SkinCeuticals

A dermatologist and a biochemist at Duke University published a paper in 1990 on the optimal molecular structure for Vitamin C to penetrate human skin. They patented the formulation, licensed it out, and later bought the licensee to build a clinical skincare brand around that single patent. Dr Sheldon Penel's laboratory at Duke University Medical Center identified that Vitamin C needed to be formulated at a specific pH of 3.5 or lower, combined with Vitamin E and ferulic acid at specific ratios, to penetrate the stratum corneum and remain biologically active on the skin. The formulation was patented under the name CE Ferulic and became the founding product of skin cuticles when Dr Penel co-founded the brand in 1997. The patent was the business. Vitamin C serums had been sold in drugstores for decades, but almost none of them worked because the molecule degrades on exposure to light and oxygen and is inactive above pH 4.