Seiwa Kasei develops beauty ingredients upcycled from discarded black pearl shells

 In recent years, attention has been focused on "upcycling," which is the process of regenerating unused resources by increasing their value. At Seiwa Kasei Co., Ltd., we are conducting research to develop beauty ingredients by upcycling low-value domestic and foreign resources. We are putting effort into We will contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by reducing the amount of unused resources that are discarded.

One of the attractions of Tahitian black pearls, known as luxury jewelry, is their beautiful brilliance. Located in French Polynesia, the place of origin, Tahiti's waters are warm, well-ventilated, and rich in plankton, which is why many high-quality black pearls are harvested.

The unique and beautiful brilliance of black pearls comes from the nacre layer that forms inside the shell. In contrast to black pearls, which are highly valuable as jewelry, some of the shells that have been produced are used as crafts, but most are treated as waste shells with low utility value.

At our company, we focused on the mother-of-pearl layer of shells, which is the same component as black pearls, and developed an upcycled raw material "BLACK PEARL Extract™" by extracting that component with our own technology. Through "BLACK PEARL Extract™", we aim to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the SDGs, "Conserve the abundance of the sea."

BLACK PEARL Extract™ is a beauty ingredient that has been confirmed to have both skin care and hair care effects. As skin care effects, inhibition of elastase activity, which is involved in lowering the firmness of the skin, and inhibition of tyrosinase activity, which is involved in the formation of blemishes.As hair care effects, we confirmed the improvement of water retention capacity of hair and damage care effects by repairing the cuticle on the surface of the hair.