Numbers, not adjectives

Why we started

STNC Co. began because one of us sat through a nine-hour back piece with a tube of numbing cream that did precisely nothing. The box promised "maximum strength" and listed no percentage anywhere. That is the entire industry problem in one sentence: confident claims, no numbers.

So we built the opposite. Every product states its active percentage on the front of the label. Every page on this site carries the full INCI list before you have spent a penny. Every batch is tested, and we will send you the certificate of analysis if you ask.

What we will not do

• Claim a strength we have not verified in that specific batch
• Sell a cream for use on broken skin, because creams are not for broken skin
• Hide the ingredient list behind a "proprietary blend"
• Pretend a tattoo will be entirely painless. It will be considerably better. That is the honest claim.

Working with artists

Plenty of tattooists have a low opinion of numbing products, and mostly they have earned it — greasy bases lift stencils, swell the skin and make a hard job harder. Our formulas are water-based and wipe off completely for exactly that reason.

If you run a studio, the Studio Pro Kit is priced for working use and comes with batch documentation. Wholesale pricing starts at three kits. Get in touch and we will sort it out.

The boring but important part

Topical anaesthetics are medicines. Used properly they are well understood and very safe. Used carelessly — applied over huge areas, left on for hours, layered product on product — lidocaine can be absorbed systemically, and that is genuinely dangerous. Our dose limits are on every label and they are not suggestions. We would rather lose a sale than have someone use three tubes at once.