New Formulations: It’s in the Bag
A photo of amea’s unique mixing pouch in its
frosted jar.A unique pouch mixes amea’s personalized skin care ingredients.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorMany marketers say that customization is the key to future success in the beauty market. Years ago, Prescriptives carved a niche for itself by custom blending foundation and other products for customers. A new company called amea has now brought this custom-blending concept to skin care. The amea Skindividuals line not only features a high-end custom-formulated skin cream, it also includes a jar that allows product ingredients to be mixed together in a unique way.
The company analyzes the needs of each customer’s skin and then devises a formula specifically for that person. Analysis of the skin is done at the point of sale using amea’s Skinalyzer. The Skinalyzer is a handheld computerized instrument that takes a moisture reading with a probe that is placed on the skin. The Skinalyzer uses these readings, as well as answers to a series of questions that customers answer, to create a formula that is right for each customer.
The skin cream comprises a base cream mixed with what amea calls Skinkeys. Skinkeys are a range of highly potent active ingredients. The Skinalyzer will choose one of four base creams that are right for a customer, as well as four (out of a total of 30) Skinkeys, which are blended in the base cream.
The Skinkeys are housed in unit-dose packettes. To create an easy and hygienic way to mix the Skinkeys into the base cream, brothers Ramses and Stefan Erdtmann, amea’s creators, custom designed a 1.7-oz jar with a unique mixing chamber.
The mixing chamber is a flexible pouch made of a silicone type of material. This pouch sits inside the frosted acrylic jar. A threaded ring attached to the rim of the pouch sits securely on the rim of the jar.
When the pouch is removed
from the jar, customers can knead the outside of the pouch to mix the products housed inside.
To utilize the pouch, customers first pour the Skinkeys into the pouch, which already contains the base cream. Then, they screw the silver aluminum lid onto the jar to seal the pouch. Next, customers pull the lid up and off of the jar. (A loose fit between the threads on the jar and the cap makes it possible to lift the lid off.) When customers lift off the lid, the pouch also lifts out of the jar.
The pouch and the lid create a sealed chamber for mixing the products, which customers can do by kneading the outside of the pouch—without ever having to touch the product with their hands.
Once the ingredients have been mixed, the jar cap (with the pouch still attached) should be pressed back onto the jar. When customers screw the lid off counterclockwise, the lid screws off of the pouch’s ring and can be removed while the pouch remains in the jar. Customers can then dip their fingers or an applicator into the product and apply it.
Ramses Erdtmann says that his brother conceived the idea for this type of mixing device by observing how manufacturing facilities mix products using two large mixing drums. “If you use a spatula to do the mixing, it does not do the same thing,” he says. “It’s just not as hygienic as our system.” Or, one would think, as intriguing.