Efficacious Skincare Ingredients: Created with Nature through Biodesign Without Sacrificing Ethics and Sustainability

Geltor, a biodesign company specializing in sustainable, bioactive protein ingredients for the beauty, food, and nutrition sectors, works with results-oriented, forward-thinking manufacturers and brands.

Designing Sustainable Animal-free Bioactive Protein Ingredients

One look at their art-inspired website and you immediately know you are looking at something special. Friends and colleagues describe co-founder and CTO, Nick Ouzounov, Ph.D. as an artist who uses science as his creative medium. He wants to inspire the scientific community to begin creating with biology instead of chemistry. “Chemical-based manufacturing can be quite harsh on the environment. When we create with nature through biodesign (which, at Geltor, combines advances in strain engineering with the ancient science of fermentation and modern tools like bioinformatics), we don’t have to trade ethics and sustainability for quality and efficacy.”

Geltor was founded by Alex Lorestani, Ph.D., and Nick Ouzounov, Ph.D., both nature lovers, vegetarians, and science enthusiasts. They met at Princeton University and formed a friendship based on shared interests. Fascinated with the tree of life and biology, they asked themselves a question: Why were consumer products still reliant upon outdated animal inputs despite advances in biology, medicine, and computer science?

Together, Alex and Nick discovered a way to produce consumer proteins that would satisfy customers and consumers. They moved to California to further develop this breakthrough idea of using biological information and fermentation to produce high-performance protein ingredients.

100% Animal Free Collagen Technology

At the time collagen was (and still is!) having a moment within the wellness and beauty spaces. They went to market with the first-ever, 100% animal-free collagen technology designed specifically for skincare performance. Collume® won the 2018 CEW “Innovation of the Year” award, which is the beauty industry’s most prestigious honor.

Collume® is demonstrated to:

  • Increase skin elasticity
  • Deliver 20x greater improvements in skin moisturization compared to traditional marine collagen
  • Stimulate fibroblast collagen production
  • Promote fibroblast viability following exposure to UV and dust pollution

Synergies between TaikiUSA, Boshi Beauty Inc. and Geltor

This innovative and first-of-its-kind technology attracted TaikiUSA to partner with Geltor and begin testing the protein with Bōshi Beauty technology. Bōshi, a revolutionary nanofiber skincare delivery system manufactured through a patented ball electrospinning process was a perfect medium to deliver the Collume® to the skin. Bōshi is waterless and therefore does not need fillers, emulsifiers, and preservatives.

Geltor designs high-performance biodesigned proteins to outperform other skincare ingredients much in the same way that Bōshi uses a delivery system that outperforms traditional creams and serums.

Designed and Manufactured in the US

Geltor designs and manufactures many of its proteins in the US and boosts supply chain resilience which has become so important in the last few years. They have a strong commitment to sustainability; their manufacturing process uses less land, water and emits fewer greenhouse gases than traditional animal-based protein ingredients. The company constantly reviews the manufacturing process to improve their environmental footprint. To date, Geltor has EcoVadis’ Silver rating and is working on achieving Gold status in the future.

The future is Bright for Geltor and Biodesigned Ingredients

Geltor believes they are just scratching the surface in this new technology of biodesigned ingredients. They offer many animal-free protein ingredients to enhance the performance of skincare products.

TaikiUSA is built upon the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. We are constantly working to enhance the functionality, performance, and sustainability of our beauty solutions. This is achieved not only through our own Taiki Group offices and factories but with partners that offer unique technologies designed to enhance the consumer experience, improve product effectiveness, and lessen environmental impact. 

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