Clarity Bioactive Clearing Serum

Yes, Clarity is a facial oil serum. It’s made with a combination of linoleic acid-rich oil extracts and lipids for a fast-absorbing, nourishing formula safe for all skin types.

Most oil-based products are made with oils containing high levels of comedogenic omega-9 fatty acids (like jojoba oil, argan oil, sunflower oil, etc). On the other hand, the oils in our serums are carefully selected for their high levels of anti-inflammatory, barrier-repairing, clarifying linoleic acid. Apart of your daily skincare routine, our serums create the ideal lipid environment for healthy, vibrant skin.

The topic of essential oils is a complex conversation (and understandably so).

While there are plenty of essential oils that we would never recommend using on the skin, not all essential oils are created equal.

To put it simply, each essential oil is unique in its phytochemical profile (and should be treated as such). Some can be irritating or disruptive to the skin — like the exceptionally high limonene content in citrus oils. On the other hand, there are many that can be therapeutic. One example (of many) therapeutic essential oils is the clarifying blue tansy — a distillation rich in soothing, anti-inflammatory, chamazulene.

Here at Sana Haus, our essential oil philosophy is this: we consider essential oils for their therapeutic, bioactive properties — like their ability to dampen inflammation, soothe irritation, or support a healthier skin barrier — at very conservative dosages. So, you can rest assured that the essential oils we select for our formulas, when we do, have been carefully chosen to support the health of your skin.

And yet, even still, it’s of the utmost importance to acknowledge: there are still skin types that may not benefit from essential oils, period — no matter how therapeutic. That’s why we offer an essential oil-free version of our favorite blemish serum.

Above all, you are the expert on your unique skin blueprint. We trust your ability to tune into your skin needs at any given moment. And we’ll always strive to provide you with the tools to meet them.

If your face feels greasy for long periods of time after applying a facial oil, that’s a sign the oil is not properly being utilized by your skin. As a result, you’re probably not reaping the benefits.

An optimal oil serum formula will contain the right balance of fatty acids that your skin can drink up and put to work — repairing the skin barrier, reducing inflammation, and nourishing skin cells.

It’s also important to make sure your skin is properly prepped prior to applying the oil. Ideally, you’ll use a pH-balanced, gentle cleanser and a hydrating toner to ensure your skin is primed to break down, absorb, and reap all the benefits of the skin nutrition in an oil serum.

That’s why we created The Sana Method — a full regimen, carefully designed to ensure you’re getting the most value from your skincare routine.

Whenever beginning a new skincare protocol, it’s normal to experience some degree of purging! This is actually a good sign that your protocol is working, as it shows existing acne lesions that you can’t yet see are being brought to the surface of the skin to be cleared.

You’ll recognize purging as breakouts that are less severe, clear faster, and have a recognizable white head — a sign that your skin’s immune cells are clearing out the follicle.

Purging shouldn’t last more than 2-3 weeks. If it does, it’s either a sign that another product in your regimen or makeup routine is causing breakouts or your skin is better suited to something else.

In our experience, using the wrong cleanser with Clarity can be a major culprit behind prolonged purging. Our Sana Haus cleansers are intentionally formulated to work with our treatment serums, not against them.

If you’re having trouble figuring out if breakouts you’re experiencing are purging or an incompatibility of products with your skin, please reach out to us at info@sanahaus.co!

While Clarity contains plenty of botanical ingredients that have antifungal activity, everyone’s skin microbiome is unique. We recommend patch testing first to ensure compatibility with your skin type.

You can absolutely use a moisturizer with Clarity! However, you may find that you don’t need to.

Moisturizers are traditionally emulsions, a blend of oil and water together. These moisturizing emulsions moisturize the skin in three ways: increasing hydration using humectants, acting as an occlusive barrier, and enhancing skin barrier repair with lipids.

Facial oils made with barrier-repairing, linoleic acid-rich oils actually have all of these same properties. In fact, they achieve these effects even more effectively than moisturizers due to the higher lipid content.

And while facial oils don’t contain humectants, the exceptionally high antioxidant content of our Clarity serum encourages the production of our skin’s natural humectants like hyaluronic acid, proteoglycans, and glycosaminoglycans, all while creating a lipid barrier to seal in moisture.

The benefit of using a facial oil as a moisturizer is that many emulsifiers used in moisturizers can be comedogenic for very sensitive acne-prone skin types, making non-comedogenic oils a better-tolerated option.

This is why we recommend using a hydrating toner underneath Clarity instead of a moisturizer, especially for acne-prone skin types.