Customer Stories: Maya, 34, post-pregnancy
Three months in, the fluorescent-light test in her bathroom is humbling — and she looks back at it less.
Maya is 34, in Brooklyn, an architect, and three months postpartum. She came to Sequence12 the way most postpartum patients come to any skincare brand: with a list of things that were different now. Pigmentation along the upper cheek (melasma triggered by hormonal flux). A line at the right brow that didn't used to be there. The texture of her cheeks felt different — duller, slightly more porous.
Her formula
After the diagnostic she received a formula with Decapeptide-12 (gradual pigment correction), Matrixyl 3000 (the workhorse signal complex), and a low dose of Argireline (for the brow line). Total active load: 6.4%. pH: 5.8. Vehicle: an oil-in-water with squalane and propanediol — designed to feel weightless under her tinted SPF.
Three months in
"The fluorescent-light test in my bathroom is humbling, and I look back at it less." That's what she wrote in her 90-day check-in. The melasma is still there but it's lighter; the brow line is not gone but is softer; the texture is, in her words, "back to feeling like skin instead of a surface."
I haven't bought another serum in three months. That used to be a weekly habit.
What we changed at the reformulation
Her day-90 check-in flagged that she'd started using a prescription tretinoin on weeknights. We swapped Argireline (which doesn't layer well with retinoids on contact) for Syn-Ake, which has a different mechanism and is more compatible. We held the rest of the formula stable.