GENESI CLEANSE

Origin: Germany

Emulsifiers are a modern invention, so there's no ancient story here. They're just the part of a cleansing oil that decides how your skin feels afterward.

An emulsifier is what lets oil rinse away with water. Research on cleansers has found that the stronger the cleansing agent, the more of the skin's own lipids and proteins it removes, and that this is what leaves skin tight and dry after washing.

Our system is built around polyglyceryl-3 diisostearate, a mild, oil-loving emulsifier. No ethoxylation, no sulfates. It took twenty-nine prototypes to find the gentlest balance that still works.

Origin: Brazil

Squalene is one of the main lipids in your skin's natural oil, part of the film that keeps it soft and holds moisture in. Squalane is its fully saturated, stable form, made here from sugarcane.

It's the largest ingredient in GENESI CLEANSE for two reasons. It dissolves sunscreen and makeup easily, and whatever stays behind after rinsing is something your skin already makes. It's lightweight and non-comedogenic, so it suits dry and sensitive skin without clogging pores.

Origin: China

Oil-tea camellia has been grown in southern China for around 2,300 years. There its pressed seed oil, sometimes called “eastern olive oil,” has been used in cooking and in traditional remedies.

Like olive oil, it's mostly oleic acid. It also carries small amounts of squalene, vitamin E, phytosterols and sesamin, an antioxidant. A 2024 study reported antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and moisturizing effects from camellia oleifera oil. In this formula, it's a light, fast-spreading oil that helps lift sunscreen and makeup without a heavy feel.

Origin: USA

The O'odham people of the Sonoran Desert pressed jojoba seeds into a paste for sores, cuts and dry, cracked skin, long before jojoba reached modern skincare.

Jojoba isn't technically an oil. It's a liquid wax made almost entirely of long-chain wax esters, which are closer to the waxes in your skin's natural oil than any common plant oil. Jojoba esters are a firmer form of the same wax. Here they give the oil its slip during massage and leave a light, breathable film after rinsing. That film is one reason skin feels comfortable rather than bare.

Origin: United Kingdom

Oats have been used to soothe itchy, irritated skin for centuries. Colloidal oatmeal is one of the few natural ingredients the FDA recognizes as a skin protectant.

That research is mostly on oat flour. The oil from the kernel is less studied, but it's unusually rich in polar lipids, the same family of lipids that hold the skin barrier together, along with linoleic acid. It's one of the ingredients chosen to stay on the skin after rinsing rather than to wash things away.

Origin: Turkey

In Ancient Greek myth, the pomegranate stood for life and renewal. It's a fitting symbol for what researchers have since found in its seeds.

Pomegranate seed is the richest known source of punicic acid, a rare omega-5 fatty acid studied for reducing moisture loss and supporting the skin's own barrier lipids. CO₂ extraction uses pressurized carbon dioxide instead of heat or solvents, which preserves the more delicate compounds. It's the same pomegranate as our GLOW NECTAR.

Origin: USA

These are the two most intimidating words on the label, and the two that are already in your skin. Ceramides make up roughly half the lipid in your outer barrier — the mortar between the cells. Phytosphingosine is one of the building blocks your body uses to make them.

Both are bioidentical: structurally the same molecules your own skin produces, not plant stand-ins or lookalikes.

There's currently a lot of debate on how effective active ingredients are in rinse-off products. However, a recent 2025 study on a ceramide-containing cleanser found skin hydration 47% higher after 28 days. We've certainly noticed a difference in our versions which contained ceramides, which is why we chose to include these two.

Origin: India

Frankincense has been traded, burned and used on skin for thousands of years, from Egyptian temples to Ayurvedic medicine.

Ask RESTORATION BALM customers what they'd miss, and one answer comes up that we never set out to promise: less oiliness through the day. Sebum reduction was also one of the outcomes in the frankincense study behind the balm.

A cleanser is on your skin for about a minute, so we don't claim that effect here. Boswellic acids are in GENESI CLEANSE because the resin's scent is part of the ritual, and because in our own nightly use it leaves skin feeling balanced rather than oily. If you want boswellic acids working at the level they've been studied, that's the RESTORATION BALM's job.

Origin: Italy

Its name comes from the Greek helios, sun, and chrysos, gold, after its bright yellow flowers, which keep their color long after picking. Around the Mediterranean, it has long been a folk remedy for wounds, burns and inflamed skin.

Researchers have identified arzanol and other compounds in Helichrysum italicum with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. In GENESI CLEANSE it appears at a low level, alongside blue tansy, as part of the scent you know from the RESTORATION BALM.

Origin: Morocco

Our blue tansy flower oil yields a uniquely invigorating and uplifting quality to the RESTORATION BALM. Its deep indigo hue imparts a distinctive color to the final product due to its significant chamazulene component.

We don't just include this for the aesthetics though. Chamazulene is an antioxidant that's shown evidence to be even more potent than Vitamin C and Vitamin E. Other components of this rare oil include alpha-pinene and myrcene.

These additional components have been studied for their ability to attenuate UV-induced photoaging and inhibit enzymes that break down the collagen and elastin that give our skin its youthful appearance.