Sure, your yogurt is packed in plastic. And it caps your quick-grab coffee, but did you know plastics can also be in your skincare—as an ingredient?

Most consumers are unaware that plastics can serve as emulsifiers, stabilizers, and fillers.

At Silk Therapeutics, we’ve invented a way around plastics and other classes of synthetic ingredients. 

Our skincare is based instead on the natural chemistry of pure Liquid Silk, one of nature’s smartest proteins. Because it is so versatile, Liquid Silk is helping us redefine what’s possible in clean, performance skincare. But it is also poised to become a sustainability breakthrough, taking on the 70,000 tons of microplastic ingredients used in beauty products each year— plastics that wind up in the environment after we rinse them down the drain.

This week, Fast Company wrote a story highlighting our ongoing R&D on Liquid Silk, research launched several years ago by Drs. Greg Altman and Rebecca Lacouture, Silk Therapeutics’ co-founders.

The story — "This Natural Liquid Silk is Starting to Replace Oil-Based Plastic” — describes the hidden use of plastic in consumer products like skincare, while also noting the exciting ways our proprietary Liquid Silk may serve as a replacement to plastic and other plastic-like coatings in the future (such as in apparel finishes). 

It’s a quick, five-minute read, and when you’re done, we hope you’ll share it with someone close to you.

Afterwards, if you want to learn more about plastics in personal care products, consider flipping through this 2015 report from the UN Environment Programme. It was an eye-opener for us and thought you’d appreciate it as well. 

As a proud supporter of the Personal Care Products Safety Act (keep an eye out for an upcoming post about this!), Silk Therapeutics is committed to human health and wellness by rethinking how to make the products in direct contact with our largest organ—our skin. 

Should you have questions relating to Silk Therapeutics ingredients or want to share feedback about this post, please email us at support@silktherapeutics.com.