Hypochlorous Acid
INCI name: Hypochlorous Acid
Purposes: Active, Antimicrobial, Soothing
The same molecule your own immune cells produce to manage bacteria. At 300ppm it calms the look of redness without disrupting the skin barrier.
Hypochlorous acid is not an exotic ingredient. Your own body makes it. When neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, encounter bacteria, they generate hypochlorous acid as part of the immune response. It is one of the oldest antimicrobial mechanisms in biology.
Produced commercially, it is made by running an electric current through salt water. That is the entire ingredient list of our spray: water, salt, the resulting hypochlorous acid, and a small amount of acetic acid to hold the pH steady.
It kills bacteria by disrupting cell membranes and denaturing proteins, and it does so fast. Because the mechanism is physical rather than biochemical, bacteria do not develop resistance to it the way they do to antibiotics.
What makes it useful on skin is the selectivity. At the concentrations used topically it is effective against microbes while being well tolerated by human tissue. It is used in wound care and eye care for exactly that reason.
The honest limitation is stability. Hypochlorous acid degrades over time, faster in light and heat, and reverts toward plain salt water. Ours is made at 300ppm and dated accordingly. Any brand selling it without a clear shelf life is not being straight with you, because this is one ingredient where age genuinely matters.
