Firm earns awards, sales with sunscreen innovation

By ALLISON BRUCE
Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Winning the best new technology award in the cosmetics industry is like winning the Oscar for best picture.

For Aquea Scientific, a private company in Ventura, Calif. with about 10 employees, taking the award was equivalent to a small independent film grabbing that Oscar.

David Compton, CEO and one of the company's four founders, remembers going up on stage at the awards ceremony. Leaders from major cosmetics firms were gathered on either side of the stage.

"As I'm walking off, one turns to the other and asks, 'Did you ever hear of this company?'" Compton recalls.

Most in the industry have heard of the company now. Though still unprofitable, Aquea Scientific has its technology in one company's product already on the market and expects an additional two to four brands to bring their versions to market during the first quarter of 2007.

The company is gearing up for a big year that will mean doubling the staff in Ventura, finding new office space and launching a Web site aimed at consumers to help build its brand recognition.

Aquea's breakthrough technology? Making it possible to put sunscreen into products such as soap, body wash or facial cleansers that stays on even after the product is washed off.

Compton said the technology opens up new possibilities in the personal care industry and holds promise for medical, industrial and agricultural use.

Although Aquea Scientific started with its Aquea SPF product, now found in upscale facial cleanser IceShield from Freeze 24-7, the technology also could be used to put all sorts of products on the skin such as bronzers, skin whiteners, anti-acne or anti-wrinkle products, insect repellant, anti-fungals, vitamins or deodorants.

The problem Aquea Scientific has solved is how to make things stick, Compton said.

The science, though complicated, comes down to the basic fact learned by children playing with bar magnets. That two negative charges repel each other, but a positive and a negative charge attract.

The skin and hair carry a negative charge, while the active ingredients the technology works with have either no charge or a negative charge. That means they won't stick to the skin on their own.

Aquea Scientific's approach wraps those ingredients in silica and gives the silica shells a positive charge, making them attracted to the skin so they stick and stay in place, not being washed away when the product is washed off.

For products such as sunscreen, the silica shell is intact so the sunscreen rides on the skin rather than being absorbed into it. For other products, perforated shells could be used to let the products soak into the skin.

Compton's own face is evidence to how the technology works. The company is testing out a new version of its sunscreen product. Though everything goes through third-party testing, Compton decided to do a little testing of his own.

He put the new product on one side of his face in the shower that morning. A special light held up to his face hours later showed a strong purple on half of Compton's forehead and down his cheekbone to his neck.

Basically, the personal care industry has had two kinds of products: those you wash off, such as soap; and those you leave on, such as lotion. Compton said Aquea Scientific's approach is "wash-on," a term the company has captured for its marketing.

The new approach is one reason the company won this year's best new technology award.

The award honors technology launched in the previous 12 months and recognizes its importance and the effect it will have long term on the industry, said Matt Gronlund, publisher of Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine, which gives out the award.

"It was a clear winner this year," he said. "This was a very novel technology."

Nominations for the award go through a panel of about 50 research and development experts, who select three finalists. Nine judges _ experts from companies such as L'Oreal, Avon, Estee Lauder and Chanel _ select the winner.

Gronlund calls Aquea's approach to wash-on active ingredients "pretty impressive technology."

In particular, the use of the wash-on technology with sunscreen makes it easier for users to wear sunscreen daily, he said.

"Any time you can take the thinking out of the thing, it's better for the consumer," he said.

Compton likens Aquea Scientific's business approach to Intel.

Shoppers looking for a new laptop often check for the "Intel" label on the front so they know what they're getting inside.

Eventually, Compton hopes shoppers looking at racks of products will look for Aquea Scientific's drop icon and "Wash-On" label.