This Natural Ayurvedic Ingredient Helps With Redness and Oiliness and Acts Like a Retinoid

Marc Cornell, VP of
Innovation at Englewood Lab in New Jersey, is pretty much the “magic formulator”
behind some of the most popular natural skin care brands on the market today.
(He can’t divulge names, but a quick perusal of the shelves at Sephora will
show you more than several of his creations.)

This guy sees and
tests A LOT of beauty ingredients, and as he recently shared with us, right
now he’s super impressed with one in particular, which he says helps in the
treatment of the long-suffering skin issue of oiliness.

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“In Eastern
Indian medicine—or Ayurveda—there’s a naturally derived natural extract that
goes by the INCI name bakuchiol, which comes from the edible seeds of Psoralea
corylifolia. In particular, it
helps with oily skin that’s prone to redness.”

Cornell says
this one hard-hitting ingredient is a true multitasker in that it controls skin redness, soothes and
calms via antioxidant function. “It also works like a retinoid in blocking
enzymes (MMPs) that degrade collagen and elastin. So it is a natural
antioxidant that works on pro-inflammatory pathways that can lead to less
reactive skin.”

So
where can you find it? Miriam Quevedo’s Black Baccara Dynamic Booster ($150) is
pretty high in bakuchiol (as a bonus, it also contains vitamin C!), and so are
a good amount of the skin care products from Whish. Nude’s hard-to-find
ProGenius Rescue Oil ($61) has it too, as does REN’s entire Bio Retinoid line.