Nordic Algae - The New Powerhouse Ingredient For Skincare

I get quite a few introductory ’new product’ emails from ingredients manufacturers, but one from earlier this year caught my interest. The company was called Swedish Algae Factory and they were introducing an all-natural ingredient that was showing some impressive results in initial testing. There was a collection of additional positives as well.

‘Please contact us for a sample if you are interested’, the letter ended.

I was, and I did.

The package arrived with 2 sample pots (pictured above). After trying both the gel and powder form in a few formulas, I became increasingly impressed with this ingredient and asked one of the Founders, Sofie Allert for an interview. Happily, she agreed.

Please join me in welcoming Sofie Allert to the blog.

Sofie Allert and Angela Wulff, Founders of Swedish Algae Factory

Welcome Sofie! Please tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a biotechnologist that fell in love with algae during my bachelor thesis. During my masters, I met a fellow algae nerd, Angela Wulff, a professor at Gothenburg University that just had been on an exhibition where she had sampled algae under the ice in the Antarctica. Together we founded Swedish Algae Factory with the purpose to produce climate positive products from algae.

The main product of Swedish Algae Factory is Algica, a high-tech material derived from an algae group called diatoms, that has several interesting properties for personal care products.

You explained it is mainly algae that grows in high temperatures that has been studied and that interest in Nordic algae has been lacking. What were you hoping to discover by focusing specifically on Nordic algae?

We wanted to show that it was possible to also cultivate algae in colder and darker climates. Algae is an extremely sustainable resource since it can be cultivated on salt- and wastewater and grows extremely fast. If we could cultivate algae in colder and darker climates, algae could contribute even more towards a sustainable society.

Your product wasn’t originally intended for use as a cosmetic ingredient. What made you start to focus on it for skincare?

Algica was, due to its light manipulating properties, originally tested for efficiency increase of solar panels with good results. To commercialize a new material like this for solar panels takes a lot of time and the market is mainly dominated by bigger actors that move forward at a slower pace.

Almost 3 years ago we were contacted by a Swedish personal care brand that had read about us and Algica and wondered if it could be of interest for the personal care industry as a more sustainable ingredient.

We investigated, realized the potential, and started to work actively to promote Algica in the personal care industry. It was more likely that Algica could create a positive impact faster in the personal care industry than in the solar panel industry.

You’ve tested Algica in cosmetic formulations and it is looking like a serious competitor to hyaluronic acid. Could you explain a bit more?

In an externally validated study, we concluded that Algica has at least as good moisturizing properties as hyaluronic acid. The same study showed that the cream with Algica compared to the cream with hyaluronic acid was perceived as more easily absorbed by the skin, provided a smoother feeling and was thereby more liked by all test persons.

We have also compared the anti-pollution properties of Algica and hyaluronic acid in other externally validated studies where Algica was able to block 2,5 times more of the most common pollutant from entering the skin than hyaluronic acid.

Algica has properties that hyaluronic acid does not have. Algica also works as a cleanser, booster of other active substances, and according to a recent in-vitro study, an SPF booster. Algica´s UV-light blocking properties was confirmed back in 2018 by my co-founder Angela Wulff and published in the renowned scientific journal Nature. By early 2021 we hope to have confirmed the SPF boosting effect in-vivo.

Algica is also ocean-safe and verified by ECOCERT and COSMOS.

Algica is harvested in a controlled environment

Algica is grown and harvested in a controlled environment. Could you share a bit about the production process?

We grow our algae in greenhouses to be able to achieve the highest possible quality of Algica. Our systems are mimicking how our algae naturally are growing in nature. We grow them on the bottom of trays in biofilms where we harvest the biofilm in a fashion that is similar to mowing a lawn. We cultivate our algae in a circular process where nutritious water that otherwise would have gone to waste are used to grow the algae. The nutrient- and omega 3 oil-rich biomass that is our by-product after extraction of Algica is used for sustainable feed and fertilizer production and in the future maybe even food.

Thank you Sofie for sharing this information.

Coming Up

In future posts, I will be sharing some of my experiences with Algica. Meantime, if you are interested in learning more about Swedish Algae Factory and their Nordic algae, please visit them here