Red After Our Kantic Brightening Moisture Mask? It Means It’s Working!
Our Kantic Brightening Moisture Mask is the very first product that our Founder, Dr. Luigi Polla, created. It is the product that started it all for us, and the product that we are the most known for. Our hero product so to speak!
We recently held a MasterClass on this product focusing on the formulation and the transient redness that sometimes happens. Here is a quick summary of what we discussed.
Some background:
This product was first formulated to help heal the skin of infants and toddlers following pulsed dye laser treatments, back in the late 1980s. You can read more about our origin story here.
This product is 30+ years old and has gone through a number of formulation iterations (in the 1980s, using parabens was common!), as the body of knowledge about skin care ingredients and formulations has evolved. The most recent formulation change we made happened in 2020, when we removed a number of texture ingredients including silicone derivatives, which can clog pores. Read more on this here.
On redness:
This mask has always been an active product, with a pH slightly lower than the skin’s natural pH, meaning a slightly acidic pH (this is due to the high concentration of red grapes and European blueberries). The skin’s reaction to this pH is an occasional cool feeling, and possible tingling or transient redness. These are all normal reactions to our Kantic Brightening Moisture Mask. In the current formulation, this transient redness seems to happen in about ⅓ of customers, more often those with dryer, more dehydrated skin types, and fairer skin tones.
Here is what you can expect:
For those of you who do experience redness, you are in good company! Our CEO Ada also experiences this temporary redness, yet our mask remains one of her favorite products and she uses it a few times per week. The benefits remain compelling: brighter skin, a glowing complexion, and a powerful antioxidant treatment.
She explains: “I have come to expect this transient redness. My skin feels slightly warm, but not uncomfortable. There is no tingling whatsoever. I remove the mask with cool water and very soft cotton pads (to avoid any aggressive rubbing), and know that within about 30-45 minutes my skin will be particularly glowy and bright. I use the mask in the evening, before ‘beauty sleep.’ All the redness disappears while I sleep and I wake up with beautiful, calm, refreshed skin!”
If you want to learn more and dive in even deeper into the intricacies of formulation, ingredients, and how to use this product both at home and in the treatment room, watch our Masterclass here.