Confectionery manufacturer Ezaki Glico to introduce debut skin care line

Ezaki Glico, a Japanese confectionery manufacturer, is introducing its first skin care line for the cosmetics market featuring glycogen, a carbohydrate said to be helpful in skin moisture retaining.

The company, which is introducing a lotion and cream line under Ezaki’s ‘gg’brand, named the products after glycogen – which it uses in its caramel candies.

It is said to have developed the line in order to provide purer glycogen to the area of skin care, reported cosmeticsdesign.com.

According to the firm, glycogen is said to be found on the skin’s surface, and helps to keep the outer layer of skin hydrated.

Ezaki Glico said by using a proprietary enzyme, it has found a way to manufacture it from plant starch, which earlier had to be extracted from oysters and other natural sources.

The firm told the website that the new method creates purer, higher-quality glycogen, and that it is considering to supply the product to other cosmetics makers, depending on the success of the skincare line.

Ezaki Glico has also undergone a third-party survey for the product, which revealed that the skincare line could contribute to increased moisture retention and firmer skin.

Though the new product range is the company’s first skin care product line, Ezaki Glico began supplying cosmetics additives such as Alpha-Arbutin, an agent effective in skin-whitening applications to global industry players like DSM back in 2001, and in recent years stepped into China and North American markets.

Earlier Ezaki Glico and DSM Nutritional Products had jointly discovered that a-Arbutin contained a strong inhibiting effect on human tyrosinase, the enzyme is involved in synthesis of melanin which causes freckles and suntan), and since collaboration DSM has been commercially distributing the substance globally as a skin-lightening ingredient.