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A while ago I was selected for the second round of the Swanicoco Swan Program, and they send me a huge package containing a ton of skin care products. Previously, I reviewed the Swanicoco Bio Ferment F Fermentation Snail Care Skintoner and Emulsion and today I want to let you know about my experience with the Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule R.
Swanicoco is a Korean brand that stared off its business by creating naturally fermented soaps. Now, they have a huge range of products including skin care and make up products, but still all the products share the same believe in natural ingredients excluding artificial and chemical components. Swanicoco uses grains, fruits, herbs and oriental medicine materials as raw materials for their fermentation. By fermenting the products they can be much more easily absorbed into the skin, help retaining moisture and improve damaged skin. They state that instead of using purified water like in most existing cosmetics, Swanicoco has replaced the water with ferment filtrate. Additionally, pigments, synthetic perfumes, chemical preservatives, alcohol, mineral oil, paraben and benzophenones have been excluded from their products. Oh, and they are also free from animal testing!
The brand name Swanicoco is derived from the word “swan” and the term “coco”. “Swan” referrs to the elegance and feminine aspects of the bird we probably all know. “Coco” refers to the coconut, representing the natural ingredients. In the logo of the brand you will find the word “natural”, which refers to the brand as being a natural cosmetics brand. There is also a peony blossom in the middle of the logo that stands for richness and splendor.
The Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule R targets aging skin by providing a mixture of EGF and FGF for wrinkle care, nutrition and soothing. Typically for an ampoule the ingredients list is also very short and concentrates on the key ingredients:
sh-Polypeptide-11, Tocopherol, Allantoin, Carbomer, Arginine, Adenosine, Olibanum, and Rosa Damascena Flower Oil
If you want to check for the properties of the single ingredients I can advise you to look them up at SkinCarisma. The analysis shows directly that the product has anti-aging benefits and is free from alcohol, sulphates and parabens. Apart from the peptides that act skin conditioning, Allantonin and Tocopherol (Vitamin E) are great for preventing skin aging. They help with elasticity and regeneration of the skin. Olibanum and Rosa Damascena Flower Oil add to make the skin feel smooth and conditioned.
FGF and EGF
Let’s also talk more in-depth about the peptides FGF and EGF first: These two are the key ingredients of the Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule. What are these two and what do they actually do for our skin? EGF is the short-term for Epidermal Growth Factor. In the ingredients list you will find it as oligopeptide-1. The EGF targets specific receptors in the cell (EGFR) and is the necessary molecule for this receptor in order to work. From the name you can already tell that it promotes the cell growth, so it is important for our body, since dying and growing cells are a regular process in our body.
Short excursus: It is important to note the difference between the receptor and the EGF: EGF is not carcenogenic! Mutations in cells can cause overexpression of the EGFR for example, which means we have too many of these receptors in our cells, which can lead to uncontrolled growth of cells, means cancer. Other proteins can put the EGFR in a permanent on-state, which leads to uncontrolled growth of cells aswell.
FGF is the short-term for Fibroblast Growth Factor and this peptide plays a role in wound healing of the skin. The FGFs play an important role for the so-called Fibrobasts. Fibroblasts are cells that produce collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin.
So do peptides like EGF or FGF have anti-aging properties? Since the growth factors should address wrinkles in first place it has to affect the collagen production somehow in order to be beneficial for our skin. When EGF is applied with a cream it has to be absorbed into the dermis, the inner layer of the skin, to have any effect, and only a very, very small amount of topically applied EGF will be able to reach the dermis at all. And even if it helps to produce collagen it does not have any effect on the degradation of the old collagen. In conclusion we can say that the peptides may be responsible for a plumping effect of the outer skin layer, but it will not have any effect on the inner skin layer and therefore will not reduce deep wrinkles.
The Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule comes in a beautiful golden cardboard packaging with a lot of description and information available. The box can be opened up sideways, so you can take a look at the ampoule bottle directly upon first opening. The bottle is golden-colored like the cardboard box and comes with a dropper. I was surprised to see how light the bottle is, because it is made from plastic. Yet because of the golden color it doesn’t look cheap, but makes a valuable appearance.
The ampoule itself can be taken out with help of the dropper and has a milky color and a light rose/flower scent. The consistency is runny, but not as runny as water.
The Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule absorbs quickly into the skin and doesn’t leave a trace or stickiness behind. It doesn’t feel oily either, but leaves the skin fresh and soft. Upon touch the skin feels smooth and nice. I used the ampoule in combination with the Swanicoco Bio Ferment F Fermentation Snail Care Skintoner and Emulsion and added a moisturizer on top for my whole skincare. The amount of moisture provided was enough for my dry skin type. I didn’t feel any reactions from the product on my skin either, but this varies of course from person to person.
I think that Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule R can be a nice add-on to your skincare. Although the effect of EGF and FGF on deeper skin layers is not very likely, they will at least act topically and make your skin feel smoother and elastic. I really like the short ingredients list and the lightweight packaging. If you are interested in a similar product containing EGF and FGF, but without Vitamin E I can advise you to take a look at my review of the Klairs Midnight Blue Youth Activating Drop.
You can also find Swanicoco products at Beautytap (formerly W2Beauty). The Swanicoco FGF Pure Ampoule retails for 53 US$. This week you can use the code SWAN30 to get 30% off Swanicoco products. And on the 10th of January the FGF and EGF Ampoule with higher concentration of 10ppm are on sale as special deal for 41US$!
Did you hear about Swanicoco already? See my other Swanicoco product reviews >>here<<!
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Just as a short reminder: All products mentioned and reviewed on this blog are of my personal opinions. This product here was sent to me for reviewing purpose by http://swanicoco.com which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.
