Our Ingredients & Formulas

Our Ingredients & Formulas

Nature: Our Source of Ingredients

Yon-Ka draws on our 70 years of pioneering expertise in phyto-aromatic skincare to formulate innovative ingredients with proven efficacy using essential oils, plant extracts, and fruits. Our professional 100% Française skincare brand offers products that can be used in place of or to complement medical aesthetic techniques for visible, lasting results that don’t aggravate skin.

The core of Yon-Ka products is formed by a combination of four plant sciences:

  • Aromatherapy: uses essential oils extracted from plants for their regenerating properties.
  • Aromachology: focuses on the science of odour-related phenomena that influence behaviour, such as sleep patterns, stress, etc.
  • Phytotherapy: uses plants and plant extracts to treat various conditions (using ingredients from fresh or dried plants, including carbohydrates, peptides, polyphenols, fruit acids, trace elements, and vitamins).
  • Gemmotherapy: uses young shoots, buds, and rootlets for revitalizing purposes.

 

To extract these essences, a team of experienced scientists manages and traces products from formulation to distribution.

Drawing from root to seed, Yon-Ka uses the power of essential oils and extracts from more than 130 plants from around the world, combining them with leading ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, polyphenols, peptides and AHAs to target skin ageing and various other beauty issues.

These innovative ingredients with proven efficacy, come from:

  • Land or marine plants : essential oils, polyphenols, anti-oxidants, regenerating peptides, exfoliating fruit acids, vitamins, remineralising trace elements and more.
  • Biotechnologies : plumping and anti-ageing hyaluronic acid, yeast extract.

 

Plants used in Yon-Ka products come from renewable resources. We opt for organic plant extracts as often as possible when they meet the quality and efficacy requirements of our labs.

These energy-filled essential oils are obtained by distillation and form the core of Yon-Ka’s formulations and treatment rituals. Expertise and special mastery are required to identify the right concentrations and the best efficacy to safety ratio with these powerful ingredients.

Formulas are specifically tailored to address all skin issues, such as dehydration, redness or wrinkles. Each formula our labs create is the embodiment of our desire to provide an effective targeted response at every age for every skin type, including yours.

We Carefully Select & Test our Ingredients

Composed of 92% natural ingredients, on average, each one carefully selected and tested, our 70 face and body care products favour certified organic ingredients and vegan and gluten-free formulas. Currently:

  • On average, 92% of ingredients in all product ranges are natural, with a minimum of 95% natural ingredients in all new products
  • 24 organic ingredients are already used in 49 Yon-Ka products
  • 62 Yon-Ka products are vegan, representing 77% of our catalogue
  • 100% of our formulas are gluten-free
  • Yon-Ka products are made in France. They are not tested on animals and comply with a strict formulation charter. They do not contain parabens, aluminium salts, SLS, MIT or triclosan.

All raw materials, particularly essential oils used in our formulas, are carefully selected, analysed, and tested for the purest ingredients and maximum safety. They are subjected to tests that precisely identify their components and validate their conformity and their safety :

Clinical efficacy testing:

  • Efficacy by instrumental measurements
  • Efficacy by testing on cell cultures and skin explants
  • Dermatologically tested
  • Open tests on professional products

 

Consumer testing:

  • Product efficacy and sensory appeal confirmed by consumers

Our Quintessence: Our Favourite Essential Oils

Yon-Ka products make use of major discovery: la Quintessence, an exclusive complex of five essential oils (lavender, geranium, rosemary, cypress, and thyme) that are 100% natural and 100% pure. Quintessence is the scientific foundation on which Cécile, Ernest and Charles Mühlethaler established the brand in 1954.

A true Yon-Ka treasure, this synergy combines dermatological efficacy with olfactory and aromachology benefits to support each person’s overall well-being and balance at every stage of life.

Used in varying concentrations, this exclusive complex contributes to the effectiveness of all Yon-Ka products. Always pre-dosed for complete safety and optimum results, it complements the actions of the associated ingredients. This is Yon-Ka’s signature ingredient, included in 100% of our professional treatments and 60% of our at-home products.

Yon-Ka Quintessence is often paired with other specific ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin C or fruit acids (AHAs). Yon-Ka Quintessence gives your skin a veritable skincare infusion for a gentler alternative to invasive aesthetic procedures.

These are the five essential oils:

  • Lavender essential oil (Lavandula angustifolia): Also called English lavender, this plant is appreciated for its light, floral fragrance. It’s also highly valued in the world of aromatherapy for its many benefits. Lavender essential oil is rich in antioxidants, making it ideal for skin that must endure daily external aggressors like pollution, sun, tobacco and more. Its soothing and revitalizing properties make it an effective weapon for people with blemish-prone, sensitive or reacting skin, as well as a tool that fights skin aging. Its distinctive fragrance provides soothing and calming properties.
  • Geranium essential oil (Pelargonium graveolens): Especially appreciated for its anti-aging and purifying properties, geranium essential oil tones and protects skin. It’s the solution for oily, dehydrated, or sensitive skin and anyone whose skin is aging. It helps to bring back suppleness to tired skin, radiance to dull skin, and comfort to inflamed skin. Geranium essential oil also helps to give a feeling of well-being. It also has impressive results on skin blemishes when applied as a spot treatment.
  • Rosemary essential oil (Rosmarinus officinalis): Rosemary essential oil is mainly known for its detoxifying and firming properties. It’s also an excellent solution for sagging skin because it acts as an invigorating ingredient that helps fight the loss of skin tone.
  • Cypress essential oil (Cupressus sempervirens): Cypress essential oil is especially appreciated for its refining properties. This is your solution for so-called orange-peel skin, heavy legs, and skin that’s losing tone. Its detoxifying properties work effectively on dull skin and oily skin with blemishes, and on skin that is ageing.
  • Thyme essential oil (Thymus officinalis):Thyme essential oil is highly purifying. With its purifying, cleansing, and soothing properties, it’s a solution for skin with impurities, skin with blemishes and scars, as well as people with rosacea.

Our Research & Development Lab’s Expertise

Driven by pharmaceutical rigour, our team of scientists (doctors, doctors of pharmacy, chemical engineers, biologists, bacteriologists) develops formulas with the best efficacy/safety ratio for optimal safety and visible, long-lasting results without aggression. All products put on the market are tested for safety and tolerance and evaluated by an independent toxicologist.

What tests do we use to measure the effectiveness of our products?
Product efficacy claims are based on objectification tests carried out by independent laboratories under medical supervision. They involve different methods of objectification depending on the products developed:

  • in vitro tests on cell cultures,
  • ex-vivo tests on skin explants,
  • clinical evaluations (scoring of different parameters and instrumental measurements: wrinkles, radiance, pigmentation spots, comedogenicity, hydration, exfoliating- brightening-firming powers, etc.)
  • self-evaluation tests by a consumer panel

 

In accordance with European regulations and our ethics, our products are not tested on animals.

Our Production Unit - Rigour and Safety

Our manufacturing, primary packaging and controls are carried out in accordance with international GMP ISO 22716 standards (Good Manufacturing Practices), in clean rooms, i.e. under filtered air, optimal conditions for maximum bacteriological safety.

All our raw materials are rigorously selected, analyzed and controlled by our laboratories to guarantee the purest ingredients.

The physico-chemical and bacteriological controls of each raw material and of each manufactured and packaged product are all carried out internally.

The traceability of our products is guaranteed right up to the point of distribution.