Two products, two formats, and a reason for each. Below is every active, what it does, and — the part most ingredient pages leave out — what was actually studied and in what.
Why is one an oil and one a gel?
Because the active decided it.
The Ingrown Hair Oil is anhydrous: no water at all. Its hero active is an oil-phase lipid and cannot be delivered any other way. No water also means no preservative system is needed, a shorter ingredient list, and better delivery of oil-loving actives into a follicle, which is itself a lipid-rich environment.
The Smooth Gel is water-based, because both of its actives are supplied in water. Putting them in an oil would mean carrying them in something they don't dissolve in.
Almost every product in this category is an oil regardless of what's in it, because oil is what the category looks like. Two products, two formats, two chemical reasons, both checkable against the INCI below.
Ingrown Hair Oil
Full INCI: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Squalane, Mandelic Acid, Bisabolol, Tocopherol, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Oil, Bacillus Ferment.
Nine ingredients. No water, no alcohol, no preservative system, no tea tree.
Biome Oléoactif — the hero
The last two entries on that list, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Oil and Bacillus Ferment, are the reason this product is an oil.
It's a lipid active built from fatty acids captured from a wild extremophilic microorganism — including a branched-chain bacterial fatty acid not previously used in cosmetics — carried in oat oil. It's COSMOS-certified, made using Hallstar's Oléo-éco-extraction process, and effective at low dose.
The supplier describes it as supporting epidermal barrier integrity and supporting the balance of the skin's existing microbial population. That is supplier data, and we have asked Hallstar for the study design, the model and the number of participants and haven't received it. Until we have, we can't tell you whether people were involved, and we're not going to imply they were. What we can tell you is why it's in here: the whole category reaches for antibacterials, tea tree almost always, and this active takes the opposite approach — supporting the follicle's existing microbial ecology rather than attacking it.
Position on an INCI list is not importance. It sits near the end because it works at low dose.
Mandelic acid — 0.3%
It's here for its antibacterial contribution, not as an exfoliant. 0.3% is not an exfoliating dose, and we'd rather say that than let you assume otherwise.
Mandelic acid's antibacterial activity is well established in the lab, measured against bacteria in a dish rather than on skin. Human data on mandelic acid does exist, but at exfoliating concentrations many times higher than this — which means it tells you nothing about what 0.3% does, and we're not going to borrow it across.
The rest of the formula
Caprylic/capric triglyceride and C12-15 alkyl benzoate — light, fast-absorbing esters. They're the reason it sinks in instead of sitting on top.
Jojoba seed oil — a liquid wax ester, structurally close to skin's own sebum.
Squalane — a stable, non-greasy emollient.
Bisabolol — a soothing component, from the same family as chamomile's.
Tocopherol — vitamin E, here to keep the oils from oxidising.
These are functional ingredients, not actives. They carry formulation facts, not claims.
Smooth Gel
Full INCI: published here in full before this product goes on sale.
Water-based, because both actives are supplied in water.
Greentech ARP 100
INCI: Serenoa Serrulata Fruit Extract · Epilobium Angustifolium Flower/Leaf/Stem Extract · Cucurbita Pepo (Pumpkin) Seed Extract.
A botanical complex from saw palmetto, willowherb and pumpkin seed, titrated for saponins and tannins. It's marketed by its supplier for reducing pilosity and delaying regrowth.
The honest version of the evidence. The underlying mechanism work is enzyme-assay work — done on an isolated enzyme in the lab, not on people. The outcome part, the reduced-regrowth part, is a supplier marketing claim, and we have asked Greentech in writing for the study design, whether it was in people, how many, for how long and who funded it. We haven't seen it yet. So: a real reason to choose the ingredient, and not yet a reason for us to tell you what will happen to your regrowth.
That is the single most load-bearing unknown in the range, and it sits behind live copy, so we'd rather it were stated here than found later.
FSS HFCI Complex PF
INCI: Lactobacillus/Cocoa Fruit Ferment Filtrate · Decapeptide-1.
Flavones isolated from cocoa by fermentation, paired with a bioengineered decapeptide.
The described mechanism is that it shortens the follicle's growing phase, reduces cellular proliferation inside the follicle, and mimics a signal called fibroblast growth factor-5 that brings the resting phase on earlier. Every part of that was measured at cell and molecular level — in a dish, not in people. The supplier may hold hair-count data in people; we've asked, and we haven't seen it.
Lab findings like these are why an ingredient gets chosen. They are not a result, and we won't present them as one.
What neither product has been shown to do
Neither formula has been tested on people for efficacy. There is no consumer assessment, no instrumental measure and no clinical trial behind either one, and we won't use the words "clinically proven" until there is.
The Ingrown Hair Oil has not been shown to prevent ingrown hairs, and it will not clear an infected lesion.
The Smooth Gel has not been shown, by us, to reduce anyone's regrowth. It will not remove hair, it is not a hair removal method, and stopping use returns regrowth to normal.
A consumer assessment on the finished formulas, described honestly by method and number of participants, is what would change these paragraphs. It's the first testing we intend to buy.
What we haven't confirmed yet
The natural-origin figure. We use plant-derived materials heavily and we'd like to publish an ISO 16128 natural-origin index rather than the word "natural." That depends on supplier confirmation and isn't on file yet.
Published by the ungro lab.