Beauty has a latest biotechnology-rooted player.

Sweet Chemistry, a skincare brand launching this summer, is coming to market with two products that depend on an ingredient derived from cow bones. The Elasticity Reinforcing Cream and the Reparative Oil-Serum Infusion each contain 3 percent Matrikynes, regenerative bone peptide derived from upcycled cow bones. Each is priced at $170 and can debut on the brand’s website.

The brand combines the proprietary ingredient with big beauty expertise. Alec Batis, a cofounder, was a research chemist for L’Oréal, and he teamed up with Dr. John O’Neill, PhD, of Xylyx Bio to bring the formulas to fruition.

“I began at L’Oréal, and within the early ’90s, they switched me to marketing. I spent so a few years working within the industry on different brands,” Batis said. “I had seen the extracellular matrix said in a lot beauty marketing, with signaling peptides. But when [O’Neill] told me what they were doing with it on the earth of regenerative medicine, I assumed it was at an entire other level.”

O’Neill said the applications of his technology are myriad, especially within the medical field, and was searching for an industry veteran to assist him penetrate the market. “Extracellular matrix is that this fundamental, complex, natural glue of bioactive aspects that hold life together,” he said. “When things go improper, when you’ve damage or dysfunction, it’s involved within the reparative process. We met Alec and discussed the applications and potential for topical application of Matrikynes.”

He also sees health and beauty — and relatedly, his work — as inextricably linked. “Some of the common fundamental bases for beauty throughout the ages, across all cultures and folks is health — healthy appearance, healthy function. To that end, our technology and our work in regenerative medicine, what we have now shown what we will do, actually gets to the center of that. We’re supporting beauty by supporting health.”

Batis took the formulas even further, with each formula being composed of 40 percent to 45 percent lively ingredients, he said, and 30 percent less water. Each of the botanical oils and extracts are certified organic, and the brand is cruelty free. The important thing was to incorporate ingredients at functional levels, not marketing levels. “On this world of transparency, should you don’t wish to put an ingredient in, then don’t. Should you’re not going to place it in there at any reasonable level, then why put it in there?” he mused. “I’m not on one side of the ‘clean’ world, I’m in the center, and I assess every thing fastidiously.”

Batis also added that the brand is exploring retail partnerships, and has an innovation pipeline composed of 16 stock keeping units in the following three years. He doesn’t, though, plan to maintain that cadence. “This brand won’t ever have 100 skus. There’s no need, I’m not under pressure to provide you with things like that. We’re going to stick with what we expect is required to care for the skin, and leave it at that.”

Neither commented on sales, but industry sources estimate the brand to succeed in $2 million in sales for its first yr available on the market.