So, What's in My Water?

Your Water May Not Be As Great As You Think.

Research shows that most US households’ tap water contains chlorine, micro-plastics, heavy metals, and hundreds of unregulated chemicals.

The legal limits of contaminants set by the EPA, at best, gets a passing grade. This is due to the fact that the EPA is underfunded and a bit antiquated, and that changing regulations requires extensive and time-consuming efforts. Furthermore, just because something is legal doesn't necessarily imply that it is completely safe.

According to Dr. Verhougstraete, Ph.D of Arizona University, chemicals, even in minute concentrations, can cause adverse health effects, especially in the long run.  

Numerous research calls for more stringent regulations around our tap water. The water we use on a daily basis has a significant impact on the health of our skin, particularly on the face, where the skin is the most sensitive and thin.

You don't drink tap water, so why should your skin?

Why Does Filterbaby Start with a Faucet Mount Water Filter?

Because Your Facial Skin Is More Sensitive

than your skin anywhere else. If you take a microscope, you will see that the skin cells on your face are actually smaller than ones on your body. This means the skin on your face is less effective at protecting than many parts of your body. The smaller the skin cells, the more 'gaps' there are for chemicals and contaminants to go through. Why the face has more sensitive skin, may be due to evolutionary reasons, and it probably comes down to the effectiveness of expressions. Humans are social animals, thinner skin allows for more expressions on the face. Essentially, this means, it is vital to take extra care of your face, and hence why we created Filterbaby. 

How Does Tap Water Harm My Skin?

Your skin barrier acts as a protector against toxins and contaminants from the external environment. But the chemicals and contaminants in tap water can seep through and also break down this barrier causing: 

• Depletion of your skin's natural oils, causing it to be dry and damaged.
• Irritation of your skin,  causing sensitivity and  redness.
• Breakdown of collagen barrier causing signs of premature aging.

Yikes! We don't like to be the bearer of bad news, but these are valid problems you might want to pay attention to. 

Have You Done Any Testing To Prove Our Filters Actually Improve Skin?

Yup. Read On.

The very first thing we did after our product synthesis was to test our product via certified third-party testing labs.

Here's a description of the procedure:

• The process included 35 participants both female (21) and male (14) aged 16-65 with normal and sensitive skin.
  
• The measurement of skin hydration with a micro camera was carried out for each zone in all tested and control places prior to applying the tested product. Subjects were asked to avoid using hydrating or anti-aging products on their skin during the study, and to follow their regular personal hygiene protocol.
  
  
• The evaluation of the hydration was performed before and after two weeks of using the water filter daily. Instrument used: Callegari Company – Soft Plus device Hydration probe and micro camera. All measurements were carried out in a room with a temperature of 20 ± 3°C and a relative humidity of 50±10%.

• Soft Plus measures the hydration of the stratum corneum through the scientifically acknowledged capacitive method, which measures the amount of electric current passing through a capacitor. In its simplest form, a capacitor consists of two conducting plates (tracks) that are separated by an insulating material called the dielectric.
  
• In the capacitor constituted by probe and skin, one conducting plate is the probe surface and the other is represented by the skin's deeper (well-hydrated) layer. The horny layer, constituted by dead keratinized cells dispersed in a lipid medium, represents an excellent barrier to the passage of both chemical substances and electric current. It can, therefore, be considered a dielectric medium (the dielectric constant of the anhydrous horny layer is usually lower than five).
  
• The water dielectric constant is much higher; thus, if water is contained in the stratum corneum, the horny layer dramatically changes its dielectric properties. Therefore, it is possible to evaluate the hydrated stratum corneum’s dielectric constant and calculate its moisture content by measuring the amount of current that flows through the stratum corneum.

So, What's The Result?

Clinically Shown To Improve Skin Moisture. 

The results of skin hydration measurement before (t0) and 2 weeks (t2) after using filtered water daily in arbitrary units (In each case, the average of five independent measurements is used to get the result) showed that under the study conditions, our filter helps to increase skin hydration.

Longer studies and more skin factors will be examined in our next tests. We are continuously testing and improving our product because it matters to us to constantly find better solutions.