Capsum’s encapsulation techniques make for visually and texturally interesting formulations, and the processes and machinery the company develops are distinctive as well, which may be one reason Capsum opens it pop-up in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles each year rather than simply sending out samples and sales materials.
The pop-up exhibits are also a chance to keep attention on the people making the technologies, the machinery, and the finished products. As a company, Capsum is all about hand-crafted chemistry and co-creation.
New and blue
This year’s collection is called Artisan and is especially focused on the hands that make the company’s technologies and formulations possible: the hands that gather the raw materials, the hands that gauge texture in the lab, the hands that build the machines, and the hands that produce the finished products, as Isabelle Ricart, a training specialist with Capsum, tells Cosmetics Design.
There are four products in the Artisan collection of prototypes: a Lotion Infusée, a Double Brume facial mist, a Sérum Riche, and a Créme Destructurée.
Each of these ethereal turquois formulations includes hand-harvested blue oolong tea; but “the blue color of the Artisan collection” is about more than this on-trend ingredient, it also “evokes Capsum’s corporate color—as a nod to the 10th anniversary of the company,” explains press materials about the collection.
Tech and texture
Capsum’s Artisan collection incorporates two new so-called microfluidic encapsulation technologies. Both the serum and the mist feature Macrodrop technology, while the Créme is made using something call ReoDrop technology.
The facial mist prototype Capsum created for the Artisan collection has an oil load of 25%. Macrodrop tech is the encapsulation of as much as 35% oil is a water-based formula, keeping the two separate until application, without a surfactant. The tech allows for a finished product with a viscosity anywhere between 2,000 and 10,000 cps, according to Ricart.
ReoDrop technology is really two technologies in one, say Ricart. The surfactant-free prototype cream featuring ReoDrop is comprised of imperceptible encapsulated oil that seems like a conventional cream as well as larger, visible oil droplet capsules that melt upon application.
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.