Wash-On™ | technology

The Aquea Delivery System technology is an extensible delivery system that holds microencapsulated ingredients to skin and hair by creating an electrostatic bond. This patented technology leverages concepts from the same technology found in fiber optics and semiconductors and, for the first time, adapts them for use in bath and shower products. The novel notion underlying the Aquea Delivery System is that electrostatic charges bind advanced compounds to skin and hair the same way they do to other materials. The microencapsulates can be designed to either remain intact, keeping the active ingredient on the surface of the skin and hair, or to “time release” the active ingredient upon contact. As a result, this remarkable system is intended to deliver a broad spectrum of active ingredients.

In our initial product, Aquea SPF™, the technology fosters higher SPF by electrostatically attracting the encapsulated ingredient to the skin, protectively covering it and allowing only minimal skin penetration. Essentially it creates a barrier between the skin and the outside elements. In addition to making the sunscreen more effective, the technology also helps to lock in natural moisture.

Conventional deposition of active ingredients in personal care products follows one of two methods: leave on or rinse off. Attracting active ingredients to skin and hair poses a fundamental chemistry challenge: skin and hair are negatively charged, as too are the ingredients. To bind these two negatively charged surfaces, most leave on products employ barriers such as oils and waxes. This is unsatisfactory because of the large amounts of greasy product left on skin and hair. For rinse off products, most active ingredients do not attract at all. Aquea's Delivery System creates a third option: Wash-On™ delivery, giving you the convenience of applying active ingredients while cleansing. By removing the oil or wax barrier and replacing it with electrostatic attraction and a proprietary barrier system, our specialized technology enables deposition of active ingredients via soap and shower products.