The global skincare industry has largely escaped scrutiny regarding its environmental impact, despite millions of products being sold daily.

While natural skincare is often seen as eco-friendly, sourcing ingredients can result in depleting agricultural land, competition with food sources, as well as requiring a significant amount of clean water and energy, resulting in severe greenhouse gas emissions.

Many widely used skincare ingredients are not biodegradable, contribute to water and air pollution and most come in packaging materials like glass and plastic, ending up as environmental waste.

Combined with the growing issues regarding skin health these challenges creates a pressing need to focus on better and more sustainable solutions in the skincare industry.

After three years of development with field experts, formulators and scientists in collaboration with the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Centre for Biosustainability, Bioli have introduced a new series of biotech skincare products designed with sensitive skin and the environment in mind, the development process was guided by strict criteria that addressed both skin and environmental health:

• Leveraging biotech and enzyme technology as hero technology that mimics nature, providing the foundation for effective skincare without depleting resources, harming the environment or causing skin irritation
• Allowing only ingredients that are completely biodegradable, enzyme-compatible and mainly biotech-produced to minimise resource extraction and depletion and ensure consistency in every product
• Using only biodegradable, home-compostable packaging without plastic or glass and keeping packaging at a minimum and locally sourced

This process has resulted in six defined products with the first unisex product, Moisturising and Protecting Day Cream, which was launched in early 2025. The product provides high antioxidant activity, protecting the skin against environmental stressors, powered by BioProtect, an enzyme-based technology using Superoxide Dismutase.

Compared to the commonly used Vitamin C, this reduces water and energy use by 80 percent and cuts CO₂ emissions by 30 percent. Plant-based enzymes further minimise environmental impact, using 50 percent less land, 10 percent less fossil energy and emits 30 percent less CO₂. The cream is made from 100 percent biodegradable ingredients and packaging.

The container, derived from fermented microorganisms, biodegrades in home composting systems after use, leaving no trace.