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It’s not just good for your skin. B-silk™ protein is clean, sustainable, and 100% cruelty-free.
B- SILK PROTEIN is our first proprietary ingredient, and we think it’s pretty incredible. But don’t take our word for it – see for yourself. Here’s your primer on our not-so-secret ingredient.
B-silk™ protein is the key ingredient in our Hydrate + Restore Rich Cream and our Revitalizing Hydrogel Moisturizer. It’s clean, it’s sustainable, and it really works. To find out how it works, we’ll need to get a little technical.
B-silk™ protein was inspired by the properties of spider silk. Spider silk has a unique molecular makeup makes it stronger and stretchier than the commonly used silkworm silk. Like natural silk proteins, b-silk™ protein is a high molecular weight structural protein that complements the vital functions of your skin and reinforces its extracellular matrix (a.k.a. collagen and elastin, the proteins that begin to break down as we age).
Silk proteins are strong, soft, and biocompatible, making them perfectly suited for use in skincare products. (Read more in our Silk 101 here.) Silk proteins are used in other skincare products, but they are usually fragmented into smaller pieces using a process called molecular hydrolysis. This process breaks down a bigger molecule (polymer) into many smaller molecules (monomers) by severing the bonds that hold monomers together. Hydrolyzed silk proteins are highly processed and degraded, which can compromise their valuable properties and effects.
B-silk™ protein, on the other hand, is not hydrolyzed. Through rigorous testing, we came up with a formula that keeps the molecular structure intact.
B-silk™ protein is engineered in our labs using a simple fermentation process in which the inputs are yeast, water, sugar, and salt. The proteins are left intact – never hydrolyzed. The intact molecular structure delivers more benefits, for better results.
Why? The size of a protein is often measured in Daltons. B-silk™ protein is ~80,000 Daltons, while hydrolyzed silk can be less than 500 Daltons. That is two orders of magnitude (or 100 times) smaller.
Clinically-tested efficacy lies at the heart of our process. In our first clinical trial, 33 women with a mixture of normal, dry, and combination skin tested products containing b-silk™ protein. Here are the results after four and eight weeks.
It’s not just good for your skin. B-silk™ protein is clean, sustainable, and 100% cruelty-free. In short, there’s a lot to love.
Do you have questions? Comments? Topics you want us to cover? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at thelab@eighteenb.com.
