Noble Panacea—the first skincare line developed by a Nobel Prize-winning chemist—utilizes game-changing technology called Organic Molecular Vessels™ that allow active ingredients to sustain their potency over time and penetrate skin better than regular creams. The single-use packaging—relevant to ingredient preservation—also happens to be gloriously travel-friendly for jetsetters (and anyone else who wants to avoid a run-in with the TSA). I recently sat down with founder Sir Fraser Stoddart and dermatologic advisor Dr. Anne Chapas to discuss the vision behind this ambitious launch.
Is this different from other time-release systems?
Dr. Anne Chapas: This is really unique. What we’ve done in the past utilizes different kinds of microspheres and little fatty globes that squeeze in between skin cells but it’s hard to package things inside fat. So, the carbohydrate system is really unique.
I heard about certain active ingredients out there that break down so quickly that they’re inactive by the time they hit your skin… which essentially means that you’re throwing money down the drain! What happens to ingredients in typical skincare products and how long does it usually take for them to become ineffective?
Sir Fraser Stoddart: There is a very fast release in most of the present-day, commercially available skincare products. They can be ineffective after 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 120 minutes. But OMVs allow the active ingredients in our products to last a full day, releasing additives slowly in the order we have prescribed.
Dr. Anne Chapas: One of the things that we find in skincare at large is that what’s released on the surface of the skin acts for a short time and then disintegrates, oxidizes quickly or gets washed away in your sebum. The ingredients in Noble Panacea products don’t get washed away because they’re protected by the OMV encapsulation and are delivered continuously over twenty-four hours so they have a longer-term duration in the skin. Most skincare is only active for the first two hours after you put it on, whereas this keeps it going for the whole day. I liken OMVs™ to carbon circle rice cakes with active ingredients in all the nooks and crannies!
I heard that it takes weeks to make a single product!
Sir Fraser Stoddart: It’s a sophisticated process that’s similar to growing a plant. We grow the Organic Molecular Vessels™ as crystals. We control how big the crystals will be—ranging from millimeters up to a centimeter in cubic shape—and what they’re used for. Skincare additives are inserted during the growing process.
