Our science

The reason we built a brand around the mark

A breakout lasts a week. What it leaves behind can last a year. Everything here — thirteen ingredients, four conditions and thirteen papers — exists to protect the few days in between.

Macro of a translucent hydrocolloid patch held in tweezers, backlit

Why this exists

Ingredients are not magic. They are mechanisms.

UNMARKED exists because of a gap. Almost everything sold for a breakout is built to shrink the spot faster. Very little is built for the days afterwards — when the skin is deciding whether to leave a record behind, and that record is the part you actually live with.

So the question we had to answer was a narrow one: what can you put on a site, inside that window, that has real evidence behind it?

The answer turned out to be nothing new. Hydrocolloid has been a hospital dressing since the 1960s. Niacinamide has decades of dermatology literature behind it. Salicylic acid has been on skin for two thousand years. That is a feature, not an admission — a new molecule with a great story has no record, and a record is the only thing separating a mechanism from a claim.

Which leaves one useful question per ingredient, and it is not "is this good". It is narrower: what does it act on, can it physically reach that place, does it stay there long enough to matter, and does it survive the trip. An ingredient that fails any one of those four is a line on a label.

Below: the three problems this range is built around, then every ingredient in it — including the two whose evidence is thin, and one we do not sell at all.

Hydrocolloid patches on their backing sheet under raking light

Four numbers worth having

1962the year occlusion was shown to speed re-epithelialisation — which is why a patch is a dressing, not a stickerWinter, Nature, 1962

68%reduction in melanosome transfer measured for niacinamide in a coculture model — the handover that makes a mark visibleHakozaki et al., Br J Dermatol, 2002

8–24hcontact time an active gets under a patch, against minutes for anything rinsed offWear time, as worn

0ingredients on this page that are new. Every one has a record you can go and readReferences at the foot

The test

Four things that have to be true

Before any ingredient is worth discussing it has to clear the same four conditions. Most products fail on the third.

What has to be true

01 · It has to do something specificA defined action on a defined target. "Brightening" is not a mechanism. Interfering with the handover of pigment from one cell to another is.

02 · It has to get thereSize and solubility decide what reaches the layer that matters. Sebum is oil — a water-soluble ingredient sits on top of a plugged follicle and never goes in.

03 · It has to stay long enoughThe one most routines lose on. Applied and rinsed, an ingredient has minutes. Held under an occlusive dressing, the same ingredient has a night.

04 · It has to survive the journeyLight, air and pH degrade actives before they act. Retinol in a clear jar on a bright shelf is a slow leak — a packaging decision, not a formulation one.

The short version

Do something specific, get there, stay long enough, arrive intact.

Who this is for

Three problems, and why they are not the same problem

Adult acne, truncal acne and comedonal congestion get lumped together and sold the same tube. They have different biology, different conditions and different honest ceilings.

A man at a dark bathroom mirror before work, face not legible

Adult acne is not teenage acne that overstayed

42.5% of men aged 20–29 reported having acne, and it does not fall off a cliff after thatCollier et al., J Am Acad Dermatol, 2008

The largest survey of its kind put acne in more than four men in ten in their twenties, and it kept finding it through the thirties and forties. It is not a condition you age out of on schedule.

Adult acne also behaves differently. It concentrates lower — jaw, chin, neck — where you shave, which means a lesion gets scraped over every second morning. It runs more inflammatory and fewer-but-deeper than the teenage version. And inflammation is the thing that decides whether pigment gets laid down, so an adult breakout is more likely to leave a brown record of itself than the same breakout would have at sixteen.

That is the whole reasoning behind sealing a site rather than drying it out. The lesion is a week. The mark is months. If you only get to intervene in one of them, the first one is cheaper.

In the range: hydrocolloid to seal and keep hands off it, niacinamide at the site for the inflammatory and pigment side, and copper peptide afterwards for what the repair left behind.

A man pulling a training shirt over his head in a dim locker room

Back and chest: the same biology, worse conditions

~50% of acne patients assessed showed involvement on the chest and/or backDel Rosso et al., J Drugs Dermatol, 2007

Truncal acne is about as common as facial acne among people who have acne at all, and it is talked about roughly a tenth as much. Half of it goes unmentioned in the appointment.

The biology is the same. The conditions are not. Skin on the back has larger sebaceous glands and thicker stratum corneum, so lesions run bigger and take longer. On top of that it spends the day under friction: a shirt, a bag strap, a bench, a car seat, sweat that does not evaporate. Occlusion plus friction plus heat is the reliable recipe for making an inflammatory lesion worse — and the more inflamed and the longer-lived it is, the more likely it leaves pigment behind.

It is also the part of you that you cannot see or easily reach, so it gets neglected until June.

In the range: the same hydrocolloid mechanism, cut larger and flatter so it survives a shirt and a strap, with the adhesive specified for sweat rather than for a dry cheek.

Macro of a used charcoal pore strip on dark slate

A blackhead is not dirt, and a strip is not chemistry

2× a week is the honest ceiling for a physical strip. We put that on the pack rather than sell you a daily habitOur own standard

An open comedo is a follicle packed with keratin and sebum. The black is not dirt and it does not wash off — it is the surface of that plug oxidising on contact with air. Scrubbing harder does nothing to it, and stripping the surface prompts more oil rather than less.

Two different things can act on it. A physical strip bonds to the plug at the surface and lifts it out when you peel: immediate, visible, and completely honest about what it is. An oil-soluble acid partitions into the plug and works on it chemically — that is salicylic acid, and it is the reason it appears further down this page.

The distinction matters because they solve different halves. A strip empties a pore. It does not change how fast that pore fills again. Anyone selling you a strip as a permanent answer is selling you the first half twice.

In the range: a strip that does the physical half and says so, followed by a recovery step — because stripping a pore takes comfort with it, and week three is when most people quit.

Every ingredient in the range

Thirteen ingredients, and what each one is for

In four parts. Tap any card for what it is, what it does, the paper behind it, what you would actually notice, and — the part most ingredient pages leave out — what it does not do.

Part one — the vitamins

Three of the actives in this range are vitamins, and all three have decades of topical literature behind them. None of them are new. That is the point.

Fine white crystalline powder in a small black dish

The Shield · The Shield for Back · The Recovery · The NightshiftInflammation, sebum, and the handover of pigment Vitamin B3 — niacinamideThe most-studied ingredient we use, and the reason this brand exists in ingredient form.

What it is. The amide form of vitamin B3, and a precursor to NAD+ and NADP+ — coenzymes involved in cellular energy and repair. Small, water-soluble, and unusually stable.

What it does. Three effects matter here. It dampens inflammatory signalling. It interferes with the transfer of melanosomes — the pigment packages — from melanocytes to the surrounding keratinocytes. And it appears to reduce sebum output.

The record. Hakozaki and colleagues measured up to a 68% reduction in melanosome transfer in a keratinocyte/melanocyte coculture model, with no change to melanocyte count or to how much melanin was made (Br J Dermatol, 2002). Shalita and colleagues ran 4% topical nicotinamide against 1% clindamycin gel in moderate inflammatory acne over eight weeks: 82% of the nicotinamide group and 68% of the clindamycin group were rated improved (Int J Dermatol, 1995). Draelos and colleagues found 2% niacinamide significantly lowered sebum excretion rate against placebo (J Cosmet Laser Ther, 2006).

What you would notice. Less angry-looking skin around a healing site, and — over weeks, not days — a mark that is less pronounced than the last one was.

What it does not do. It does not bleach pigment already deposited. And nothing we sell is an acne medicine: the trials above are the ingredient's record, not a claim for our products.

A clear viscous gel drawing a thread from a glass rod

The ResetBarrier support and water retention Vitamin B5 — panthenolThe least glamorous ingredient here, and the one that decides whether people are still doing this in month three.

What it is. Provitamin B5. Skin converts it to pantothenic acid, a component of coenzyme A.

What it does. Two things at once: it acts as a humectant, drawing and holding water in the upper layers, and it supports the lipid barrier that keeps that water in. Dexpanthenol has also been used clinically for a long time on skin that has just been through something — post-procedure, post-irritation, post-strip.

The record. Proksch and colleagues reviewed seventy years of topical dexpanthenol use, covering barrier function, hydration and the reduction of irritation (J Dermatolog Treat, 2017). This is not a new molecule with a marketing budget; it is one that has been in dermatological use since the 1940s.

What you would notice. The tight, raw hour after a strip not happening.

What it does not do. It is not an active in the sense the other two vitamins are. It does not act on the pore, it does not clear anything, and The Reset is not a blackhead product. Two hydrators. That is the entire claim.

Amber oil glowing inside a dark glass dropper

The NightshiftTurnover, over months Vitamin A — retinolThe best-evidenced topical class there is, and the one most men abandon in week two.

What it is. A vitamin A alcohol. Skin converts it in two steps — to retinaldehyde, then to retinoic acid — and it is retinoic acid that binds nuclear receptors and changes cell behaviour.

What it does. Faster, more orderly turnover at the surface; over longer periods, changes in how fibroblasts lay down collagen underneath.

The record. Kafi and colleagues ran retinol against vehicle on naturally aged skin in older adults and reported improvement in fine wrinkling alongside measured changes in the dermis (Arch Dermatol, 2007). Retinoids are the most studied topical class in dermatology, which is exactly why we are not going to oversell them.

Why the two-step conversion matters. Prescription tretinoin arrives as retinoic acid already. Retinol has to be converted, which makes it slower and gentler — and slower is not a weakness if it is the version you are still using in month three. Week two is when the flaking arrives and when most people stop.

Why the jar is opaque. Retinol oxidises in light and air. Packaging is part of the formulation, not a decision made afterwards.

We publish no percentage. A number without the formula, the packaging and the stability behind it tells you very little, and it invites you to compare two products on the one variable that is easiest to inflate.

Part two — the repair actives

What goes on after the event, when the lesion has gone and what it left has not. These are the slowest-acting things we sell, and the ones where honesty about timelines matters most.

The RecoverySkin quality and the look of uneven tone Copper peptide — GHK-CuA naturally occurring tripeptide, in human plasma long before it was in a jar.

What it is. Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine bound to copper — a copper-binding tripeptide that occurs naturally in human plasma, saliva and urine, and whose plasma level falls with age.

What it does. It is studied as a signalling molecule rather than an exfoliant or an acid: influencing extracellular matrix remodelling, and acting as a carrier for copper, which several skin enzymes require.

The record. Pickart and Margolina reviewed the regenerative and protective actions attributed to GHK-Cu across wound repair and skin remodelling (Int J Mol Sci, 2018). It is a long literature, much of it laboratory rather than clinical, which is why the claim on our product is about skin quality and the look of uneven tone rather than about acne or about erasing anything.

What you would notice. Very little, quickly. Pigment moves slowly. This is a product judged at week twelve, not week two, which is why the guarantee runs to day thirty and we say take it if you want it.

What it does not do. It is not a spot treatment. By the time you reach for it, the breakout has already gone.

Macro cross-section of a translucent domed hydrocolloid patch

The HoldA signal at the surface, held there Signal peptidesModest on their own. The interesting variable is not the peptide, it is the contact time.

What they are. Short chains of amino acids designed to act as messengers — fragments that resemble the breakdown products of collagen, which skin reads as a signal to build.

The record. Robinson and colleagues ran a twelve-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, split-face trial of palmitoyl pentapeptide in 93 subjects and reported significant improvement against the placebo control for the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines (Int J Cosmet Sci, 2005). Note the size of that claim: significant against placebo, over three months, on appearance.

Why we put one under a patch. A signal peptide applied in a cream is on the skin unprotected until it is rubbed onto a pillow. The same peptide held under an occlusive patch over a crease gets an uninterrupted night of contact against the exact spot that is being folded. Of the four conditions at the top of this page, contact time is the one a patch changes and a cream cannot.

What it does not do. It does not fill a line that is already set. The Hold works on the crease while it is still forming, which is a narrower and more honest promise.

The ResetWater, held at the surface Hyaluronic acidA humectant, and only a humectant.

What it is. A glycosaminoglycan that occurs naturally in skin, where roughly half the body's total is found. It has an unusual capacity to bind water relative to its own mass.

What it does. Applied topically it holds water in the upper layers. Larger molecules sit at the surface and act as a film that slows water loss; smaller fractions penetrate further. It is not doing anything clever beyond that, and anything claiming otherwise is stretching.

The record. Papakonstantinou and colleagues reviewed hyaluronic acid's role in skin hydration and in the changes that come with age (Dermatoendocrinol, 2012).

What you would notice. Skin that feels comfortable rather than tight after you have peeled something off it.

What it does not do. It does not act on a pore, it does not affect pigment, and in dry air with no occlusive over it, a humectant can pull water out of deeper skin rather than into it — which is why it sits in a cream here and not in a bottle of water.

Part three — the physical layer

The parts of a patch that are not ingredients at all. Most of what turns a small lesion into a lasting mark is mechanical, so most of the engineering here is mechanical too.

The Shield · The Shield for Back · The HoldOcclusion — conditions, not chemistry Medical-grade hydrocolloidA wound dressing borrowed wholesale from hospital use, and the least mysterious thing we sell.

What it is. Gel-forming agents — typically carboxymethylcellulose and pectin — bonded to a flexible outer film.

What it does. Two things simultaneously. It absorbs exudate and swells into a soft gel, which is the cloudy white disc you see when you peel one off. And it seals the site, holding a moist environment against the skin.

The record. Winter's 1962 work in Nature showed that wounds kept moist re-epithelialise faster than wounds left to form a scab. That finding is the basis of modern moist wound healing and it is more than sixty years old. A hydrocolloid patch is not a skincare invention; it is a dressing that got smaller.

The duller job, which matters more. A sealed site is one that friction, bacteria and your own fingers cannot reach. Picking is the single biggest amplifier of the inflammation that decides whether pigment gets deposited, and it is done by the person the lesion belongs to.

What it does not do. Hydrocolloid is not an active. It changes the conditions the repair runs under. That is the whole of its contribution, and it is enough.

The Shield · The Shield for BackStaying on skin that is oily, sweating or under a shirt Extended-wear adhesiveThe component nobody markets, and the one that decides whether any of the rest happens.

What it is. A skin-safe acrylic adhesive layer, specified for higher oil output and for sweat and friction rather than for a dry, still cheek.

Why it gets its own entry. Every mechanism on this page is conditional on the patch still being there in the morning. An eight-hour active that lifts off at hour two is a zero. Most standard patches are engineered around thinner, drier, smaller-pored skin — they are not badly made, they are made for someone else.

What you would notice. It survives sleep, a gym session and a shower, and on the back it survives a shirt and a bag strap.

What it does not do. Nothing chemical. It is glue with a specification.

The Shield · The Shield for BackDiscretion, and keeping water out Matte polyurethane filmThe thin outer layer. Low profile, shower-proof, no shine.

What it is. A thin polyurethane outer film over the hydrocolloid matrix.

What it does. It keeps external water out while allowing the dressing to work underneath, and it takes the shine off — a glossy patch on a jaw announces itself under office lighting and a matte one does not.

Why that is not a vanity detail. A patch you will not wear during the day is a patch that only works for the eight hours you are asleep. Discretion is a component of adherence, and adherence is most of the outcome.

What it does not do. Nothing chemical. It is the roof.

Part four — the pore, and the morning

The blackhead half of the range, and the one product everybody wears whichever line they are on. This is also where we are most explicit about the limits of the evidence.

The LiftPart of what the strip grips with Activated charcoalHonest version: it is in the adhesive matrix. It is not a magnet and it is not a detox.

What it is. Carbon processed to a very high surface area, which is why it is genuinely useful in water filtration and in acute poisoning, where it adsorbs compounds in the gut.

What it does here. It is part of the strip's adhesive matrix. The mechanism of a pore strip is adhesion: the strip bonds to the exposed surface of the plug and lifts it out when you peel.

Where the evidence stops, and we will say so. The claim that topical charcoal pulls impurities out through skin is not well supported. Adsorption in a beaker or a stomach is not the same event as extraction through a follicle wall. We use it, we do not make that claim for it, and if the honest description of an ingredient is "it helps the thing stick", that is what should be printed.

What you would notice. What comes out is on the strip, and you can see it. That is the entire promise of this product and it is a visual one.

Needle-like white crystals on a black mirrored surface

The LiftAstringent, on the way out Witch hazel — hamamelisThere so your nose is not red for an hour afterwards.

What it is. A distillate of Hamamelis virginiana, containing tannins and other polyphenols. Long-standing in topical use, and pharmacopoeial in several countries.

What it does. It behaves as an astringent — tannins bind proteins at the surface, which is the tightening sensation — and it has measurable anti-inflammatory activity.

The record. Korting and colleagues demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity for hamamelis distillate applied topically to skin (Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 1993), though notably a fourfold increase in concentration did not produce a corresponding increase in effect. Real, modest, and worth stating at that size.

Why it is in a strip. Peeling a strip is a mechanical insult. Leaving skin calm rather than scoured is the difference between doing this twice a week and doing it once and never again.

What it does not do. It does not act on the plug. Alcohol-heavy witch hazel preparations can be drying; the point of including it is comfort, not aggression.

A swirl of white cream on a matte black spatula

The DaylightThe emollient base Grass-fed tallowA base, chosen for how it wears rather than for what it claims.

What it is. Rendered ruminant fat, largely triglycerides of oleic, palmitic and stearic acids — a fatty-acid profile broadly comparable to the lipids skin makes itself.

What it does. It occludes and it conditions. It goes on like a moisturiser rather than sitting on top like paint, which is the difference between a jar you own and one you actually wear every morning.

Where the evidence stops. Tallow's cosmetic literature is thin compared with everything else on this page. We are not going to dress that up. It is chosen for texture, finish and the absence of a white cast — an honest, formulation-level reason.

The UV filter system: not yet published. Tallow is an emollient, not a filter. We are not listing filters or an SPF number until ISO 24444 and ISO 24443 test data exist. When they do, they go on this page with the numbers attached. Until then this line stays empty, and an empty line is the correct thing for it to be.

Not in any UNMARKED productKeratolysis, inside the follicle Salicylic acidHere because you cannot understand what a pore strip does without it — not because we sell it.

What it is. A beta hydroxy acid. The property that matters is that it is oil-soluble.

What it does. Sebum is oil. Water-soluble ingredients sit on the surface of a plugged follicle and never reach the plug; salicylic acid partitions into it. Inside, it acts as a keratolytic — loosening the bonds between the dead keratinocytes packed in the follicle so the plug can clear, and reducing the adhesion that lets the next one build.

The record. Arif's review notes salicylic acid has been used on skin for more than two thousand years, and covers its comedolytic action and its safety profile across skin types (Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol, 2015).

It is not in anything we sell today. The Lift is a physical strip: adhesion, not chemistry. It empties a pore and it does not change how fast that pore fills again. Salicylic acid is the ingredient that addresses the refill. When we have a formulation we would stand behind, it will be on this page as ours — and this paragraph will change. Until then it is here as context, and this is the reason.

The honest column

What the record supports, and what it does not

The right-hand column is the one worth reading. It is the set of claims we could make and will not, because the evidence does not carry them.

Supported Not supported

Niacinamide Quieting inflammation, reducing sebum output, and interrupting pigment handover while a repair runs Bleaching pigment already deposited in the skin

Retinol The appearance of fine lines and uneven texture, with consistent use over months An overnight change, or a result with no adjustment period

Copper peptide Skin quality and the look of uneven tone, judged at week twelve Acting on an active breakout, or working quickly

Panthenol & hyaluronic acid Comfort, water retention and barrier support after something has been done to the skin Anything happening inside a pore

Hydrocolloid A sealed, moist site — and hands, friction and bacteria kept off it Chemistry. It is a dressing, not an active

Charcoal Being part of what the strip grips with Drawing impurities out through the skin

Salicylic acid Clearing a follicular plug and slowing the next one Being in a product we currently sell

Up close

The materials, actual size

Hydrocolloid patches on the backing sheet, two diameters

Cream on a spatula — the vitamins travel in this

Water held at the surface, which is all a humectant does

Salicylic acid crystals — explained here, sold by other people

What we will not say

We do not claim to eraseNothing here removes a mark you already have. Topicals can help reduce the appearance of one, slowly. Anyone promising more is selling you the wrong half of the timeline.

These are cosmetics, not medicinesThe trials cited above are the record of an ingredient. They are not a claim for our products, and nothing here is medical advice or a substitute for seeing a dermatologist.

We name what is not ours, and what is thinSalicylic acid is on this page and is in none of our products. Charcoal and tallow are ours and their evidence is thin — both say so on their own cards.

No number we cannot show youNo retinol percentage, and no SPF figure until ISO 24444 and ISO 24443 test data exist. An untested number is a marketing number.

Not sure which of these you actually need?

The Mark Test is fifteen questions and takes about two minutes. It routes on what you tell it — including routing you to nothing, if nothing here is right for you yet.

Take the Mark Test

References. Winter GD. Formation of the scab and the rate of epithelialization of superficial wounds in the skin of the young domestic pig. Nature 1962;193:293–4. · Shalita AR, Smith JG, Parish LC, Sofman MS, Chalker DK. Topical nicotinamide compared with clindamycin gel in the treatment of inflammatory acne vulgaris. Int J Dermatol 1995;34(6):434–7. · Hakozaki T, Minwalla L, Zhuang J, et al. The effect of niacinamide on reducing cutaneous pigmentation and suppression of melanosome transfer. Br J Dermatol 2002;147(1):20–31. · Draelos ZD, Matsubara A, Smiles K. The effect of 2% niacinamide on facial sebum production. J Cosmet Laser Ther 2006;8(2):96–101. · Kafi R, Kwak HSR, Schumacher WE, et al. Improvement of naturally aged skin with vitamin A (retinol). Arch Dermatol 2007;143(5):606–12. · Proksch E, de Bony R, Trapp S, Boudon S. Topical use of dexpanthenol: a 70th anniversary article. J Dermatolog Treat 2017;28(8):766–73. · Pickart L, Margolina A. Regenerative and protective actions of the GHK-Cu peptide in the light of the new gene data. Int J Mol Sci 2018;19(7):1987. · Robinson LR, Fitzgerald NC, Doughty DG, Dawes NC, Berge CA, Bissett DL. Topical palmitoyl pentapeptide provides improvement in photoaged human facial skin. Int J Cosmet Sci 2005;27(3):155–60. · Papakonstantinou E, Roth M, Karakiulakis G. Hyaluronic acid: a key molecule in skin aging. Dermatoendocrinol 2012;4(3):253–8. · Korting HC, Schäfer-Korting M, Hart H, Laux P, Schmid M. Anti-inflammatory activity of hamamelis distillate applied topically to the skin. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 1993;44(4):315–8. · Arif T. Salicylic acid as a peeling agent: a comprehensive review. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol 2015;8:455–61. · Collier CN, Harper JC, Cantrell WC, Wang W, Foster KW, Elewski BE. The prevalence of acne in adults 20 years and older. J Am Acad Dermatol 2008;58(1):56–9. · Del Rosso JQ, Bikowski JL, Baum E, et al. A closer look at truncal acne vulgaris: prevalence, severity, and clinical significance. J Drugs Dermatol 2007;6(6):597–600.

UNMARKED sells cosmetic products containing niacinamide, panthenol, retinol, copper peptide, peptides, hyaluronic acid, hydrocolloid, charcoal, witch hazel and grass-fed tallow. It does not currently sell any product containing salicylic acid, which is described here for context only. Nothing on this page is medical advice.