Vitamins Straight to Your Skin

October 31, 2007

So what are microcapsules? Basically they are minute little capsules that can contain a number of natural or chemical substances. In Tagra’s case, this includes vitamins, evening primrose oil, tea tree oil, retinol, or hippophae oil (sea buckthorn). These tiny encapsulants can be added to any cream or gel and burst open when they are rubbed in, delivering their contents straight to the skin.

CEO Idan Harpaz pours out a capsule mixture onto the table. It has the look and texture of a very soft powder. He rubs it between his fingers. “You can rub it all you like now, but the capsules won’t break open. Once you put them into a cream, however, they become soft and flexible. Once you rub them into the skin, they break and release the active material,” he explains.

The benefit of these capsules is that they enable manufacturers to use beneficial substances that might otherwise cause problems in a cream or gel. For example, “retinol has been in and out of the market many times because of the problems stabilizing the creams,” Harpaz tells ISRAEL21c. “The cream would go yellow or even separate, and the shelf life was very short.” Using Tagra’s capsule system, the company not only ensures that the retinol can be blended into the cream successfully, but it increases the shelf life of the retinol by between three and six times.

It also enables vitamins to remain stable. Today’s creams may boast that they contain vitamins A and E, but in fact, these vitamins degrade quickly. After about 40 days, there is less than 40% of vitamin A left in most commercial formulations. In comparison, Tagra’s microencapsulated vitamins remain active for much longer. Even after 350 days, vitamin A has degraded by only 15%.

Excerpts of an article by Nicky Blackburn, ISRAEL21c

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