Ayana Bio teams up with Wooree Green Science on saffron for cosmetic applications, and Face Reality Skincare launches acne supplements.
⚗️🧬🌺Scaling Saffron
“We're excited to collaborate with Ayana Bio to utilize its plant cell cultivation technology for the production of new plant cell ingredients for a multitude of applications across food and beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.” That’s a quote from Um Tae Wook, CEO of South Korea – based Wooree Green Science, an R&D research corporation established in 2022 that develops functional ingredients for those same industries with the simultaneous aim of “[addressing] sustainability needs in the agriculture industry.”
Wooree Green Science is a subsidiary of Wooree Bio, a company specializing in raw materials for the functional foods and pharma industries. Wooree Bio proclaims to have “the largest and most advanced natural product vertical farm in Korea,” and is actively developing cultivation tech that will better the quality and quantity of the actives derived from its indoor ag.
Ayana Bio is a US company, based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in plant cell cultivation. And Ayana has teamed up with another business in that city Ginkgo Bioworks “to select, optimize and scale plant cell-cultivated ingredients.” If you’ve followed my writing over the years, you know quite well that Ginko Bioworks is a synthetic biology company with important ties to our industry: e.g. working with fragrance maker Robertet and serving as the foundational platform for the launch of the expressive-biology ingredient tech company Arcaea.
Ayana Bio has a line of branded ingredients known as Plant Cell Advantage that includes dog rose, hedge nettle, sage, echinacea-p, and lemon balm. And thanks to the seven-figure joint development agreement with Wooree Green Science, announced on Wednesday, saffron as well as other ingredients covered in the deal will be added to the Plant Cell Advantage line in the near future.
What Ayana Bio does is to grow “real plant cells in stainless steel tanks, this process delivers the health benefits of plant bioactives without the quality issues that come from the constraints of conventional agriculture, including climate change. Ayana Bio's plant cell cultivation technology produces the full spectrum of bioactives found in nature – or with an even higher potency of beneficial bioactives. Plant Cell Advantage™ ingredients are DNA-fingerprint certified and 100% clean label, with standardized phytocomplex, increased bioavailability, full traceability and a neutral taste and color.” This according Wednesday’s press announcement.
🔴Acne Outbreak
As the beauty-from-within movement becomes increasingly benefit specific, acne treatment supplements are emerging as a popular solution (and one that commonly overlaps with microbiome skincare too).
Last week, Face Reality Skincare got into the supplements game with the launch of Clear Skin Balance (soft gels) and Clear Skin Restore (capsules), which is being sold as a product bundle. The key ingredients in the Balance supplement are Vitamins A, D, and E as well as EPA and DHA (Omega 3s) and what the brand calls a Skin Brightening Complex comprising Lutein and Zeaxanthin. The Restore supplement contains Vitamin C, Niacinamide, Zinc, and a blend of L. rhamnosus SP1, L. rhamnosus IMC501, L.paracasei IMC 502, B. Lactis BLC1—that the brand is calling a Probiotic Gut-Skin Axis Blend.
Face Reality is exclusively an acne care brand. Founded in 2005 by esthetician Laura Cooksey, the brand’s business model relies on training both consumers and professionals on acne care and on the proper use of their own topical product line.
Commenting on the impetus for the supplements launch, Cooksey says, “I’ve seen supplements really help clients’ skin to ‘turn the corner’. Just that extra support to counter inflammation made a huge difference in getting clients’ skin clear.”
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