Snow mushroom extract

Tremella fuciformis, snow fungus, is cultivated in East Asia, where it has been used for centuries both in cooking and in traditional skin care. Skincare works with an extract of the fruiting body, rich in polysaccharides.

Those polysaccharides are why it gets compared to hyaluronic acid. Both are large sugar molecules that bind water and form a film at the surface that slows evaporation. The comparison should not slide into the claim that one replaces the other — it is a different molecule with different behaviour, and in a formula the two complement rather than substitute.

The practical difference is in the feel. Tremella gives a silkier, less tacky impression than higher concentrations of hyaluronic acid, which makes it comfortable in light textures meant to feel fresh rather than to cling. That is exactly what a toner needs, where the layer should stay almost imperceptible.

As with every water-binding ingredient, one condition applies: they do not hold water indefinitely on their own. They need a layer above them to seal it in — in our ritual, the oil or balm serum as the fourth step. Without it the hydration leaves the way it arrived.

In our range, tremella appears in two products: the No2. Bioactive Toner and the No3. Hydro Boost Collagel Serum. It links the second and third steps of the ritual — two layers with the same task, at different densities.