What it is

Great Barrier Relief is a skin-soothing serum that restores your damaged skin barrier while evening out your complexion. This nourishing formula offers irritated skin a reset button by using tamanu oil and other ingredients that mimic a healthy barrier to replenish what your skin lacks.

Who needs it

Someone who needs to press reset on their irritated skin. More specifically:

• who washes their face more than twice a day
• who overdoes skincare by using harsh acne treatments or anti-aging products too often
• whose skin is constantly dehydrated
• who has constant redness and dry patches
• who is sensitive to many skincare products
• who has chronic stress (yes, cortisol affects the skin barrier too!)
• who is looking to get rid of hyperpigmentation
• who has aging or mature skin
• anyone who intends to maintain a healthy skin barrier function
• who has skin problems associated with a damaged skin barrier

How to indulge

Apply one or two pumps of Great Barrier Relief before your moisturizer or in replacement of your moisturizer. No rules, really! Reach for Great Barrier Relief whenever your skin is feeling irritated and don’t forget to remove those sensitizing products from your routine.

How to #PressReset on *EXTREMELY* Irritated Skin with Great Barrier Relief.

* The following steps only apply to those who have severely damaged skin-barrier that literally every product they apply stings and irritate.

1. Drop every skincare product you’re using.
2. Take a break from cleansing, which also means no makeup or sunscreen during this period. 
   (If you need to wash your face, use lukewarm water and gently rinse. Use distilled water if you live in a place where tap water is too harsh or unfiltered! Please don't be surprised by the 'skipping sunscreen' advice! It's a very common dermatology practice to advise patients to drop everything including sunscreen when the patient is dealing with an extreme skin condition. When your skin-barrier is damaged, the permeability of the skin increases. The chemical UV filters can easily sink in and further sensitize the skin and nowadays, most conventional mineral sunscreens use nano/micro UV filters which can easily get absorbed into the skin too. And sunscreens that are formulated with other potential irritants can exacerbate the problem so we're eliminating all the potentially problematic factors to really give your skin a reset!)
3. Use Great Barrier Relief morning and night until your skin has reset and feels relieved and relaxed.
4. Start adding back your core essentials once your skin is healed: Cleanser, Moisturizer and SPF.

Key nutrients

Tamanu Oil

An oil that research shows has remarkable skin-regenerative properties and was traditionally used to heal wounds and cure various skin problems and ailments. It is an oil that our founder is personally OBSESSED with as it has eliminated most of her hyperpigmentation (sunspots, acne scars, other discoloration) far more effectively than any retinol or vitamin C ingredient. We know that’s a pretty big statement to make but clearly she’s onto something.

Check out our blog post:

• Ingredient Series: Tamanu Oil
  
  

Safflower Oil & Rosehip Seed Oil

Two incredible plant-based oils that have amazing skin-nourishing benefits and are higher in linoleic acid than oleic acid. Why does that matter, you ask? Countless studies demonstrate that oils rich in linoleic acid help restore ... (you guessed it!) damaged skin-barriers. The infusion of these two oils results in a high linoleic acid concentration that creates a light consistency, which melts right into your skin without the greasiness.

Check out our blog post: 

• Oils, why do we need them?
  
  

NMF + Ceramides, Phytosterol*, Squalane

A cocktail of ingredients that is meant to mimic a healthy skin barrier. These elements are naturally found in your skin when it is not compromised and in a restful state of zen. When life gets too stressful and your skin is put on edge, these super ingredients escape from your skin and leave it vulnerable. Replenish your skin barrier with this restorative combination.

*Phytosterol is an ingredient similar to cholesterol found in plants.

Check out our blog posts: 

• Ingredient Series: Natural Moisturizing Factors
• Ingredient Series: Our Skin Barrier Hero, Ceramides
  
  

Niacinamide

Also known as Vitamin B3, this ingredient is the soccer mom of the skincare world who can do it all and more. Highly effective for barrier reparation (of course), anti-aging, skin-brightening, and even acne prevention, niacinamaide is the versatile queen your skin will adore. What’s more, it’s also one of the most gentle active ingredients that delivers great skin benefits without any skin irritation, making it accessible for all skin types to give a chance.

Check out our blog post:

• Ingredient Series: Get to Know Niacinamide

Ingredients

Water, Propanediol, Calophyllum Inophyllum Seed Oil(10%), Dipropylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Cetearyl Olivate, Polysorbate 60, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Glyceryl Oleate, Sorbitan Olivate, Sorbitan Oleate, Octyldodecanol, Glycerin, Butylene glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Squalane, Serine, Acetyl Glutamine, Glycine, Ceramide NP, Oleic acid, Sodium PCA, Glycosyl trehalose, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Sterols, Saccharide Isomerate, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Flour, Disodium Phosphate, Sodium Phosphate, Tocopheryl acetate, Coco-caprylate/Caprate, Lactic acid, Xanthan gum, Urea, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Hydrogenated Olive Oil Unsaponifiables, Magnesium Chloride, 1,2-Hexanediol, Hydroxyacetophenone, Glyceryl Caprylate, Pentylene glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Disodium EDTA

Behind Creating Great Barrier Relief

#PressReset on instant gratification

We are a generation that’s addicted to instant gratification and we see that reflected in the realm of skincare. We find satisfaction in seeing immediate results from our skincare products and this promotes conventional products to try and become more “effective”. This creates harsher formulas, which further inflame and sensitize skin. As a result, we find ourselves reaching for even more products to fix that reaction. Vicious cycle, huh?

A poor functioning skin barrier is the culprit of nearly every skin problem, including dehydration, dryness, inflammatory acne, rosacea, eczema, and so much more. Our founder, Liah Yoo, is the number one advocate when it comes to keeping the skin barrier in tact, so it only made sense for us to create this skin-barrier restoring formula.

The inspiration

“My aunt is a practitioner of holistic medicine and, on the side, created cosmetic products using natural ingredients and medicinal herbs. One day she came across tamanu oil and after discovering its amazing regenerative properties, began to develop a face cream with it. This was the incidental beginning of a whole new history of skincare.

As she was testing out the product, she noticed that a huge, stubborn sunspot on her left cheek was finally fading and even noticed that her skin was firmer than ever! What was this magic? She couldn’t believe the results and started sharing it with her friends, family and eventually me. At this point, I had a ton of acne marks and some sunspots scattered across my face that didn’t seem like they were going to fade. As a skincare enthusiast, I thought I tried everything -- retinol, niacinamide, vitamin C, arbutin and all the other skin brightening ingredients that were supposed to fade those spots, but nothing worked better than my aunt’s tamanu oil cream. I needed to share this with the rest of the world. You deserve to know about this. Inspired by her formula, I created Great Barrier Relief, which has faded a lot of my discoloration, strengthened my skin barrier and has made my skin the healthiest it’s ever been. An added bonus, tamanu oil also promotes collagen production so it is a kickass anti-aging product that your mom will love too.”

- Liah xx

Testimonials

Before & After Results with Great Barrier Relief

How long Liah used GBR for: 1 month
Liah's Experience: "I've been a long time use of tamanu oil itself, and my aunt's tamanu cream formula. But when it comes to evening out the complexion and soothing down my skin, there's nothing like a good pump of Great Barrier Relief. I got some sunspots and my skin sensitivity was out of the roof after my Australia trip. The temperature was around 40 degrees Celsius every day, I was hopping between cities which made my skin barrier really vulnerable and weak. After I got back from my trip, I dropped most products from my routine and focused on truly nourishing my skin and restoring my skin barrier with Great Barrier Relief."

Click here to see more before & afters!