Intelligent ageing repair with skin superfoods

This system was specially designed to incorporate, stabilise and deliver microalgae extract into deep skin layers.  Bicosomexanthin proved to be effective in protecting the skin against pollution particles and to prevent 90% of the damage caused by blue light. This extraordinary ingredient also proved in vivoto boost the skin’s antioxidant capacity and barrier function, to accelerate epidermal cell renewal, improve skin brightness and firmness, and visibly reduce wrinkles.

The demands of modern life generate stressful conditions that directly affect skin health. Many environmental factors, including exposure to solar radiation, pollution and blue light emitted by electronic devices, combined with stress, insufficient sleep and poor nutrition, generate a skin imbalance that results in premature ageing. In order to counteract these effects, efficient strategies to provide the skin with an adequate supply of nutrients are in demand.1

Microalgae are unicellular microorganisms that synthesise a variety of nutritional compounds very efficiently.2,3 Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis)is a microalgae valued highly for its capacity to produce high amounts of natural astaxanthin.4 Currently, over 95% of the astaxanthin available on the market is produced synthetically; while H. pluvialisderived natural astaxanthin, 20 times more powerful that the synthetic version, makes up less than 1%. Astaxanthin is known to be one of the most powerful existing antioxidant molecules, 65 times more powerful than vitamin C, 54 times stronger than beta-carotene and 100 times more effective than α-tocopherol.5 H. pluvialis also contains proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and is rich in other microelements and antioxidant molecules, such as betacarotene, lutein and cantaxanthin. The use of this microalgae extract could offer innumerable anti-ageing and detox benefits for the skin. However, despite these impressive features, microalgae is still used with some reticence in skin care. The main reasons are the challenges in stabilising its antioxidant molecules (otherwise degraded) and in achieving deep skin penetration (otherwise ineffective) to produce tangible results.