Extvolat - The Preservation Power of All Natural Botanical Liquid

This may look like a small bottle of water surrounded by some lovely green pine, but there is a story to the liquid you see here that I am very excited about sharing with you. This bottle is not only full of nutrients that are beneficial for skin (and hair), but it can be used instead of both water and preservatives in cosmetics.

Yes, you read correctly.

This bottle contains a 100% natural botanically-rich replacement for both water and preservatives and it is safe to use at up to 100%.

Opening the bottle and taking a sniff reveals an almost indiscernible scent of fresh pine. This liquid extract is gentle, well tolerated, throughly tested, and is paving the way to self preserving cosmetics while offering the most sustainable production process I have read about to date.

How is this even possible?

After testing a sample of Extvolat, I asked the folks who make it if they would be willing to share a bit about how this product came to be and they kindly agreed to this interview.

I will be writing about my own experiences with Extvolat in upcoming posts, but first, please join me in welcoming Nikolay Myasnikov and a few of the folks behind this innovative ingredient that I predict is going to change the way the industry produces and preserves cosmetics.

Nikolay Myasnikov of Extvolat

Welcome Nikolay and thank you for allowing me to share the story of Extvolat with LisaLise readers. How did the idea start? Who came up with this concept?

There are two people who kicked off project “Extvolat”: Sergey Nazarkin and Maxim Onuchin, both are from Siberia.

Their entire lives and all of their endeavors have been connected to wood. At first part of their journey, they were engaged in construction of wooden houses and glued laminated timber production – and they are still doing it.

In the beginning of the 2000s, Sergey Nazarkin, as one of the co-founders of construction company, got the idea to develop a mobile drying installation that would solve a number of production tasks for drying wood needed for the glued laminated timber production.

The idea was to build an installation that would have the following benefits:

1. mobility (almost all drying installations at that time were stationary and required electricity. A mobile installation would allow for working directly in the logging fields and save both time and money on drying and transportation.

2. minimum consumption of electricity with the raw materials loaded at maximum capacity

Over the next several years, they developed and built the first prototype of the installation which met these requirements. The prototype was produced and implemented.

So it wasn’t the original intention to create an ingredient that could replace water in cosmetics?

No, it wasn’t. During the drying process, we realized discarding the liquid also meant throwing out valuable trace elements that could be beneficial elsewhere, so we started considering what sphere of application the liquid might be useful for.

Maxim Onuchin came up with the thought of using this liquid – rich in unique micro-elements – as a replacement for water in cosmetic production. The cosmetic product would be enriched with additional benefits.

After all, it has long been known that pine oils and extracts have beneficial properties and a positive impact to human health.

So it was decided to upgrade the current processing unit so it could capture the liquid (moisture) from moisture-containing raw materials.

Maxim Onuchin and Sergey Nazarkin

How long did the upgrade take?

It took more than 5 years with lots of research and development, and there were numerous failures and losses. There were times when the guys were literally on the verge of giving up. But thanks to their perseverance and faith in their work, Sergey Nazarkin and Maxim Onuchin, together with a team of professionals, finally made it happen.

It was really the combined efforts of the entire team (that included technologists, biologists, engineers, and consulting scientists) that made this project a success.

As a result, an innovative method and the new processing unit made it possible to capture the liquid from any moisture-containing material of plant origin, preserving a large amount of the valuable micro-elements in the final liquid extract.

Did you then use the extract in cosmetics?

Yes, we developed and created our own cosmetic line, which was called PineAqua, and in 2012 we introduced it to the Russian cosmetic market.

The concept of the brand was to replace all water in the formulations with Pine Extvolat (pine extract). This was an innovation for the cosmetic industry and introduced the idea of saving fresh water. The idea of ​replacing water with Pine Extvolat, which contains additional active elements, turned out to be interesting for many manufacturers.

For example, in collaboration with the French company silab.fr, we developed and launched a line of hair products that had excellent characteristics and a beautifully rich composition.

This helped spread awareness and made it possible for third-party cosmetic companies to start developing their own products – naturally enriched with undeniable benefits to human health and environmentally friendly as well.

A small selection of the many products in the PineAqua series

Extvolat is COSMOS approved and has been through numerous tests. Could you explain a bit more about the testing process?

The first product – in 2008 using pine extract – was thoroughly studied in order to gain an understanding of its physical and chemical properties. It was also studied for microbiological and molecular composition and isolated valuable compounds in order to determine suitable areas of application.

Since this was a brand new raw material, it had never been researched by the scientific world, so we basically had to start from the beginning and carry out full-scale R&D.

In the process of testing, the pine extract was subjected to thermal, physical, and chemical influences, and various tests were carried out in numerous accredited laboratories and institutes in both Russia and Europe.

Apart from laboratory tests, clinical trials were also undertaken to confirm the safety and efficacy of the raw material for human use.

Since this was really a unique and brand new raw material – produced for the first time in the world – we named it Extvolat. Extvolat is the derivative from words "extract" + "volatile substances".

The first product was named Pine Extvolat.

You also discovered that Extvolat can replace preservatives in cosmetics that contain any content of water? How is this possible?

Through our formulation development and testing, we discovered that Pine Extvolat is not only self-preserving, but can also function as a preservation system.

We tested cosmetics using Pine Extvolat with no addition of preservative. The results of these tests were clear and allow us to claim that creating natural aqueous cosmetics without preservatives is now possible.

This opens up all kinds of possibilities for the cosmetic industry.

We have established the preservative properties of Pine Extvolat in our own cosmetics beauty line where all the water has been replaced with Pine Extvolat, but it is also possible to replace only some of the water with Pine Extvolat and still achieve a fully preserved product.

We tested to find out the minimum dosage for Pine Extvolat and have published some of the formulas on our website extvolat.com.

The challenge tests that were carried out confirmed that Pine Extvolat can function as a preservation system. The dosage is of course going to be dependent upon the additional ingredients in the formula, but in general, we recommend replacing all water in a formula with Extvolat.

As mentioned, Pine Extvolat has a rich composition of biologically active substances and trace elements of exclusively natural organic origin, so apart from functioning as a preservation system, it is bringing additional beneficial properties to the cosmetics it is used in.

Can you elaborate on the additional beneficial properties?

One of the beneficial properties of Pine Extvolat has been confirmed by the results of the essay carried out by the French laboratory Bioalternatives. This essay confirmed the effectiveness of Pine Extvolat against acne.

We are happy to provide documentation of this. Interested parties are welcome to send a separate request to our sales department.

Additionally, further studies are ongoing.

Other beneficial properties of Pine Extvolate that we are seeing evidence of is anti-inflammatory, skin whitening ability, skin regeneration, and more.

Your website says the process you use does not require heat over 30ºC degrees. Can you explain a bit about how the process works?

The technology we developed is the success behind Extvolat. We have patented the process, method, and installation. It has taken us more than 15 years to achieve, but here’s what I can share with you.

The entire process of obtaining the raw material is 100% natural and also energy-saving. It respects the environment. There is no use of water, solvents, any other chemical solvents, diluents or any of their derivatives.

The process involves the following steps:

1. Collection of natural raw materials

2. Preparation of raw materials and loading them into the processing unit

3. Materials are heated to a predetermined temperature. This allows the release of moisture as vapor

4. Air flow is circulated and then cooled to condense the vapor to liquid

5. The liquid is collected

Our production process does not exceed a temperature of 30ºC. The low temperature allows for a liquid that is rich in micro-elements.

So this is a win win for environment as well as the raw materials and end product. Is there any waste at all during the production of Extvolat?

The technology is essentially 100% eco-friendly. In the Extvolat obtaining process, there is no waste, and the used dried raw materials are all put to use as well. The processing unit uses only a small amount of electricity, and the company is currently working developing a solar power energy driven processing unit. 

The entire production process is respectful of our natural resources. The only thing we use is air. No additional ingredients are needed - not even water. Thus, the technology is completely waterless and meets todays most stringent eco-friendly requirements.

How big is the Company and where are you located?

Our company is categorized as a medium-sized business. There are currently 18 employees. Our sales office is located in Moscow, which is a convenient location for reaching the European and North American markets.

Our production site is located in Russia in the Novosibirsk region. Logging takes place in remote areas of the Novosibirsk Region and Altai Territory where the most rich pine forests are located.

This is also an ecologically pure area, which can only be reached by using a special transport, since there are no roads at all. We work only with trusted contractors who comply with the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, one of the requirements of which is forest restoration after cutting down.

Where can we find Exvolat?

Today, our raw material is being used in natural cosmetics brands in Great Britain and Germany. We also work with well-known distributors in different countries, and are open to new partnerships with others who, like us, promote green technologies and natural products.

We took part in the In-Cosmetics Global in Paris in 2019 and were shortlisted for the Rising Star Awards. The interest in our raw material and technology was intense so it was very pleasant and exciting for us.

We hope that we will soon be able to meet our partners and colleagues at the In-Cosmetics Global exhibition in Barcelona in 2021 and present our raw material. Our booth number is AC23.

Visit the Extvolat website here

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF EXTVOLAT

Coming Up

I will be posting my own experiences with this ingredient in upcoming posts, so please do stay tuned (spoiler alert: so far, it’s blowing my mind!)

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