A new spin on beauty: ActiVlayr aims to capture natural market with ‘waterless’ collagen eye mask

ActiVlayr is a brand under Nanofibre production company Revolution Fibres. Its Nano-Collagen Under Eye Firming Mask is made out of sustainable marine collagen and contains only a handful of bioactive ingredients.

“We've always been interested in trying to make the most out of natural resources. It's something that has been a big focus for our company,”​ said Iain Hosie, co-founder of Revolution Fibres and CEO of ActiVlayr.

The company claims that its collagen is the “most sustainable marine collagen in the world”. ​It is derived from sustainably farm Hoki fish from New Zealand, where its population is strictly controlled by the government.

Revolution Fibres launched ActiVlayr after years of research and development into biotechnology and electrospinning.

“Electrospinning is a real game-changer for the beauty industry. It's a way of creating fabrics out of natural products. We are able to make fibres from the proteins of naturally-occurring products like collagen,” ​Hosie explained.

By mixing actives and the collagen into a solution, the process is able to create fibres that hold active ingredients. The product is activated with water which causes it to melt into skin.

Spinning new solutions

The company believes ActiVlayr has the potential to replace other methods of delivery such as creams, serums, oils and even sheet masks.

“When you compare collagen creams and our collagen fibres, the difference is astounding,” ​said Hosie.

“In creams, the actives do penetrate the skin but a majority of those actives sit on the surface and slowly enter the epidermis over time. In comparison, ActiVlayr collagen fibres breakdown instantly and so within the first minute you can see the epidermis significantly loaded with active ingredients.”​

Hosie expressed confidence that ActiVlayr could disrupt the massive facial sheet mask segment in Asia.

“ActiVlayr is effectively a ‘dry’ mask. It’s less messy and is a much quicker way to deliver actives into our skin. You can even apply it in transit. Conversely, a wet mask you typically do it at home and have to wait 20 minutes.”​

According to Hosie, the company has already successfully formulated over 15 formulations this year and has been exploring new masks shapes.

The firm plans to continue building up the brand in Australasia first before looking at the rest of the world.

“Asia is the most advanced cosmetics market in the world. Asian consumers are more receptive to new ideas and they are seeking new and novel innovations in skin care. It was not our intention to target Asia but it has shown the most interest and been the most receptive,” ​said Hosie.

While the company plans to build up the ActiVlayr brand, Hosie said it is open to new partnerships.

The brand is really important to us. At the same time, we are very open to collaborating with established cosmetic brands that want to use our tech to deliver unique products to the consumer.”​

Hosie said the company has only explored a small slice of what this technology can accomplish.

“Over-the-counter products like acne-treatments are the next easy step but we also see potential in the medical and surgery side.”​