I’m more of a beer person myself, but here’s good news for the red wine fans in the Beauty Brains community: a new technology that can turn vino into skin creams (and more.)

Red wine technology

ScienceDaily reports that the German chemical analysis company Spectral Service in partnership with Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum (TTZ)) and the Spanish natural cosmetics company Alfaverde Productos Naturales, have developed a powdered version of red wine that can be used in skin creams as well as foods and drinks.

The trick was to develop a gentle drying process that did not use heat that could destroy the active ingredients  (proteins and polyphenols)  They found that skin creams formulated with this  powder had potential anti-wrinkle effects. It’s a little bit weird though, because the cream starts out with a violet color that fades as the product is absorbed into the skin.

Red Green

From a “green” perspective, this is a great technology because it creates a new, useful raw material from a red wine by-product that can no longer be dumped on land (according to European regulations.) Just in Germany alone, there are about 120,000 hectolitres of wine by-products, enough to produce 12,000 tonnes of dried red wine powder.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

It’s great to see companies researching ingredients that are both efficacious and environmentally friendly.