While HA is often regarded as the gold standard for achieving youthful and vibrant skin, emerging ingredients such as animal-derived PDRN have shown promising results. However, both come with drawbacks — high cost, short-lived results, and sustainability concerns.
This is according to Lucas Meyer Cosmetics by Clariant, which debuted a “game-changing alternative” called AlgaSurge at the PCHi trade show held in Hangzhou, China.
Derived from lab-grown red microalgae through advanced blue biotechnology, this highly purified sulphated polysaccharide hydrogel biomimics HA’s benefits and serves as a botanical source of PDRN.
“We chose to globally launch this ingredient at PCHi because it really fits with Chinese consumers’ needs. In China, consumers are looking for ingredients with fast-action benefits.
“For AlgaSurge, we did clinical tests and found that it could help boost skin radiance, plumpness, and luminosity within one hour. It also can reduce wrinkles. Compared to both high-molecular and low-molecular weight HA, AlgaSurge performed better and its cost [in formula] is only half of the HA mix,” Julia Kang, Marketing Manager (Greater China) at Lucas Meyer Cosmetics by Clariant, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia.
She added that Chinese consumers are very keen to find out about the scientific story behind ingredients, such as mechanisms of action.
“Consumers now not only care about efficacy, but are also sensitive to pricing. So, if ingredients can bring multifunctional benefits and formulators can lower down the cost, a product will do quite well in the market.
“Due to the advent of social media in China, consumers here know more and more about mechanisms of action and about chemistry, so scientific studies are very important. Local consumers are already familiar with HA while PDRN is a growing star in the Chinese market.”
Backed by science
In in vitro tests, AlgaSurge was found to mimic HA and PDRN action, reinforce the extracellular matrix (ECM), and restore lost autophagy for enhanced skin longevity.
Specifically, AlgaSurge at 0.1% resulted in 26% improved pro-collagen I production, 50% enhanced HA production, 16% increase in autophagy activity (aged fibroblasts), 22% rise in autophagy related 7 (ATG7) gene expression, and 48% reduction in Interleukin-8 (IL-8) release.
In a clinical study involving 90 women aged 35 to 65 years, the participants applied 1% AlgaSurge, 1% HA (mix of high and low molecular-weight (MW)) or placebo on their full face twice daily for 28 days. Parameters measured include skin plumpness, wrinkle count, radiance, visible spots, and transepidermal water loss (TEWL).
After one hour of application, AlgaSurge 1% was found to deliver 15% more plumpness and 12% more radiance.
The results after the 28-day period, recently published in peer-reviewed journal Marine Drugs, showed that AlgaSurge 1% led to 11% less TEWL, 14% less wrinkle count, 10% less clinical wrinkle score, 12% less visible spots area, and 9% improvement in radiance, compared to 1% HA.
The researchers concluded that the ingredient had HA-biomimicking activities in film forming and moisture binding, rejuvenated skin cell function by restoring lost autophagy and upregulating key cellular clean-up genes, boosted collagen I and HA production, and decreased production of inflammatory mediators.
“AlgaSurge acts as a topical filler and strengthens skin barrier for a plumped, well-hydrated, radiant, and rejuvenated skin appearance — better and cheaper than HA.
“Unlike HA, its polysaccharide resists enzymatic degradation for longer-lasting benefits. Its dual-action mechanism includes high MW sulphated polysaccharide fractions forming a protective film while low MW components (sulphated polysaccharide and PDRN) penetrate deeper to lock in moisture and rejuvenate skin cells.”
