Regenerative beauty: Aussie skin care brand sees luxury potential in horse placenta

Né is a premium skin care brand with three anti-ageing products ranging from $79 to $129.

The company was founded around 18 months ago by Brett Langan, who had prior experience working in the field of regenerative medicine using stem cell therapy.

While placenta-derived cosmetics have been on the market for many years now, Langan is a strong believer that equine placenta is the superior ingredient for skin care.

“Horse placenta consists of 450 proteins with 10 different collagens and natural hyaluronic acid. It also contains a rich source of natural glutamic acid. This is the best thing to regenerate the skin.”​

He explained that glutamic acid was superior to hyaluronic acid because it was a pure skin humectant, unlike hyaluronic acid which can be found all over the body including eyes, lungs and joints.

“Back then, nobody knew what hyaluronic acid was but now it’s in everything. You don’t see a lot of products with glutamic acid now but in 10 years’ time, glutamic acid will the new hyaluronic acid.”​

Langan emphasised that the products were independently tested and found to have multiple benefits.

The product was found to improve skin hydration by up to 60% in 30 minutes and reduce the appearance of fine lines by 40% after 28 days.

They were also shown to enhance skin luminosity by 30% after 30 days and found to reduce visible pores by 80% overall.

Thoroughbred ingredients

The company sources horse placenta exclusively from Australian thoroughbred racehorses to ensure it secures the best quality placenta.

“These thoroughbreds are expensive horses and very well looked after. All the births are assisted by nurses and doctors. Once they give birth, they put the placenta in a bag and freeze it for us. It’s not like how sheep’s’ placenta is harvested. Sheep walk around the paddock giving birth and sometimes it is harvest one or two days later,” ​said Langan.

Another problem with sheep placenta is that it is usually freeze-dried and used as a powder or reconstituted.

“When you freeze-dry it, you break down all the compounds. We get fresh placenta, so you get all the glutamic acid, hyaluronic acid and collagens,” ​explained Langan.

He estimated that the firm harvested placenta from around 10,000 births in the springtime. Each placenta weighs around eight kilograms, around 10 times the size of a human placenta.

Langan stressed that no animals are harmed in the process and that the placenta is typically discarded as medical waste.

Asian appeal

In addition to the equine placenta, the products also contain indigenous Australian ingredients like Kakadu plum.

Sales director Adam Scott believes this Aussie-ness will be a key factor in the Asia Pacific markets like China, where consumers are partial to A-beauty products.

“We’ve taken particular care to make sure the products are 100% Australia-made. This does seem to have some weight especially in the APAC market,” ​said Scott.

The company is open to expanding into any market that shows interest. However, it is particularly interested in China where it is keen to find a distributor.

“If you can break into this huge market just a tiny bit, you’re going to do okay. We won’t say we want to conquer it, we just want to get a little traction,” ​said Scott.

He added that Asia was the “right place”​ for the brand as horse placenta is more widely accepted in countries like Japan and Korea.

“We’re positioned as a premium anti-ageing skin care brand. Anti-ageing does seem to be adopted much earlier in this side of the world than compared to Europeans, for instance.”​

In order to build up its reputation and standing, the firm plans to focus on building the brand’s image in Australia first before expanding to the rest of the world, Scott said

“We are in talks with top-end retailers in Australia. We only want quality retailers. Our products are high-end and there are people who are willing to spend that and more.”​