefit most from the range?
Absolutely! People with sensitive skin tend to do very well with our products because taking out the synthetic ingredients and fragrances is key. Those tend to be the main reason for reaction in the first place. But we go a step further and rely on plant and food-based actives that are self-regulating. This means that the body is able to take what it can use and flush the rest, just like a multi-vitamin.
A lot of synthetic skin care actives can’t do that so they send the skin into to overdrive. Also, we love using key ingredients such as probiotics, CoQ10 and sunflower lysine in many of our formulations, which are well known in the supplement realm to help reduce inflammation, encourage beneficial circulation and healing.
Ultimately, we formulate to optimize and encourage the skin to balance itself using healthy actives that you would find on the supplement shelf. We leave out synthetics, fragrance, gluten, petro chemicals and animal bi-products so that anyone can have great benefit from our products. We even use the shampoos on our pets!
PHOTO2_rightThe Acure Brightening Scrub is one of our best sellers, because it actually works! What makes this scrub so different?
This facial scrub is so uniquely different because it uses dehydrated lemon peel and finely ground sea kelp to gently exfoliate. These ingredients are more rounded making it much more gentle on the skin than traditional scrubs that can typically create small rips and micro-tears in the skin by utilizing nuts and seeds with sharp angled edges.
This damage can lead to broken capillaries, inflammation, redness and even bacteria growth. But we go a step further than just sloughing off the dead skin cell layers. We also add in French green clay to purify the pores without depleting your moisture and amazing chlorella growth factor, argan and Madonna lily stem cells, and argan oil to optimize cellular regeneration and moisture, collagen production and evening of hyperpigmentation damage. Your skin is left so soft and hydrated, not to mention more even and glowing!
Also, a lot of scrubs on the market use plastic micro-beads for exfoliation, which not only leach toxic chemical into the product but also wash down the drain and into our oceans, waterways and wildlife. That means, that we are not only harming the environment but this impact is finding its way into our food supply!
Shop the Acure Organics range today and see the difference!
What Makes Acure Organics Amazing
There's a reason why Acure Organics is one of the leaders in natural hair, skin and body care - because they work. Acure's clinically proven range is based on scientific nutritional support to enhance your skin and hair's ability to regenerate itself to give you results. But what goes into these products and how does Acure do it? We spoke with their President and Formulator, Amy Halman, an award-winning, licensed esthetician to find out just what makes Acure Amazing.