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Discover IRÄYE Skincare, in conversation with Professor Michael Detmar

Discover IRÄYE Skincare, in conversation with Professor Michael Detmar

Purify, boost and protect with IRÄYE, the latest addition to our range that brings the cutting edge science of lymphatics to topical skincare for the very first time.

As we delve into the science and philosophy that propels IRÄYE to the forefront of skincare technology, Professor Detmar shares insights on how the brand's unique approach to activating the lymphatic system can transform skin health and appearance. With the Lymphatic Complex™ , join us in exploring this new arrival to our skincare range. Whether you're a skincare aficionado or a newcomer to the world of beauty and wellness, find out the secrets of IRÄYE and how you could redefine your daily regimen today.

What is the philosophy behind IRÄYE skincare and how it distinguishes your brand from others in the market?

IRÄYE is the first and only brand that has developed skincare products to activate the lymphatic vessels, the skin’s natural cleansing system. With stress, sun exposure and aging, lymphatic vessels weaken, leading to impaired skin health, dull skin appearance and accelerated skin aging. With IRÄYE skincare, the health and function of the lymphatic vessels are supported, resulting in healthy and radiant skin, and at the same time delaying skin aging. We believe that promoting long-term skin health is as important as reducing the visible effects of skin aging.

IRÄYE’s products are unique since they are designed to protect and activate the lymphatic system which naturally purifies our skin, removing all deleterious skin metabolites and waste products, rather than only trying to neutralize them (e.g. by anti-oxidants). The IRÄYE products act in a dual way: they are designed to activate the lymphatic system while also including a number of other ingredients such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and bio-retinol to offer a 360° protection. The results to expect are a “less-heavy”, depuffed and more sculpted skin that feels and looks younger, healthier and more radiant.

Can you tell us about the lymphatic system and how the understanding of this can support the health and function of the skin?

The skin works similar to a machine, using energy and creating toxic waste that needs to be removed in order to prevent self-poisoning of the skin. This waste cannot be transported to the skin surface but has to be removed internally. The lymphatic system is the body’s natural purification system and is essential to maintain health. It consists of fragile, transparent vessels that rhythmically contract to flush away excess fluid and to remove toxic waste products that are constantly produced by the skin cells, thereby ensuring a healthy and physiological skin microenvironment and providing a natural depuffing mechanism. In fact, the skin functions similar to a washing machine: The skin’s blood vessels have small holes through which water is continuously sprinkled into the skin, flushing the waste and toxins into lymphatic vessels for efficient cleansing. Lymphatic vessels also remove inflammatory substances and cells from the skin, thereby preventing skin irritation and degradation of the collagen and elastic fibers in the dermis, helping to slow down the aging process. Finally, it also plays an important role in our defense from skin infections by viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Surprisingly, we discovered several years ago that there are fewer lymphatic vessels in aged skin and that the remaining lymphatic vessels become leaky and do not function properly anymore, thereby enhancing skin aging.

IRÄYE aims to create skincare that helps to magnify your own natural radiance. How do the formulations accomplish this vision?

The skin’s lymphatic vessels remove waste, toxins, inflammatory cells and unneeded water from the skin, thereby maintaining a healthy, purified, radiant, well sculpted, firm skin without signs of puffiness or sagging contours. When the lymphatic vessels weaken with stress or age, the tissue fluid is not efficiently drained and becomes rather murky, leading to a dull skin appearance and often to skin irritation.

With activation of the lymphatic vessel function by IRÄYE skincare, the waste and toxins are again efficiently removed, leading to a clear tissue fluid and a radiant appearance of the skin without signs of irritation. Thus, activation of lymphatic vessel function by IRÄYE products results in a more radiant, healthy and firm looking skin which is also more sculpted and visibly depuffed. This is most dramatically seen with our currently best-selling product, the Eye Revive Cream, that has been designed to improve “puffy eyes” and dark circles which are due to a sluggish function of the lymphatic vessels around the eye. Many customers also report that they see a major improvement in the appearance of the so-called jaw line, a sagging of the skin to which an impaired lymphatic function contributes. The best results are obtained by following the application of the serum with application of the cream, and by massaging them into the skin following the natural lymphatic vessel routes towards the lymph nodes.

Why is skin detoxification important?

As mentioned before, our skin works similar to a machine, using energy and creating toxic waste that needs to be removed in order to prevent self-poisoning of the skin. This waste cannot be transported to the skin surface but has to be removed internally. This is the natural function of the skin’s lymphatic vessels. When the removal of waste and toxins is impaired, as with stress, sun exposure and aging, this leads to an accumulation in the skin, low-level inflammation, damage to collagen and elastic fibers, and apparently also to damage to the skin’s stem cells, thereby causing visible signs of aging including dull skin appearance, puffy eyes, wrinkles and sagging skin. At the same time, the skin aging process is accelerated. While many skincare products aim to just neutralize the toxic waste, IRÄYE products are designed to also efficiently remove the toxic substances and inflammatory cells from the skin, thereby maintaining skin health and a radiant appearance.

What is the unique Lymphatic Complex™ technology behind the formulations of your products and how does it work?

During our medical drug development program, we screened more than 2000 plant extracts for their ability to activate the lymphatic endothelial cells that we had isolated from human skin and grown in the laboratory at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich. After almost 10 years of research, we found that five of these were indeed active. These were then used to develop our proprietary patent-pending “Lymphactive™ Complex”, a specific combination of these ingredients, which is contained in all of our products. IRÄYE’s products are thus unique since they are designed to protect and activate the lymphatic system which naturally purifies our skin, removing all deleterious skin metabolites and waste products, rather than only trying to neutralize them (e.g. by anti-oxidants).

One should note that the IRÄYE products act in multiple ways: They are designed to activate the lymphatic system while also including a number of other active ingredients such as triple hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, and a gentle bio-retinol to offer a 360° protection. The results to expect are a “less-heavy”, depuffed and more sculpted skin that feels and looks younger, healthier and more radiant.

How have you considered environmental impact in the processes and production of IRÄYE?

Environmental impact is at the heart of our Swiss brand IRÄYE. We use clean ingredients, our products are vegan and cruelty-free, and the Lymphactive™ complex is based on natural plant extracts. Importantly, the IRÄYE facial products are designed to reduce single-use plastics and glass and to deliver reusable componentry and operate with a refill system: The packaging has an inner refill unit that – when used up - can be separated from the glass bottle, the pump and the cap, which are designed to be reusable and to last. Our bottles and refills use 100% recyclable components made from PE & PP plastics. Our secondary packaging is made from 100% FSC certified material and is fully biodegradable to help keep waste to a minimum. As a result, when replenishing IRÄYE products with refills instead of original products, our consumers allow us to immediately cut down on packaging waste and minimize the environmental impact of the whole value chain.