Ignae is a revolution in vegan skincare

Ignae is bringing exciting innovations to vegan skincare, with formulations sustainably sourced from the pristine archipelago of nine volcanic islands known as the Azores. These small islands – geographically distant from many sources of industrial pollution, and home to Marine Protected Areas – remain a bastion of rare natural ingredients and mineral-rich thermal waters. 

For the first time, Ignae is harnessing the unique resources of the islands to create transformative skincare products. The brand is the brainchild of Miguel Pombo, a native of the Azores and an expert in international ingredient manufacturing. With his inherent knowledge of the islands, Pombo was able to identify the ingredients that could be harvested from the area’s ecosystem and optimised to create exceptionally rejuvenating skincare. 

EPC factor complex

Years of research have resulted in the brand’s patent-pending EPC Factor Complex, designed to utilise plant-based liposomes to deliver rejuvenating ingredients deep into the skin’s dermis, where new cells are created. Pombo says, ‘Our EPC Factor is a breakthrough. The fact that our liposomes are plant-based, clean and vegan is super exciting. It’s not easy to stabilise and encapsulate all the ingredients into a delivery vehicle to your dermis.’ 

He adds, ‘An innovative aspect of our proprietary EPC Factor is that [it contains] phospholipids which resemble the ones present in our own cell membranes, thus enhancing the bio-absorption of the encapsulated substances. It is very hard to formulate liposomes with plant and algae extracts, because of their low stability, poor solubility and bioavailability.

‘With our proprietary liposomes, we are able to avoid these common issues affecting liposomal delivery of botanical extracts, harnessing the benefits of this promising technology for skincare.’ 

A revolution in vegan skincare 

The EPC Factor has the potential to be one of the most exciting recent developments in skincare, as one of the few clean and vegan formulations that can deliver to the same degree as most of the celebrated heritage and luxury brands. 

The science behind Ignae has been elevated on a commercial level by the expertise of the brand’s CEO, Claire Chung. A global entrepreneur with two decades of experience in the luxury sector, Chung is perhaps best known as the innovative mind behind the launch of Net-a-Porter China. 

‘We’ve seen the trend in the US market for clean and vegan skincare products,’ says Chung, ‘and we go the next step by using biotechnology to deliver more powerful results with plant-based clean ingredients. We were thinking about how we can bring innovation to a post-pandemic world [and] we concluded that the future of skincare is about leveraging biotech to increase efficacy, sustainability and looking to nature as a solution to regeneration.

‘We want to empower our customers by leveraging the latest technology to help them monitor and track their skin’s transformation,’ she continues. ‘Confident of the transformational impact of our products, the customer can take [our] AI skin analysis and track their own progress as a seamless skin wellness journey with Ignae.’ 

In addition, Chung has channelled her knowledge of luxury spas into a series of treatments that blend elements of holistic wellness traditions from China and India with European techniques. 

All in all, Ignae promises to be a breakthrough in vegan skincare and skincare more generally. If fountain of youth actually exists, perhaps it’s on the Azores – and now it can be on your bathroom shelf too.

INFORMATION

ignae.com