Founders, Dr. Beck Horan and Dr. Greg Altman, both experts in silk biomaterials, began with the knowledge that medicine has safely used silk both on and in the human body for millennia. Silk may be more readily associated with the fashion industry, but sutures made from silk were the first device used in medicine. Silk has helped stitch wounds and repair body parts since at least the time of ancient Egypt.

They also knew that silk proteins can stabilize potent molecules such as vitamin C, and if produced properly, could theoretically replace most of those chemical additives and preservatives that render today’s beauty products so harmful.

Nature makes silk without chemicals—it is just pure protein and water. Our challenge was: could we get back to the way nature made it, before wound into elegant fibers and fabrics? Could we make silk in its original, liquid form?

“We challenged ourselves,” said Altman. “We gave ourselves a year—and with a $1M investment—we began working on a way to reproducibly manufacture natural liquid silk, without any chemical contaminants or impurities, without precedent, and all at scale and a cost to make it viable for skin care applications.”

As is their hallmark, Horan and Altman assembled a dedicated team, and together, they have whole-heartedly, single-mindedly worked to develop silk for the skincare market, formulating again and again, always with the purity of the final product in mind. In the end, they developed a patented process and product-line. “We’ve achieved something truly unparalleled in this industry,” says Horan, “and we’re only getting started.”

Other companies sell clean products, too, and while we applaud the shift in the marketplace toward safer skin care, our goal has always been two-fold: to develop products that work –that make skin beautiful and healthy— and to do it without compromising our integrity or your health.

At Silk Therapeutics, we’re not just looking to set ourselves apart from the rest of the luxury skincare industry by offering clean, results-driven products. We’re looking to be the standard to which they aspire.