Space industry provides innovative cosmetics storage
solutions, claim to have found an innovative storage solution for
application in the cosmetics industry, using a cooling technology
previously found only in rocket engines.
The company is developing the packaging innovation in conjunction with partner firm Cosnessens, which manufactures skincare ingredients, and plans to market the new product under the 'Ice Source' label.
The proposed product range will include an edition made from an extract of Arctic berry, which is said to provide an 'immediate lifting effect' when applied to the skin.
The science behind the packaging concept was adapted from a technique developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), previously used to propel the Ariane rocket into space.
Fadi Khairallah, founder of Thermagen, states that, "by using vacuum evaporation our process absorbs the heat energy pf the product, thereby cooling it at high speed whenever required."
He also emphasises that the cooling technology is entirely self sufficient, and does not rely upon any other energy source to operate. Thermagen claims that the technology can cool a product from 22 degrees to 2 degrees in less than 2 minutes, and the temperature drops 70 times faster than in a standard refrigerator.
Cosmetics researchers are already familiar with the associated benefits of using rapid cooling techniques in skincare products.
For example, when lipids (fats, oils and waxes) experience a temperature decrease in excess of 5 degrees per minute, they undergo molecular retraction, giving them a greater efficiency when penetrating the skin. This process is also known as the 'quenching effect'.
As soon as the skin absorbs the lipids they regain their original molecular structure through the uptake of water, which results in faster integration of the product in the skin, and hence achieves visibly faster results.
Pierre Brisson, head of ESA's technology and transfer and promotion office, said, "improving the efficiency of cosmetics is definitely not the most obvious use of our technology from spacecraft launchers, but after more than 200 transfers of space technologies, I have learnt that space can provide the most astonishing solutions to everyday life on earth".
