Reveal Sciences Puts a New Face on Personal Care Innovation

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Biotechnology company Beacon Sciences, LLC, has announced the launch of Reveal Sciences, a new personal care technology company specializing in tailored color changes for consumer products and personalized skin and hair analysis for the cosmetics and personal/home care industries. Reveal Sciences is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beacon Sciences. Based on the discoveries of Dr. Eric V. Anslyn at The University of Texas at Austin, Beacon Sciences delivers visible, custom tests utilizing color change technology to the medical sector. Now, through Reveal Sciences, the pioneering technology of Beacon Sciences will be applied to the development of enhanced cosmetics and personal care products.

The global market for home and personal care products is growing and is projected to be $230 billion by 2010. (Source: Accenture, “Achieving High Performance in the Home and Personal Care Industry,” 2006.) Large personal care product manufacturers introduce hundreds of new products every year. In the two year period from 2004 to 2006, global personal care product introductions totaled 43,758 for cosmetics, 31,836 for skincare, 18,377 for hair care and 11,464 for soap and bath products. (Source: Mintel’s Global New Products Database.)

Both Beacon Sciences and Reveal Sciences are portfolio companies of life sciences venture firm Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI) and ETI provides all management services. “Reveal Sciences is leading the way in enhancing personal care products with our interactive product experience,” said Dr. Brian Windsor, President of Reveal Sciences and ETI’s Senior Vice President of Portfolio Company Management. “A consumer can use a simple biochemical test called CareType™ to determine which product is best for her skin or hair type; or, soap or lotion is initially colored to show total skin coverage but fades after product application.” The company also offers development of other customized, specialty functional ingredients for unique cosmetic and personal care product formulations, including hyaluronic acid and related compounds.

Interactive Color Change Technology

Reveal Sciences’ color changing technology is the only one of its kind that provides real-time feedback in response to a substance or action as well as rapid coloring methods. Using a novel approach to molecular recognition, Reveal Sciences’ color changing technology provides product feedback via visual indicators. Product formulations can be programmed to react to varied conditions and change color to indicate different states such as pH or the presence of a specific age-related biomarker.

This smart technology is a breakthrough in interactive personal care as well as simplifying product use for the consumer. Reveal Sciences’ innovative chemistry can easily be embedded into product formulations such as lotions, soaps, sunscreens, or other cosmetics, telling a consumer through a color change how long to use a cream, the extent of lotion coverage, or when to reapply a product.

Example applications include:

• Timing of product application such as face masks and hand soaps that change color when appropriate time has elapsed.

• Coverage of product application, i.e. sunscreens that are visible long enough to see that full coverage has been applied and then disappears, or cleaning solutions that stay visible until disinfection has completely occurred.

CareType™ Analysis

Today’s consumers look for assurance that they are selecting the best products for their own personal needs and they expect purchased products to do what is promised. Reveal Sciences’ CareType technology for skin and hair analysis provides for a level of information to the consumer that is a first in personal care. In addition to giving the consumer an interactive experience, it can boost consumer confidence in the manufacturer’s product and build brand preference.

Features and benefits of Reveal Sciences CareType Analysis are:

• Customized, specific skin and hair analysis using easy-to-read tests or indicators.

• CareType tests allow for detection and measurement of the biological elements that are the underlying cause of skin and hair conditions. By quantifying these elements, personal care professionals can more readily identify the right products or treatments and track consumer progress.

• CareType tests use a highly sensitive optical signal coupled with identification of specific biological factors. This provides a level of feedback not currently available elsewhere. By integrating a feedback component with product application.

Tests under development for the professional spa/salon include the oxidative damage factors; skin aging factors; skin sensitivity and irritation; skin barrier; and hair damage quantification.

Expert Biomaterial Formulations

Reveal Sciences also specializes in specialty functional ingredients ideal for cosmetic and personal care product formulation, including hyaluronic acid, chondroitin, and heparosan.

The features and benefits of Reveal Sciences biomaterials are:

• Unique synthetic glycosaminoglycan biopolymers that are both non-animal derived and available in bulk quantities with highly uniform properties.

• These biopolymers can be made to possess the lowest possible molecular weight achievable – an increasingly important element in moisturizing.

• These specialized biomaterials can be customized to yield specific properties needed for personal care product formulation, including fine-tuning an emulsion for high moisture content, high/low lubricity, high/low viscosity, or other desired properties.

About Reveal Sciences

See Reveal Sciences at the global In-Cosmetics Exhibition in Amsterdam, April 15 -17. Visit the Reveal Sciences Booth K170.

Reveal Sciences is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beacon Sciences, LLC, a company based on the pioneering work by Dr. Eric V. Anslyn of The University of Texas at Austin that delivers visible and simple custom tests to the medical community using the power of color change technology. Reveal Sciences harnesses the work of Beacon Sciences to empower the cosmetics and personal/home care industries with functional ingredients for better product formulations, including tailored color-changing reactions with reversible visual indicators for consumer products and consumer testing. Reveal Sciences, LLC, is an Emergent Technologies Inc. (ETI) portfolio company, and ETI provides all management services. Visit the company website at www.revealsciences.com.

About Emergent Technologies, Inc.

Emergent Technologies Inc. (ETI), founded in 1989 by Thomas A. Harlan, is a unique life sciences venture firm that forms and manages companies and funds that commercialize groundbreaking institutional and university-based technologies. ETI is a turnkey solution for converting university science into high return ventures. ETI works with regional economic development groups and universities to capitalize on what the firm describes as invention capital. In addition to the traditional venture capital approach of raising and investing funds, ETI drives the selection and expansion of each technology assets unique to their region. ETI is pioneering a unique business approach investment’s intellectual property, the key asset to most technology-based start-up companies. For more information, visit the company website www.etibio.com.