The future of cosmetics is bio-based. And we believe nature has far more to offer than we have discovered so far. Haloderma is a Danish skincare company and Aalborg university spin-off dedicated to transforming natural bioactive ingredients into innovative skincare solutions. We focus on unlocking the potential of overlooked and underused biomass, transforming it into powerful, nature-derived ingredients for the next generation of cosmetics. Our mission is to discover the value hidden in resilient plants, seaweed and other renewable resources—and turn their naturally occurring bioactive compounds into products that people can truly experience and trust. We bring together biotechnology, green processing and cosmetic science to move from biomass to bioactive ingredients, and from bioactive ingredients to effective, safe and desirable skincare products. Our ambition is global: to help redefine beauty through science and nature, creating high-value cosmetic solutions that are not only effective for the skin, but also better aligned with the planet. Because the skincare of tomorrow should not simply be inspired by nature.
It should be made from nature.
This background is closely connected to Haloderma’s role in the SALINA project. SALINA focuses on developing new value chains based on cultivated European seaweed. The project covers several stages, from cultivation and processing of seaweed to the development and validation of products for the food, cosmetic and construction sectors. One of the central ideas in SALINA is that seaweed should be regarded as a resource from which several useful products and ingredients can be obtained. Rather than cultivating seaweed for a single application, the project investigates how different fractions of the biomass can be used in different ways. Some seaweed can be used directly, for example in food products, while other biomass can be processed to obtain compounds such as polysaccharides and peptides. The remaining fibre-rich material can also potentially be used rather than being treated simply as a residual stream.
Within this wider value chain, Haloderma is responsible for translating selected seaweed-derived ingredients into innovative, high-value cosmetic applications, bridging advanced biomass processing with market-oriented skincare development. Haloderma will lead the development and validation of two cosmetic prototypes in SALINA. The first is a moisturising cream containing ulvan, a polysaccharide obtained from Ulva seaweed. The second is an exfoliating gel containing fibre-rich material recovered from the processing of seaweed biomass. These two products represent somewhat different aspects of the project.
The ulvan-based cream investigates whether a purified seaweed-derived fraction can be incorporated successfully into a cosmetic formulation and provide useful properties in a moisturising product. This involves more than simply adding the ingredient to an existing cream. The formulation needs to be developed so that the ingredient is compatible with the other components, the product has an appropriate texture and the formulation remains stable over time.
The exfoliating gel looks at another part of the seaweed processing chain. After valuable components have been extracted from the biomass, a fibre-rich fraction remains. SALINA will investigate whether this material can instead become a functional ingredient in a cosmetic exfoliant. This directly supports the SALINA project’s ambition to maximise the value and utilisation of the original biomass, ensuring that valuable components are recovered and transformed into high-value products rather than lost as waste.
For Haloderma, this type of work is a natural extension of the company’s established expertise in bio-based ingredients and innovative skincare development. The company has extensive experience working with bioactive extracts from halophytes, which are plants adapted to saline environments, translating their functional properties into innovative skincare formulations. Haloderma has also gained valuable experience through participation in European research and innovation initiatives, including Women TechEU and the Horizon Europe HALO-TEX project, strengthening its capacity to translate research results into innovative, sustainable and market-oriented solutions. This provides a strong foundation for extending Haloderma’s activities from terrestrial salt-tolerant plants to SALINA seaweed-derived ingredients.
Seaweed represents a different biomass source and contains different types of compounds, but many of the questions that arise during product development are similar. An ingredient may demonstrate promising biological activity when evaluated as an isolated compound or extract, but this activity does not automatically translate into the same functionality in a finished cosmetic formulation. The formulation environment can influence the stability, solubility, availability and performance of the active compounds, and interactions with other ingredients may further affect their activity. Therefore, a key part of Haloderma’s role is to ensure that the desired functionality is retained throughout formulation and remains relevant in the final cosmetic product. This requires systematic optimisation of formulation parameters, including ingredient concentration, pH, processing conditions and compatibility with other components, followed by stability and performance evaluation of the finished product. Safety is our primary priority. Therefore, the project includes dermatological testing and in-use studies with volunteers. This approach allows SALINA to move beyond demonstrating bioactivity at laboratory level towards functional, safe and reproducible cosmetic products whose functionality can ultimately be evaluated and confirmed by end-users.
Other partners in SALINA are responsible for cultivating seaweed, processing the biomass and producing different fractions. Haloderma will receive selected fractions and focus on translating them into finished cosmetic prototypes. Importantly, the formulation work can also provide feedback to the partners working upstream on cultivation, extraction and processing. A fraction that performs well from a processing perspective may not necessarily have the properties required to function as an effective and attractive cosmetic ingredient. This interaction across the value chain is a central strength of SALINA. The consortium brings together organisations covering the complete pathway from biomass production to final products, including seaweed farmers, technology developers, researchers and companies developing consumer applications. For an end-user company such as Haloderma, this creates an opportunity to work directly with the organisations producing and processing the ingredients, rather than starting from a commercially available ingredient whose upstream production and characteristics are already largely fixed.
SALINA also takes a broader view of the sustainability of emerging seaweed value chains. Environmental impacts, resource consumption, biodiversity and economic considerations will be assessed alongside technical performance. The ambition is therefore not simply to replace conventional ingredients with seaweed-derived alternatives, but to determine whether the entire value chain can provide a realistic, scalable and sustainable basis for future products.
For Haloderma, SALINA aligns closely with the company’s broader interest in connecting biological resources, innovative extraction technologies and skincare development. The company focuses on identifying promising natural resources and transforming them through formulation, testing and validation into ingredients and products with genuine potential for cosmetic applications. Through SALINA, Haloderma will contribute primarily at this final application stage, using its expertise in cosmetic formulation and validation to investigate how ulvan- and fibre-rich seaweed fractions can be transformed into practical, functional skincare prototypes. At the same time, participation in the project will allow Haloderma to work more closely with the emerging European seaweed value chain and to explore how marine biomass can open new opportunities for sustainable cosmetic ingredients.
In this way, Haloderma’s role is not limited to developing a final product. By bringing real-world formulation requirements back into the value chain, the company can help connect what is technically possible at the biomass and processing stages with what is ultimately needed by the cosmetics market.