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Phytocura®: how every BEB formula is made

What is Phytocura®?

Phytocura® is the formulation method behind every BEB formula: each ingredient has to do more than one job, nothing goes in without a reason, and each one is prepared in the form that suits fragile skin.

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What Phytocura® is

Phytocura® is how every BEB formula is made. It decides which ingredients go in, which form each one takes, and how they work together in the bottle. Then the formula is judged as a whole.

Fewer ingredients, each doing more

When every ingredient does more than one job, a formula needs fewer of them. Nurturing Oil has five ingredients, and the formulas across the line average about 14.

Orange peel extract is a good example. In three of our four products it supports the preservation system and helps protect the formula from oxidizing: two jobs from one ingredient. We use the extract, which is a different preparation from citrus essential oil, and we chose that form on purpose.

Eight ingredients appear in three of our four products. They are why the line feels like one family from step to step.

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A heritage of taking things out

Kim Walls is a second-generation formulator. Her father founded Epicuren Discovery and practiced what he called the discipline of removal.

In Phytocura®, the first ingredient is required, the second has to justify itself, and every one after that has to clear a higher bar than the one before it.

In Phytocura®, a short ingredient list is a sign of judgment at work.

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The four pillars

Each ingredient is weighed against four pillars: Build, Protect, Balance and Stabilize. They describe what the formulator looks for in an ingredient. Most ingredients we choose meet two or three; the strongest meet all four.

Build: ingredients that resemble what skin is made of, such as plant butters, oils and squalane.

Protect: ingredients that help keep the formula clean and stable, such as orange peel extract.

Balance: oils chosen for their mix of fatty acids, such as high-linoleic sunflower and cranberry seed oil.

Stabilize: antioxidants that keep the oils fresh, such as vitamin E.

Three round samples on a peach ground: a gold gel, a white cream and a clear pale gel.

Selective processing

Every ingredient comes in more than one version. We choose the version that is right for a baby's skin.

Refining is not the opposite of natural. For an oil going on newborn skin, it is how you take out most of the small amount of plant protein that sensitive skin can react to, and keep the part of the oil that softens skin and gives the glide.

Organic tells you how a plant was grown. It does not tell you what is still in the bottle. We answer both.

Some of our oils are refined on purpose. Some are barely touched on purpose. The reason is always the same: what is best for fragile skin, never what sounds best on a label.

We will tell you what each ingredient is for, what we took out of it, and why. The question you can ask any brand: what did you take out of this ingredient, and why?

Every ingredient, explained

Phytocura® starts with what goes in

Every ingredient is chosen for the jobs it does, and the list of what we leave out follows from those reasons.

The low ingredient count is an outcome of the method. Trending ingredients join a formula only when they prove themselves against the four pillars, and most do not.

Phytocura® is natural and plant-based. The botanicals work alongside a few ingredients made with biotechnology, such as a postbiotic ferment and squalane, and the preservation and cleansing systems each formula needs. Every one of them passed the same test.

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Phytocura® in each formula

In Bubbly Wash, a mild cleansing system works with aloe, glycerin and calendula, so skin feels soft after the rinse.

In Soothing Serum, a postbiotic ferment, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid work in layers with carefully prepared botanicals.

In Silky Cream, the butters and oils are balanced so no single one takes over, and the cream cushions skin and still melts in fast.

In Nurturing Oil, sunflower gives the glide, coconut the body and cranberry a rare balance of omegas, while vitamin E keeps the blend fresh.

How it works with our safety standard

Phytocura® decides what goes into a formula. The 5-Heart Safety System is how we check it, through five practices: Evaluate Clinically, Screen Rigorously, Review Regularly, Share Transparently and Partner with Trusted Allies.

Phytocura® is how we choose. The 5-Heart Safety System is how we check.

Our standards Every ingredient, explained

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