“Taking moisture out of moisturizer”: Researchers develop waterless tech for beauty and skincare products

01 Mar 2023 --- Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), England, UK have developed Dries, a technology that removes 98% of water content from beauty and skincare products, transforming water- and oil-based products into small discs of paper-like material, which can be “instantly” rehydrated with a drop of water.

“If you think about shampoo, shower gels, lotions, cleansers and so on, around 85% to 98% of the weight of those materials is water. So consumers are paying a very high price just for shipping those around the world,” lead researcher professor Sheng Qi shares.

“We take the water out by jetting the liquid out in a very thin liquid jet, which dries really quickly. The solid residues form very thin fibers, which land on each other and form this material that feels like a piece of paper.”

According to UEA, this innovative process allows up to 98% of water to be removed while preserving the stability of delicate active ingredients.

The technology uses a no-heat process to transform a range of water- and oil-based beauty and skincare products into small discs of paper-like material. The disc can be rehydrated at the time of application with the addition of water.

UEA has partnered with a specialist technology and IP management company – PBL Technology – to lead the commercialization of the patent-pending Dries technology.

UEA researchers have developed a new technology that turns beauty products into a dry piece of confetti-like paper.Minimizing packaging and carbon footprint
The researchers plan to conduct a full life-cycle analysis of the production – from the raw material to the production, transportation and distribution – to understand the cost effectiveness as well as the carbon footprint of using this new process to manufacture beauty and personal care products.

“At the moment, there's no company in the UK that has existing capability for this process in terms of large-scale production, so it’s very hard for us to come up with a firm number for a comparison with current processes,” Qi details.

“We know that shipping around products full of water generates a big carbon footprint due to the heavy weight and bulky packaging, often in plastic. This is why the beauty and personal care industries are very interested in the technology – because it will help them to reach their net zero goals much more quickly.”

The researchers won the 2022 Cosmetics Cluster UK 32nd IFSCC Congress – Innovation in Action – Technology Showcase Challenge award and spoke to over 120 companies to validate the beauty and personal care industries’ need for their technology.

“Removing the water and oil from toiletries like moisturizer, sun cream and other hair and beauty products means that we can not only improve their shelf life but hugely reduce product and packaging weight, transportation costs, plastic waste and the need for preservatives,” Qi shares.

“Above all, it dramatically reduces their carbon footprint, which is better for the environment. We hope it will help the beauty industry achieve Net Zero carbon targets and sustainability goals, without compromising product quality and performance.”

Waterless innovation
According to Innova Market Insights, the use of waterless products in personal care launches is increasing globally, featuring a growth of 157% year-over-year when comparing 2020 and 2021 launches.Dries removes 98% of water content from beauty and skincare products.

Qi states that their innovation is unique when compared to other waterless formulations on the market because the Dries technology does not employ heat for drying.

“Most of the industrial processes for creating a dry powdered product – like powdered soap –  are through processes like spray-drying, which uses quite a lot of energy and heat. And if you have expensive and delicate ingredients, like peptides and proteins, they are very sensitive to heat,” she says.

“So if you dry them at a high temperature, you will lose quite a significant percentage of their activity, which could be quite costly for producers. And that's why our technology is particularly attractive for companies.”

The researchers are partnering with different industrial sectors – from beauty and skincare to agritech – to develop the technology further and apply it to transform current liquid-based products into waterless formulations.

“We do have a few companies within the UK that do electrospinning research and contract manufacturing, but there is no company specialized in personal care and cosmetics, and we don’t have large-scale production capability here, whereas in China and Europe they do.” 

“I think our project would be really good for growing local UK large-scale manufacturing capability for this electrospinning process,” Qi concludes.

By Radhika Sikaria