Gelita’s ingestible beauty solution stimulates skin cells to boost healthy aging markers
31 Oct 2023 | Gelita
Targeting the beauty-from-within and healthy aging categories, Gelita’s high bioavailability Verisol ingredient is ingested orally, where it is absorbed and distributed through the blood stream to reach targeted cells, such as fibroblasts in the skin. Verisol stimulates the cells via receptor interaction to produce more extra-cellular matrix, which includes collagen, elastin, proteoglycans and hyaluronic acid.
This is Benjamin Ferrer for Personal Care Insights, and I'm joined by Lara Nieman, who is the category manager of beauty from Glita, here to speak to us about ingredient developments within the beauty from Within category, namely their ingredient called Verisol which caters to the healthy aging positioning.
So, hello Lara, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me, Benjamin, pleasure to be here.
Before we dive into this, I'd like to ask you about the details of your ingredients composition, and let's talk about some of the performance attributes in terms of skin, hair, and nails, and just kind of detail how it impacts healthy aging and how this can be exhibited in unpack claims, and also, what are some of the study findings backing these ingredient claims?
Sure.
Lots of good questions packed into that one, Benjamin.
So first of all, let's talk about what variol is.
It variol is a specifically optimized bioactive collagen peptide which is designed to unlock the full potential of collagen production in the skin.
So that's what I'm gonna say about variol for now.
And then let's talk about the role of collagen in the human body.
So 75% of the body's skin is comprised of naturally occurring collagen in the body.
In skin, for example, collagen is responsible for elasticity and smoothness.
And while this collagen occurs naturally in our bodies, sadly, these collagen levels start to decline as early as our mid-twenties.
So the body's collagen production peaks in early adulthood.
It's downhill from there, where collagen production typically declines at a rate of about 1% per year, and it can be even more pronounced the older we get and the most pronounced in women in that postmenopausal phase.
So because of this naturally occurring collagen as we age, it's important to protect the existing collagen from excessive damage and decline.
Easier said than done, right?
In addition to aging, as we age, our skin becomes exposed to many factors in modern lifestyle that contribute to premature aging, stress, poor diet, pollution, UV exposure, and so much more.
And as this collagen level declines, we start to see and feel the effects of aging skin.
Fine lines, wrinkles, loss of elasticity, dullness, dryness, unevenness, and the list goes on.
So part of your question was, what are the attributes or the benefits that variol offers and how is this supported by science.
So first, it's important to say that Verisol has been studied now for many years and there are 6 high-level published clinical trials showing efficacy in human skin.
So the first point that we can make about variol is its ability to reduce wrinkles and fine lines.
So in the research, it shows a significant reduction in wrinkle depth, which is super important as your skin ages.
Another study talks about variol's ability to increase skin elasticity.
Right.
Again, that's another important attribute.
As we age, we want to keep our skin supple and elastic.
Along with the skin health, wrinkles, and elasticity, there is research showing a positive impact on cellulites.
So the surface of the skin structure.
And here we see variol positively contributing to reducing that skin waviness.
Aside from skin, there are also other benefits that variol offers to the human body, and that's related to hair.
So variol offers an increase in hair thickness.
The research shows that variol has a positive impact on hair follicle cells and actually has the ability to promote their proliferation.
And lastly, variol improves nail growth and strength.
So nails grow faster and stronger, less brittleness, less breakage.
So while any one of these beauty benefits would be amazing, right?
The overall collection of variol benefits truly is unmatched in the marketplace.
So very multifaceted ingredient there.
What, what is the composition of varisol and what are some of the details about its sourcing and production?
Right.
So I mentioned in the very beginning that variol is a specifically optimized bioactive collagen peptides.
It is produced, primarily from natural mammalian collagen sources.
There can be other fish or marine sources as.
And what this bioactive collagen peptide does is it has the ability to interact with fibroblasts, which are the cells of the skin in a lock and key principle.
So, if you imagine that the fibroblast is the lock and varisol is the key, variol is unleashing, unlocking the fibroblast to produce more collagen.
So these varisol peptides, they're -defined specific chains of amino acids that are derived from the targeted enzymatic hydrolysis of collagen.
This is, this hydrolysis process is proprietary to Gleta, but it results in a specific peptide sequence.
And if you think of a, a peptide sequence, it's like a fingerprint.
It's a unique fingerprint.
So this peptide sequence is unique to variol, which again has these biological effects that have been demonstrated not only in the human clinical trials that I, I talked about just a few moments ago, but also demonstrated in preclinical trials.
So these results are clearly showing that variol bioactive collagen peptides have that pronounced and positive effect on stimulating the skin cells to produce more collagen which then ultimately leads to beauty benefits.
And because you say that it's an oral ingredient, what are some of the application formats that we can see for an ingredient like this?
Yeah, really good question, Benjamin.
So, we talked a lot about the, the, the scientific and the beauty benefits of varisol, but it also offers an exceptional product profile.
First of all, basal, it's a pure white fine powder, neutral odor, neutral taste.
It's a natural protein.
It's a clean label.
It's non-allergenic.
And it also features excellent solubility, resistance to high pH and temperature, high Water binding capacity, so many other things.
And what that tells us is that it's a, diverse, it's an ingredient that offers diverse application possibilities.
Easy to incorporate into existing production processes without changing equipment and, and lots of hassle in your operations.
And because of that, variol can be used in so many applications, whether it's a near water, a clear beverage because it has high solubility and, and neutral color.
It can be used in near water applications.
It can also be used in highly concentrated , shots and a little, beverage shot.
It can be used as simply a powder, a powder that you mix in water, a powder that you can add with other ingredients, other flavors, or other active ingredients for multiple benefits.
Interestingly, Glita has a solution with variol to allow its use in a beauty gummy supplement.
So those of you in the supplement, in the gummy supplement world know that it's often hard to get the right dosing of active ingredients in gummy formats.
Verisol has a solution there where beauty benefits can be delivered in only 3.
Gummy supplements.
So bottom line, it's diverse and lends itself to many applications that are trendy and popular and loved by consumers the world over.
Yes, and you talked about some of the reduction of hassle in the formulation of final products.
Can you talk about its cost and use, and considering that it's a low dosage ingredient, how does this impact the cost of final product?
Sure, really good question, Benjamin.
So as much as consumers have shown that they love variol-based collagen supplements because of its efficacy and, and the desired beauty benefits, industry likewise loves variol.
So aside from the scientifically proven efficacy, variol offers economical cost and use due to its optimized low daily dose of 2.5 g.
So to put it in perspective, other competitive collagen peptides are often recommending 5 g daily dose or 10 g daily dose.
So, comparing per kilo price to per kilo price.
You might come to a different conclusion, but if you start looking at that per dose price because of the low optimized dose of varisol, it's clearly the economical solution compared to, to other perhaps inferior, cheaper collagen peptides that require highly daily costs, higher daily dose costs.
So, and we know that it's so much more about just the direct cost of the ingredient.
So if you think about that reduced dosage dosage size, the lower dose allows for reduced packaging, which means less shelf space.
That lower dose means less weight, lower transportation cost, less warehousing, so much more.
So it, it's so much more than just the direct cost of the ingredient.
It has, that lower dose contributes to so many other, cost saving opportunities.
Fantastic, Laura.
Thank you so much for your insights.
