Fifteen years ago, one of the most studied ingredients in skincare quietly vanished from almost every formula on the market.

Not because the science failed or something better replaced it.

But because it was notoriously difficult to work with — and most brands decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

So they moved on.

Hyaluronic acid took over. Ceramides followed.

And this ingredient, which does something neither of those can do, got left behind.

But I couldn't get it out of my head.

Because the research continued to show that without this ingredient, something fundamental is missing from even the best moisturizer on the market.

Something that no amount of hyaluronic acid or ceramides can replace.

And here's the thing…

The science never stopped advancing.

The results kept getting more compelling.

Yet the ingredient stayed off shelves. No one had solved the formulation challenges well enough to put it in something you'd actually want to use every day.

Until now.

If you've been with City Beauty for a while, you know our formulas have always been built around targeted results — firming, sculpting, repairing a damaged barrier. Products designed to solve specific problems and solve them well.

But a daily moisturizer built around hydration? One designed to be the foundation everything else in your routine builds on?

That's a different challenge. And it's one I wasn't willing to get wrong.

You probably own a moisturizer right now. Maybe a good one. Maybe one you even like.

And if I was going to ask you to rethink it, I needed to give you a reason… a real one.

Not just new packaging on the same idea.

Because most moisturizers are built to do one thing reasonably well: hydrate. The good ones do that. The great ones hydrate and help seal that moisture in.

Layer one: get moisture into the skin — past the surface, where it can actually be retained.

Layer two: keep it there — strengthen the barrier so moisture doesn't evaporate out by noon.

Layer three: give skin the cellular energy to use that moisture — to renew, to repair, to produce the natural glow that a well-hydrated face is actually supposed to have.

Most moisturizers handle layer one reasonably well. The best ones handle layers one and two.

So I kept working — until I went back to an ingredient the industry had stopped talking about.

For months, I kept circling the same question. If no moisturizer on the market was solving all three layers, what was missing?

I went back through the research. Not the trends. Not what was being marketed. The actual published science on what skin cells need to function at their best.

And I kept landing on the same ingredient.

Coenzyme Q10. CoQ10.

If you've been in skincare for a while, you might remember it.

Fifteen years ago it was everywhere. Major prestige brands were using it. Dermatologists couldn't stop talking about it. Beauty editors were writing about it like it was the future of skincare.

Then…almost overnight… CoQ10 quietly disappeared from the spotlight.

Most people assumed it had been replaced by a better alternative.

But something didn't add up.

If this ingredient had been replaced, where was the thing that replaced it? What was doing the job CoQ10 was supposed to do?

The answer? Nothing. Nothing had replaced it.

It hadn't been outperformed. It hadn't been debunked.

It had been abandoned.

Here's what actually happened.

Remember when I said this ingredient was notoriously difficult to work with? Here's what I mean. CoQ10 is unstable, oil-soluble, and tricky to combine with other actives at concentrations that actually perform.

In other words, it's powerful but inconvenient.

And when something is inconvenient, the beauty industry doesn't throw money and resources to develop it.

It moves on to whatever's easier to formulate and easier to sell.

So brands walked away.

They didn't think CoQ10 was worth the effort.

But I did.

First, I needed to understand exactly what we'd lost when this ingredient disappeared.

Over the past decade, the research didn't stop. It accelerated.

And what's been published in the years since CoQ10 left the mainstream is more compelling than anything that was known when it was trending.

Here's what we now know.

CoQ10 is produced naturally in the body. It's one of the molecules your cells rely on to stay energized — the thing that powers the behind-the-scenes work your skin does every day. Renewal. Repair. Defense against the daily environmental stress that quietly ages you from the outside in.²

When CoQ10 levels are high, skin cells function the way they're supposed to. There's a quality to the skin that's hard to describe except to say it looks alive.

But with age, sun exposure, pollution, and the accumulated stress of daily life… CoQ10 levels drop. Significantly.³

This isn't a concern for one age group or skin type. It happens broadly. And it's one of the main reasons skin can look tired, flat, and dull even when it's technically moisturized.

You're giving your skin water. But you're not giving it the energy to use it.³

It's no wonder that in clinical studies, replenishing CoQ10 topically led to up to 27% improvement in skin smoothness.¹

That's when everything clicked.

This wasn't just a nice ingredient to add to a formula.

This was the missing piece to a formula that could fully deliver.

So I made myself a promise: I'd be the one to bring it back… and do it right.