From soil to skin: Expanscience ceramide-boosting flaxseed active taps into regenerative skin care trends

Regenerative skin care is an approach that focuses on repairing and rejuvenating the skin. One of the core principles is to strengthen the skin's natural barrier function.

This involves using ingredients to enhance the skin's ability to retain moisture, protect against external stressors, and maintain overall skin health.

The goal of this approach is to slow down the visible signs of ageing, a trend that has been observed by companies such as K-beauty brand Laneige​.

“Consumers are now more interested in products that target skin repair and skin longevity. Anti-ageing is considered an old claim. People are looking for pro-ageing, skin repair, and regeneration,”​ said Léo Liénard, area manager Asia Pacific, Laboratoires Expanscience.

The firm’s Gaïaline is a new active ingredient developed for the evolving anti-ageing skin care category.

Liénard told us this ingredient would be resonate with Asian consumers, who favour a preventative approach to skin care. Furthermore, the company is also looking into its effects on hair care, which they believe will be important for markets like India.

Soil hero

Derived from flax, it is rich in linseed oil unsaponifiables that the firm claims can protect, strengthen, and regenerate the skin barrier with the ultimate goal of delaying the signs of skin ageing.

It is the company’s first active ingredient sourced from materials grown with conservation agriculture methods.

This regenerative method has three main principles: permanent soil coverage, no soil disturbance or tillage, and crop diversity and rotation.

“There are three main advantages of this technique. First, we don’t use as much fuel because we don’t till the soil. There’s also permanent soil cover to protect the land from erosion but also its good for the fauna around. Lastly, it fertilises the soil for the next crops.​

“The aim of this sourcing is to regenerate the soil. To have more organic matter and have more CO2 capture per square metre. For example, the number of earthworms in the soil has increased, which speaks highly of the quality of the soil,”​ said Liénard.

Furthermore, the source is a farm located 32 kilometres from the firm’s production site. This hyper-local sourcing ensures total product traceability, claims the firm.

According to the company, its source is certfied Au Cœur des Sols (ACS) by the Association for the Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture (APAD).

Regenerating soil, skin, and hair

Expanscience recently introduced Gaïaline at the ingredients show in-cosmetics Global in April.

Through in-vitro and ex-vivo tests, the ingredient has been shown to have antioxidative powers, able to reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) by 58% and lengthen telomeres by 120%.

It also works to boost ceramides in the skin by 123%, helping to strengthen skin barrier function.

The evolution in the anti-ageing skin care category is driving demand for ingredients such as ceramides​.

“Ceramides are quite costly to put into a formula and it is also hard to formulate with. This ingredient helps the skin to produce its own and is great to introduce into a formula,”​ said Liénard.

The company has also performed clinical studies on hair and discovered that it was able to redo one year’s worth of damage from brushing, heat, and bleaching.

According to the firm the active is able to create a “protective sheath”​ that is able to fortify and protect the hair shafts.