Inside the Lab: The 1% Difference — Why Your Skincare Actually Works
Efficacy isn’t a number — it’s a formula. Inside the lab, we’re breaking down the mathematics of modern skincare and the real reasons your favourite products deliver.
The beauty Internet loves a number:
10% niacinamide.
1% retinol.
15% vitamin C.
There’s a persistent myth that more equals better—that the higher the percentage printed on the label, the more powerful the product must be. The truth is, ingredients don’t work like that. Presence does not equal efficacy, and a formula can absolutely include a buzzworthy ingredient without using it anywhere near the level where it becomes biologically meaningful. Some brands lean on “label dressing”—including actives for the sake of marketing, not performance—while consumers hunt for numbers as though concentration automatically translates to results. It doesn’t. An ingredient at 0.01% may support sensorial texture, stability, or formula elegance—but it won’t remodel skin, brighten pigment pathways, or replenish barrier lipids.
Efficacy isn’t measured by how loudly an ingredient appears on a front label, but by whether it’s delivered in the right form, in the right environment, at the right threshold to matter. Real results aren’t found in high percentages, but in perfected proportions. Because results don’t happen at 10% — they happen at 0.1%
Vitamin C: No—More is Not More
Vitamin C is an ingredient favourite, but it’s also temperamental. It doesn’t just need the right percentage—it needs the right friends: a stabilizing antioxidant, a pH in the right acidic window, and a formula structure that protects it from light, air, and bad decisions.
Around 5%: polite glow, beginner-friendly optimism
10–15%: antioxidant authority, pigment improvement, collagen support
20%+: instability, irritation, and a shelf life shorter than your patience
Vitamin C works not because its present, but because it’s protected. Here’s the truth: a vitamin C formula with ~10-15% that is supported by the right antioxidant system and stabilized at an acidic pH is most effective at brightening, firming, and defending. If you push past that range without engineering the environment to hold it, you don’t get stronger. You get instability, oxidation, and irritation masquerading as potency.
Retinoids: Decimal-Place Discipline
Retinoids are often marketed like they exist on a simple scale: mild → moderate → strong. At a formulation level, retinoids don’t perform in straight lines or at certain percentages, they perform based on their environment. At low levels, they signal gently. At higher doses, they don’t just “work harder” — they activate different biological responses.
0.1% retinol encourages cell turnover politely, like opening blinds in the morning and letting the light wake you up. Your skin may feel smoother, brighter, and subtly renewed over time.
0.3% is firmer in its suggestion. Skin begins to reorganize, texture refines, and there’s a noticeable shift in clarity.
1%, if built into the right formula, isn’t just a stronger push — it’s a biological command to your skin cells.
Receptors begin to activate and skin behaviour starts to change. You’re not just polishing the surface; you’re directing the architecture beneath it.
But retinoids don’t just exist in isolation, their environment determines their efficacy. A 1% retinol in the wrong base could be a liability—it could destabilize or irritate the skin. A 0.3% retinol + encapsulation + lipids + soothing cofactors can outperform a raw 1% that was thrown in for sport. The difference between “my skin loves this” isn’t in the percentage alone, it’s in the delivery, precise dosing, supporting actives, and formula conditioning.
Hyaluronic Acid: A Team Player, Not a Solo Act
Hyaluronic acid has become the skincare industry’s hero ingredient, but its not a solo performer. Within the context of skin, hydration isn’t an ingredient—it’s the infrastructure—and too much HA can actually dehydrate your skin in the wrong environment.
Similar to vitamin C, hyaluronic acid needs it’s teammates: multi-weight molecular structure, glycerin (the underrated MVP of skincare), and barrier lipids to lock moisture in. Too much HA without the right companions—glycerin, urea, ceramides, emollients—can actually pull moisture from the skin in dry environments. The correct HA percentage matters, yes. But the formula surrounding it matters more.
pH: The Invisible Lever That Decides Whether a Formula Performs or Politely Declines
While most people glance at ingredients, formulators look at context. Few variables alter the performance of a product more quietly—or more dramatically—than pH. An ingredient can be present in its clinically-studied percentage and still do next to nothing… if the pH collapses its ability to function. The right pH isn’t simply “low” or “high,” its designed and supported by the surrounding formula, not working against it.
Take vitamin C in its pure L-ascorbic acid form:
At pH ~3.2 it becomes bioavailable, able to penetrate and deliver antioxidant and collagen-support benefits.
If slightly higher, it becomes polite and ineffective.
If too low, you may get performance but at the cost of irritation and barrier wear.
There’s a reason the best vitamin C formulas feel balanced, cushioned, and intentional. And they actually work.
This extends far beyond vitamin C:
AHAs need acidity to exfoliate, too low and you compromise comfort, too high and they aren’t as effective.
Niacinamide, while known to be flexible, can provide irritation or discolouration at unfavorable pH angles.
Peptides are complex and can denature in pH environments that don’t respect their structure.
Context is Chemistry
Skincare is more than a lineup, it’s a network that is carefully crafted.
Niacinamide performs differently when paired with N-acetyl glucosamine
Vitamin C amplifies when protected by Vitamin E and ferulic acid
Peptides need the right delivery system to matter at all
AHAs behave differently depending on pH and buffer systems
Every active ingredient lives on a curve: too little does nothing; too much overwhelms the chemistry, collapses stability, or overwhelms the skin. Between those extremes is a narrow band of optimal performance—the silent science behind skincare that actually works. The difference you feel in products you repurchase again and again isn’t accident or hype. The real results live in the decimals and microscopic final adjustments you never see, but your skin feels. That tiny margin—the final one percent—is where real results are shaped.
