RIMAN’s Innovative Approach to Traditional Ingredients
Thousands of new ingredients enter the raw materials space every year, and yet, certain ingredients remain integral to the industry, fortified not only by their centuries of usage, but by the affirmation of their positive performances through current testing. What makes us stand apart, then, is how we choose to respect these ingredients in our own formulas, via cultivation, formulation, and production.
At RIMAN, we have fine-tuned our innovation objectives to ensure the quality of these traditional ingredients are upheld, the efficacies are ensured, and the utilization is perfected. At RIMAN’s lab, known as ASK BASE, raw materials are developed and produced at our state of the art facility on Jeju Island. Ingredient production methodologies, proprietary to RIMAN, are created and fine-tuned, with safety and sustainability at the forefront of every decision. Most notably, Korean ByungPool (centella asiatica) is studied, grown, and harvested, utilizing Jeju Lava Energy Water, to promote the legacy of centella asiatica with efficacy capitalized on by contemporary technology.
ByungPool: Cultivating Traditional Ingredients with New Technology
ByungPool, known scientifically as Centella Asiatica, is a plant native to Southeast Asia with traditional ties to general healing and ayurvedic medicine. Centuries of use detail benefits such as wound-healing, anti-inflammation, and even neuroprotection upon consumption.
In present day cosmetics, ByungPool is a familiar ingredient for anti-aging, antioxidant, and skin evening claims. While traditional in its inclusion in skincare, the methodologies for incorporation and utilization continue to evolve; such evolution is notably shown in the growth, harvesting, and formulation of ByungPool that we employ here at RIMAN, and is why we consider it to be our heritage ingredient.
RIMAN utilizes a specialized strain of ByungPool, known as Giant ByungPool, with larger leaves for a greater availability of extractable actives. This ByungPool is grown and harvested on Jeju Island in Korea, and is patented solely for RIMAN formulation.
Scientists work tirelessly to ensure the perfect cultivation of this greenery, calculating 45 days to be the optimal moment for harvest, when the leaves and roots are most fortified. Once harvested, the leaves go through a 20 hour extraction process to ensure the highest quantity of bioavailable triterpenoids are collected for formulation.
The Science Behind RIMAN’s Heritage Ingredients: ByungPool and Jeju Lava Energy Water
Jeju Island, a volcanic island formed some 2 million years ago, sits just off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. It is home to Hallasan, a dormant volcano and the tallest Mountain in South Korea. Beneath the island, fresh water from the coast flows through volcanic bedrock, which filters this water and removes impurities while leaving it rich with minerals.
This purified water boasts an extensive amount of benefits; not only does it provide an opportunity for mineral supplementation, it also has tested skin benefits, such as hydration and reduction in hyperpigmentation.
Jeju lava energy water is a unique resource due to its creation and molecular makeup and is unlike the distilled water traditionally used in the cosmetics industry. To qualify its integrity, regular water quality inspections are performed by the Lava SeaWater Center, although it has proven to have very little seasonal/daily variation and property changes.
This unwavering promise of quality is a tenant for RIMAN, and thus, Jeju Lava Energy Water is a crucial part of our formulation process. Not only is it used to grow our ingredients, it’s utilized in the creation of raw material extracts, and is the sole solvent utilized in final formulations.
Research at RIMAN’s ASK LABS explores patent technology as a springpad for innovation, focusing on nature as inspiration; understanding the claims and benefits of raw materials, biology experts design extraction protocols and formulation procedures to uphold the beauty of these ingredients. With the numerous benefits of ByungPool and Jeju Lava Energy Water, scientists ensure both ingredients are properly highlighted and utilized in formulation through a fine-tuned and specialized process.
From Farm to Formulation
As mentioned, ByungPool is grown and harvested on Jeju Island, and there is no better aqueous media for its cultivation than Jeju Lava Energy Water. This mineral-rich water is utilized in the growth process of our ByungPool, not only to maintain purity throughout the process, but to encourage properly supplemented foliage. The leaves are then put through a water extraction process, utilizing that same lava water sourced from beneath Jeju Island. Under 80 degrees C, the optimal temperature for saponin release without damage, the lava water successfully attracts four different essential fluids into its environment for later filtration and purification: Madecassoside, Asiaticoside, Madecassic Acid, and Asiatic Acid.
These four triterpenes are the main active components of centella asiatica that provide skin benefits; madecassoside has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits, asiaticoside strengthens skin’s elasticity, madecassic acid improves skin regeneration, and asiatic acid improves circulation. With this patented process, we ensure extracts with the highest potency of triterpenes for the highest probability of experiencing genuine results.
How RIMAN is Preserving Traditional Ingredients while Optimizing their Performance
The studied efficacy of these ingredients means nothing if they cannot properly interact with the skin. The skin is composed of three distinct layers; the top layer, or the epidermis, is the first line of defense against the outside world. This layer is subdivided into five more layers, in which the stratum corneum, the top most layer, ensures a barrier is created to keep irritants out and subcutaneous water in. This barrier, composed of tightly packed cells and a surrounding lipid environment, typically stops topically applied ingredients from penetrating very far, either because the molecules are too large or the ingredient isn’t the correct solubility for the target environment (polar/non-polar). Thus, the final part of the innovation process in formulation is the utilization of liposomes. Liposomes are spherical molecules composed of phospholipids that are arranged in bilayers. Depending on the specific composition, these molecules allow for the penetration of hydrophilic (water-loving) or lipophilic (oil-loving) ingredients deeper into the skin, beyond the natural barrier of the stratum corneum. This ensures call-out benefits for a product, such as moisturization or skin-brightening, can actually occur, because the active ingredients were able to reach their target sites in the lower levels of the epidermis.
RIMAN utilizes liposomes synthesized by a Microfluidizer Processor. This processor exposes a desired media to high pressure for a time before rapidly reducing it, which increases the velocity of the media through the system. This causes turbulence, and married with the creation of vapor bubbles and physical shear from hitting the walls of the system, the already microscopic molecules of the media are split into nano-particles. Including multiple mediums and utilizing a specialized microfluidics attachment, liposomes are formed. These liposomes are small enough to penetrate lower into the skin for delivery.
The ByungPool highlighted in RIMAN’s offerings, along with other actives, are encompassed in liposomes to ensure efficacy without compromise. In this way, novel technology introduces a traditional ingredient in an entirely new light, reshaping its use for modernity.
These efforts towards cultivation and formulation are married into creation, where ideologies and methodologies of skincare and skincare production are defined and promoted. While innovation is a major tenant of our philosophy, so is sustainability, and each step we make towards redefining skincare is with Mother Nature at our side. Acknowledging the beauty and the sanctity of our resources to finetune our methods gives us the opportunity to produce products of exceptional quality with a unified story and a clarified purpose. RIMAN aspires to innovate in a way that inspires you to make a change; whether that’s in your skincare routine or in your daily routine is up to you.
