Taking technology that has, up until now, been used in food and beverage processing, a new start-up company called HPPY Skin is out to shake up the skin care market with a new line of facial masks.
 
The brand’s 100% plant-based masks—Clarity, Calming, Hydrate and Anti-Aging—have a jelly-like texture and stay cool on contact as they infuse skin with effective ingredients like matcha, niacinamide, CBD and Bakuchiol to name just a few. 
 
The preservative-free masks are manufactured in a refrigerated facility using high pressure processing (HPP). 
 
HPP uses cold water pressure which is lethal to microorganisms; it disrupts the integrity of the cellular membrane rendering them incapable to regulate cellular functions. While lethal to microorganisms, cold water pressure is not harmful to molecules such as nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals—and that allows HPPY Skin to avoid using extracts that are prepared with chemical solvents or steam (heat) which, executives say, impacts potency and stability.
 
According to Joyce Longfield, who heads R&D, HPPY Skin tests the efficacy of the ingredients in its products throughout the shelf-life to ensure that the ingredients added are the same potency at the beginning and end of shelf-life. 
 
The Cold Truth

But the formulations also need to stay cold.
 
“If we were to make our products and store them at room temperature, we would lose the efficacy of the product benefits as it ages on the shelf,” said Longfield.
 
HPPY Skin products are produced in a refrigerated facility to retain and stabilize the beneficial components of each ingredient, say officials, who insist products are made under continuous refrigeration from start to finish. 
 
“We batch, fill, pack-off, store and distribute 100% under refrigerated temperatures <45°F,” said Longfield.
 
The need for refrigeration shaped the company’s packaging needs; HPPY Skin Products require an airless environment.
 
‘The packaging is definitely special to the HPP technology that we use. Because of the immense amount of cold-water pressure, there are certain restrictions we cannot explore, such as glass,” said Longfield. 
 
She added, “If it does oxidize, that affects not only the micro aspect of the product, but also the efficacy. The refrigeration aspect of this product line is very similar to the food industry.”
 
HPPY Skin recommends consumers refrigerate the products, said Longfield.
 
To help educate consumers, HPPY skin face mask packaging features instructions on how to care for the products. There is an expiration date as well. The brand’s website has a FAQ section that also includes the important information about how to store the products at home.
 
Sustainable Production

According to HPPY Skin, HPP technology is sustainable because the equipment does not require a constant energy draw to maintain pressure, and the water used in the process is reused in each cycle by >95%.
 
While it may a new technology in the beauty space, HPP has a long history of use. Created in 1800s, by the early 1900s it was being used as an alternative to pasteurization as a food preservation method, according to the brand.
 
“I grew up in the HPP food industry and as I got older, I realized that skin care products were filled with harmful ingredients and chemicals that shouldn’t be going on our faces, the same way they shouldn’t be consumed. The skin is the body’s largest organ and we wanted to create a brand that heals and enhances it,” said HPPY Skin Founder Hannah Penn. “Using HPP technology we can keep out chemicals, fillers and preservatives from skin care products to deliver the most natural, clean and premium products with minimal ingredients. There was not as much of a learning curve for adopting the technology to the products as much as the research that was put in to determine which ingredients we wanted to remove.” 
 
The process isn’t proprietary, according to Longfield. But there is a learning curve to what types of products can utilize HPP technology.
 
“Having the right expertise for a new product category in HPP applications is critical. HPPY Skin has the highest level of expertise on our team that can be found globally,” she insisted.
  
While the brand is launching with just four face masks, the company continues to work in the lab.
 
“We already started product development on a few different items as we want to continue to connect inner beauty with outer beauty,” said Penn. “We will continue to expand on topicals in order to lock in the results of the four initial masks.”