How Freeze-Dried Skincare Beads Are Made
EVIK™ LyoPearl Technology
EVIK™ LyoPearl beads are made differently from most freeze-dried cosmetic ingredients. The usual method freeze-dries skincare actives in bulk, which leaves a solid cake or powder. That material then has to be milled, sieved and repackaged, and each of those steps can change the dose, the surface area and the way the ingredient dissolves (reconstitution).
EVIK™ LyoPearl beads start as single droplets. Each bead is formed on its own and holds a precisely measured amount of active formulation.
It is frozen instantly into a perfect sphere and then dried, and it is never broken, ground or processed again after that.
Below, we walk through the four steps behind every EVIK™ LyoPearl bead.
Why Freeze-Drying for Skincare Actives?
The most effective skincare actives are often the least stable. Vitamin C oxidises in water within days of opening. Retinol breaks down when exposed to light and air. Peptides degrade with heat, the wrong pH, or ingredients they don’t work well with. Hyaluronic acid in water-based formulas needs preservatives to stop microbes from growing.
What all of these have in common is water. Oxidation happens in water, microbes need it to grow, and incompatible ingredients react through it. Remove the water completely and these instability problems stop.
Freeze-drying, also called lyophilization, removes water by first turning it into ice. The ice is then sublimated, which means it turns straight into vapour, under controlled temperature and vacuum. No heat is used, so the active ingredients are not damaged. What is left is a dry, stable matrix. The active ingredient is held in a glassy, amorphous solid that greatly limits molecular movement, oxidation and degradation.
This gives the beads qualities that bulk freeze-drying can’t match: the same spherical shape every time, a set mass per bead, a controlled surface-area-to-volume ratio, and instant reconstitution.
For skincare formulators, brands and product developers, this brings clear benefits:
No preservatives
With no water, there is nothing for microbes to grow in.
No cold chain
The freeze-dried bead is stable at ambient (room) temperature, so no refrigeration is needed in storage or distribution.
Maximum potency at point of use
The active stays in its most stable state until the consumer dissolves it.
Clean label
The dry bead formula needs no preservative system, no stack of antioxidant stabilisers and no emulsifiers.
A fresh single dose every time
Each bead is a self-contained unit, so there is no build-up of degradation from opening a multi-use container again and again.
The Four Steps of EVIK™ LyoPearl Production
Every EVIK™ LyoPearl bead goes through four carefully controlled production steps. Each one is designed to protect the potency of the active ingredient, keep every bead consistent with the next, and create the spherical shape that defines the LyoPearl format.
Formulation
Every EVIK™ LyoPearl starts as a liquid formulation. The active skincare ingredient (ascorbic acid, sodium hyaluronate, niacinamide, collagen peptides, retinol or another active) is mixed with carefully chosen excipients. These are lyoprotectants, stabilisers and processing aids, selected to protect the active through the freeze-drying cycle and through storage at ambient temperature.
This step sets the foundation for how the bead performs. The excipient formula decides whether the active keeps its full potency through the temperature stresses of freezing and drying, how quickly the bead dissolves when applied, and how stable it stays over its shelf life.
Evik Diagnostics has developed its own proprietary excipient blends for each active in the EVIK™ LyoPearl range. They have been refined over years of lyophilization formulation work in both diagnostic and cosmetic applications.
The active ingredient is dissolved or dispersed in the formulation at the target wet concentration.
Excipients are chosen to form a glassy, amorphous matrix when dried, which keeps molecular movement to a minimum.
Cryopelletization
This is the step that sets EVIK™ LyoPearl apart from cosmetic ingredients that are freeze-dried in bulk.
The liquid formulation is dispensed as individual, precisely measured droplets into a bath of liquid nitrogen at −196°C. The moment a droplet touches the liquid nitrogen, its outer surface freezes instantly.
As the droplet falls, surface tension pulls it into a sphere. It is the same force that makes water bead up on a waxed surface. The instant freezing then locks that shape in place for good. A falling drop goes into the liquid nitrogen, and a perfectly spherical frozen bead comes out.
Dispensing accuracy is critical here. A calibrated micro-dispensing system keeps the volume of every drop within a tight tolerance, so every bead in every vial holds the same mass of active ingredient. The coefficient of mass variation across beads made this way is typically below 2%. Bulk freeze-dried powder cannot come close to this level of dosing precision.
Each droplet is dispensed at a set volume, which decides the final bead mass.
Direct contact with liquid nitrogen (−196°C) freezes the droplet faster than any conventional freezing method.
Fast freezing protects the formulation. Rapid vitrification keeps ice crystal formation to a minimum and preserves the structure of the active ingredient.
The frozen beads collect in the liquid nitrogen bath and stay there until the whole batch is finished.
Freeze-Drying
The frozen beads are moved from the liquid nitrogen bath onto pre-cooled trays and loaded into the freeze-dryer. They stay frozen the whole time. Once the full batch is loaded, the freeze-dryer starts the primary drying phase.
Under controlled vacuum, the chamber pressure is lowered until the ice sublimates, turning directly into vapour without ever melting back into liquid. This is the defining feature of lyophilization. Because the water never becomes liquid again, the active ingredient is never exposed to the wet conditions that drive oxidation, hydrolysis and microbial activity.
As the ice leaves, the three-dimensional structure of the formulation stays intact, including the way the active ingredient sits within its protective excipient matrix.
The potency, structure and surface chemistry of the active ingredient are preserved through the entire drying cycle.
Harvesting
When the freeze-drying cycle ends, the trays hold thousands of dry, perfectly spherical lyobeads. Each one is a self-contained, single-dose unit of the active formulation. They are lightweight, stable at ambient temperature and ready for filling.
The beads are harvested and counted into vials under controlled humidity so they don’t pick up moisture. Each vial is sealed with a desiccant pouch that keeps humidity low for the product’s full shelf life. This keeps the glassy matrix intact, and that matrix is what protects the active ingredient.
The spherical shape also helps the bead dissolve fast. Where the ice was removed, the freeze-dried matrix is left porous, with a large internal surface area. When the bead meets water, this lets it dissolve completely within seconds.
Beads come off the freeze-dryer trays as dry, free-flowing spheres that need no further processing.
They are counted and filled into vials under controlled humidity.
Each vial is sealed with desiccant to keep storage conditions dry for the full shelf life.
Quality checks confirm bead mass, diameter, moisture content and active ingredient concentration for every batch.
Built on Lyophilization Expertise from Diagnostics and Life Sciences
The EVIK™ LyoPearl production process was not adapted from the cosmetics industry. It comes from the diagnostics industry, where the same cryopelletization process has been used for years to make lyophilized reagent beads for molecular diagnostic assays, point-of-care cartridges and immunoassay kits.
Diagnostics has strict requirements. Enzyme activity must be consistent from bead to bead within a tight tolerance. Reconstitution must be fast and complete. Ambient stability must be guaranteed for the full product shelf life. In a medical diagnostic product, any variation in bead mass, composition or reconstitution is not acceptable.
Every EVIK™ LyoPearl bead is made to that same standard of precision. Excipient selection, dispensing calibration, lyophilization cycle development and quality checks all draw on Evik Diagnostics’ 15 years of experience making lyophilized diagnostic reagent beads for demanding life sciences applications. EVIK™ LyoPearl brings that same process discipline to cosmetic active ingredient formulation.
Available in the EVIK™ LyoPearl Range
EVIK™ LyoPearl is currently available in five pre-formulated active ingredient formats for skincare formulation evaluation:
EVIK™ LyoPearl Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
L-ascorbic acid 82.7% dry weight, with sodium hyaluronate and hydrolyzed collagen
EVIK™ LyoPearl Hyaluronic Acid
Sodium hyaluronate 23.1% dry weight
EVIK™ LyoPearl Niacinamide (Vitamin B3)
Niacinamide 100% dry weight, 12.8 mg per bead
EVIK™ LyoPearl Collagen
Hydrolyzed collagen 8.9%, with sodium hyaluronate 26.0% dry weight
EVIK™ LyoPearl Retinol (Vitamin A)
Retinol 22.7% dry weight, with sodium hyaluronate and polysorbate 20
Explore the EVIK™ LyoPearl Range
EVIK™ LyoPearl is available for research and evaluation. Contact the Evik Diagnostics team to request a sample of any product in the range, discuss custom formulation requirements, or learn more about the manufacturing process.
Custom lyobead contract development and manufacturing at evikdiagnostics.comEVIK™ LyoPearl is developed and manufactured by Evik Diagnostics, specialists in freeze-dry bead formulation and manufacturing for diagnostics, life sciences and skincare.