COSMOFACTORY

Deanna: [00:00:00] This episode is about phototherapy, microcurrent therapy, bioelectric therapy, thermal skincare therapy, and more. It's about the added benefits that such treatments can bring to at-home skincare. It's about the convergence of beauty tech, beauty packaging, and beauty devices. Alain Dijkstra CEO of Nuon is joining me today on CosmoFactory. Alain, welcome to CosmoFactory.
Alain: Deanna welcome and welcome to [00:01:00] everybody listening to this show. Uh, thank you for this invitation to CosmoFactory. Uh, very excited to be on this, uh, cost.
Deanna: Wonderful. So just to set the scene here, um, and you can jump in and correct me if, if I don't quite have it right, but Nuon manufacturers caps and closures that double as treatment devices or product applicators for cosmetics and, and personal care products, is that sort of the short version of your company?
Alain: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you want the real short version, I always try to interpretate it to customers as we are the toothbrush of the toothpaste industry. So we're really just trying to enhance what the formulation is already trying to do.
Deanna: because we know high tech devices and treatments are commonly used in the professional sector, right? The MediSpa, um, conventional spas, dermatology practices, but now they're increasingly popular in consumer beauty.
Um, So I'd love to think about some of the [00:02:00] individual therapies and why a product developer or brand would, would pair a particular therapy with their skincare formula. If, if you don't mind, um, I'd like to start by thinking about thermal skincare therapy, so sort of heating or cooling, uh,
Alain: Oh wow. Okay.
Deanna: Why, why do those technologies pair well with skincare?
Alain: So terminal skincare technology has been used for years. Years, uh, and, and it's been out there in med spas and, and, and also in home use right now. Uh, but it's never been incorporated in the applicator or in the packaging of the cosmetic treatments itself. just diving into, for example, cooling, uh, under the cooling, you already have three or four more different ways to apply that cooling to the skin. So it doesn't need to be always just a metallic part a, a sink, a loy.
And then you'd somehow cool the skin in that [00:03:00] way. You can also do it, for example, with a pelcher, where you have a pelcher element, what on one side potentially, uh, creates cold, and on the other side, uh, will create double the heat. So, and Pelcher cooling has been used industrial and in surgical rooms. For many years.
And now, uh, because as technology moves on the same as a mobile phone, it gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Uh, the pelcher elements go as small as, um, a litty of a, a grain of rice. So it makes it possible to enhance a tip of an eye cream with an electronic cooling element. And, and that cooling, of course, is the, uh, dermatologist and formulators know that it can have a lot of benefits to the absorption of the cosmetics, uh, the treatment to the skin.
Uh, there there is an endless variety on, on [00:04:00] just cooling itself. And, and then the other side, heating can be done by, uh, one, it's a, it's a conductive heating where you look at, for example, uh, an heating element made out of carbon.
But in heating element made out of carbon is penetrating a lot more deeper into the skin and doesn't ha create any superficial heating, but it creates muscle tissue heating. I. So once you create that type of heating, then you stimulate, for example, blood flow, uh, collagen production, uh, on a very deep level of the skin, what definitely helps with anti-aging or so on.
But then also you have ceramic heating, what is a hundred percent only on the surface of the skin. And that ceramic heating is beautiful for, uh, breaking up proteins, for example, on the [00:05:00] skin. So when you have foreign proteins from a mosquito bite or uh, a bee bite, or any other animal or plant. Uh, that that cre causes an itch or an allergy even then what you can use is you can use a ceramic heating element to flesh, break that up.
So it's with a flesh pulse, we increase it to a 60 degrees and then it breaks up the protein into the skin and it has a medical claim to it that creates the it away. So if your formulation is, for example, made for cause of. Treatments of itchy skin or by plants or, or animals, or maybe it's good for anti mosquito bite.
Then noon has the, the technology to pair with that to break up those proteins. So it's like you stack the benefits in a very medical way where [00:06:00] maybe the formulation wanted to get the medical claim, but it didn't achieve the claim of saying this is able to. Reduce itchy skin with a mosquito bite, or this is able to remove, uh, the, the, the, the, the B venom,
Deanna: Yeah, that's very, very interesting. Let's think a little bit about, um, maybe we'll just choose one, but of the bioelectric therapies. I know this would include microcurrent therapy, vibration, tens, um, PEMF, which I'm still learning, pulsed electromagnetic field technology. But choose one of these bioelectric treatments and, and help us think about pairing that with topical
Alain: So, so for example, all those, all those treatments come with a positive and a negative polarity, and, and those negative and positive polarities, they work in a very deep muscle based tissue. They work superficial on the. Skin because of the vibration on the muscles, you're stimulating and you're reducing the wrinkles.
[00:07:00] So once you add that into an spatula or into an eye cream, then you're already able to claim anti-aging. With that cream. So if your cream has actives, but they can't have the, the wording of anti-aging behind it, then just add one of our spa toula. Add the microcurrent in there, and you're able to make the medical claim that your cream as a solution.
Together with this, ULA has an anti-aging clearance on it, so it definitely benefits those claim buildings. It benefits the formulation and, and what you see is that if you wanna, for example, create a a, a better penetration into the skin. Then, uh, creating a negative iron and layer onto the skin by reducing or, or running the, the polarity in a negative way over the skin.
You actually [00:08:00] pull the cosmetics into the skin. So where the, the top layer of the skin is trying to, uh, fight the formulation now by creating a negative ion layer onto the skin by using a microcurrent, we're able to pull in this formulation into the skin, but then enhances the, the, the, the, the penetration.
What enhances the, the effects of the. Formulation.
So using something like the, the, the, the microcurrent, you have a endless of possibilities in creating benefits, not just for the muscle tissue, not for the collagen, uh, the mitochondria in the cells, but also into the, the penetration depth of the formula itself, self,
Deanna: No, that makes sense. Thank you. And let's, let's do at least one more here. Let's think about phototherapy. I know particularly red light therapy is quite prevalent, but there are all sorts of wavelengths and intensities. You can, you can apply here.
Alain: Yes, yes, yes, yes, [00:09:00] yes. Right now there are about eight and a half thousand clinical studies done on phototherapy, and they go very wild from, uh, benefits on, uh, skin eczema, but also antiaging, collagen production, anti acne, and so on. And what it does is the beauty of there, it, it, it stimulates your natural body itself.
So it's like creating the energy in the cells to repair itself in a natural way without zero side effects. So we still need to find the side effects of light therapy as right now, the only side effect we have ever seen is when we start carbonizing the cells, but that is like overstimulating and, and actually burning the cells by using too much light.
But when you use it in a very natural way, we see it's just, uh, like adding some more energy to the cells and it drives itself to repair. And there red light therapy, I think you're [00:10:00] very familiar with as well as the listeners. Uh, we have been making that for the last 20 years, and now with the technology, with the batteries getting smaller and the lights getting smaller.
You're able to apply a very efficacious treatment just in the tip of an ice cream, uh, of an eye cream, or even in the jar in the lid. So we find out very creative ways to incorporate the lights as well as the design into the, yeah, the, the formulation of the jar that they're already using.
Deanna: Yeah. And, and you're mentioning there that the technology is remarkably smaller and that certainly makes, um, it possible to put this technology into caps, enclosures, and applicators. Um, you also mentioned that, um. You know, it helps, uh, with claims. Um, and I'm imagining that if, um, the applicator is built into the product, that certainly helps with consumer compliance of using an applicator or what I would think of as a device.
Um, [00:11:00] but maybe are those the only reasons or are there other reasons why you chose to do sort of caps and closures with this technology rather than standalone devices?
Alain: So, yeah, we have been making devices for the last 20 years, and we see that, uh, yes, a, a very large per percentage of the population understands it, but right now, for us as a mission to, to showcase this technology more widely. We saw, we hit a certain level that yes, we already provide 70% of the device industry in the market, but for us to really bring this to a next level, uh, we have decided to go more into the consumer industry where each consumer should have.
Light therapy or one of these modalities in their hands to experience it. And the only way to do this was to automate the production in such a way that there is zero manual [00:12:00] labor involved with, so that we are able to reduce the cost. And being able to hit those quantities in a way that is, uh, the same as making a, a jar or a tube.
So as we produce in Yuan, uh, our, uh, production is fully automated. Uh, there is, uh, no manual process in any development of these tools, and that is why you see that, uh, the costings for these medical claims and even these medical devices is so low. That, uh, you can even compare it with some of the actives.
So when you look at the actives in the formula, maybe even some formulators can decide, oh, maybe I don't add any of these actives because I can add nuance technology and even save money while still making those medical claims. So you end up saving money with your formulation and still sell the same efficacy to your customer by using these, uh, medical [00:13:00] devices into.
Your cosmetic packaging,
Deanna: No, that makes good sense. And I, I definitely wanna ask you a couple questions about manufacturing and production, uh, before we finish up here. But one thing that's sort of nagging on my mind, and I, I'm guessing it's going to, uh, be on the listener's minds as well. Is thinking about, you know, sort of what happens next, right.
After the consumer uses this product. Is your technology somehow disposable or, or what's the design here after consumer
Alain: so that's. Beautiful question. That is, uh, and that is something we put very, very high as, uh, official B Corp certified manufacturer. So we are an official B Corp certified manufacturer that showcases that we are all about sustainability and real sustainability does not come from the manufacturer. You, you might think as a manufacturer that, okay, I make a product that is sustainable, but at the end of the day, it's, it's still that, uh, re recycled plastic [00:14:00] that needs to be made.
And, uh, what Now, if the customer doesn't see the value to ask for a refill. It is a very, very difficult mission as a supplier to go and stimulate those users to buy a refill kit without adding value. So even creating a very artistic bottle or making it as beautiful as you can, it doesn't stimulate the user at the end of the day to ask for that refill.
Now we with Neuron, we have seen in internal studies that when we add. The, the, the, the value. So we add, for example, measurement technologies where in the lid of the jar, you can measure your skin for moist or for oil, or you, you can make diagnostics or, or yeah, add something like a lighter device that helps with, uh, wrinkles under your eyes and adding that value to the packaging.
Somehow [00:15:00] it becomes very difficult to throw away that jar. So once the people see that this is giving them a, a, a feedback on their skin and once they see the benefits, uh, of the treatment, uh, they will definitely call you for a refill kit. So, real, real, uh, sustainability is not from the supplier, not from the manufacturer, but it's coming from the user that buys the product.
Deanna: Yeah. And I, I guess my follow up question there then is, is how, how durable is this technology? How many, how many times, um. To consumer be
Alain: so so we use, we give options for, for our customers where we have single use batteries, but we also give them rechargeable options. I think this is the most, uh, most picked, uh, solution. And it's, uh, also the most economical solution where, uh, for a few dollars you have a, a beautiful, uh, functional medical device [00:16:00] that goes on your jar.
And you can charge it for more than 500 times. So until the end life of the lithium battery, uh, where every session, uh, of charging will leave you for about 10 treatments. Uh, you can charge the device and recharge it as much as a mobile phone would be possible. So you, and, and early days they, they, yeah, they have a very, very long lifetime.
So, uh, as we see. The only real lifespan is into the lithium, uh, battery. And that is equal to a mobile phone.
And we, we have these rechargeable now we also have, uh, even a more upgraded solution and that is called Cap Super capacitive charging. And this super capacitive charging. Is something used in, uh, weather stations, uh, in satellites and other places, but now is being made in a very small size as [00:17:00] well as, uh, small as a yeah, as a jar would be.
And that means that, uh, the battery, the super capacitor goes without a lifespan. So it, it, it, you can recharge it as many times as you want. And that is, I think, the most sustainable solution. Uh, you can take it on the plane without any worries, uh, because, uh, s super capacitors, uh, don't have, uh, that safety demand, uh, like a lithium battery.
Deanna: Yes, yes. No, perfect. I appreciate your sharing all of that. And you mentioned that your manufacturing is highly automated. Certainly cosmetic industry production facilities are becoming more robotic, more automated. But there is some hesitation that I hear from certain manufacturers and even sometimes, um, you know, automation providers, um, are a little bit reluctant.
Um, I think to, I don't know, to, to help our, our industry think about how quickly we could be accelerating, um, this sort of [00:18:00] technology adoption. Um. I'm, I'm just curious, you know, if you could help us think maybe about, sort of any, you know, I don't, is it cultural reluctance? You know, how, how have you overcome that?
How have you, how have you made this possible in your facility? I.
Alain: So there, there are still many processes that you, you can't automate. Uh, this design and engineering process, uh, is something we do a lot of joy and we have, uh, 600 engineers in our company that do this with a lot of fun. And they love the engineering and they love the work with the customer. But when it comes to putting two pieces of plastic, uh, together with a PCB board, I can tell you this is a hundred percent automated process.
This is done, uh, with, uh, yeah, uh, visual camera inspections for quality. It is gone with, uh, a, a fully automated process in a way that there is, uh, not. One person, [00:19:00] uh, in the, between putting the pieces of plastics, the, the PCB boards and the batteries into the machine until it's, uh, packed and finished up.
So, and that is really only the only way for us to continue in this business. What is a very competitive industry already. So for us to be able to convince the, the cosmetic providers to now change out their 50 cents jar lid for, uh, two or $3 jar lid and still make a profit, we the only way to. This is by fully automating the process now.
Yeah, there are steps, for example, like, uh, the software designing as well as the tool making. Although our tool making is, uh, a top-notch, uh, gf, uh, automated tool making, you still need people to program these tools. On a every [00:20:00] secondary day basis, uh, for the programming of the machine, uh, we would run about on an average, uh, computer automated system, we would run about five to 10,000 units a day.
Uh. So once the production run is finished, we will need to set it up with a person again. So the setup Yes, a hundred percent by people. And I'm very happy that that is so, uh, but, uh, the, the, the putting the two pieces of plastics together, no. Uh, this is something we, we should definitely leave over to these, uh uh, yeah.
Robots or automated production lines.
Deanna: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, since you are paying so careful attention to technology, maybe in a number of spaces here, it seems, I'm wondering if you see anything sort of coming next in this digital, physical manufacturing world.
Alain: I can tell you on our side, uh, we are a huge fan of the robotic arms. So, uh, you, you see that our factory has a, a whole [00:21:00] number of robotic arms that we program ourselves in-house and the programming of these arms and the, the process has become more and more simple. So it's as simple as AI now starts to do coding.
We see that the programming of these robots also getting easier and easier with the day. Uh, what what we do see is, uh, that, yeah, automation and, and the robotic programming, uh, moves to a next level here and it moves very fast. Very fast these days. So the solution, uh, we see we have today, uh, we find out that, uh, next week is already automated.
So, uh, it's, uh, it is beautiful to be at this time of stage, uh, right now in the production industry and especially in, in, in the countries. And, uh, where we operate, it is on a very quick basis. Yeah.
Deanna: Yeah. No, that's super interesting and, and you've certainly given us all a lot to think about. Alan, I thank you for speaking with me here today on Cosmo Factory.
Alain: Thank you so [00:22:00] much. It was great sharing this