What Makes a Skin Care Brand Blue Zone-worthy? Immunocologie Knows...

In January 2024, Immunocologie Skincare collaborated with longevity-focused Blue Zones to become the first skin care range to appear on the popular online store.

The brand, which leverages ionized water, was chosen for its approach to holistic skin health, including balancing the microbiome to support the skin's immune system.

Other key ingredients include mineral-rich French green clay, marine algae and cold-pressed, fermented plant-based ingredients such as baobab, desert date tree, grape, sunflower, moringa seeds and shea butter.

The formulations are designed to transport minerals and vitamins to the skin's microbiome, per the brand.

Immunocologie also engages in sustainable partnerships with communities that provide the line's natural ingredients.

Understanding the Blue Zones Movement

Blue Zones are locales featuring "extraordinary longevity and vitality," according to the organization. Among the five sites that meet its criteria are the Barbagia region of Sardinia; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California; and Okinawa, Japan.

As part of the partnership, select Immunocologie products (the Vital Clay Mask, Vital Ionic Mist and self-heating Lava Mask) have been featured online alongside other Blue Zones-endorsed products including longevity foods and beverages, as well as Blue Zones publications.

Immunocologie Founder Q&A

Blue Zones are locales featuring "extraordinary longevity and vitality," according to the organization. Among the five sites that meet its criteria are the Barbagia region of Sardinia; Ikaria, Greece (pictured); Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California; and Okinawa, Japan.milangonda at Adobe StockTo learn more about the partnership, Global Cosmetic Industry spoke with Immunocologie founder, Karen Ballou.

What about Immunocologie's mission makes it a fit with Blue Zones' longevity mission?

Ballou: Immunocologie is your skin care’s foundation for well-being, healthy skin. Consequently, Immunocologie’s holistic approach to skin health is consistent with Blue Zones principles of living better longer.

For example, working with the skin's natural delivery system, Immunocologie uses ionized water (creating a natural energy charge), purified, mineral-rich French green clay, marine algae and cold-pressed, fermented plant-based ingredients–including oil from baobab, desert date tree, grape, sunflower, moringa seeds and shea butter–to transport crucial minerals and vitamins to the skin's microbiome.

Plus, Immunocologie, like Blue Zones also engages in key sustainable partnerships with communities that provide the brand's natural ingredients.

Which products are featured as part of the partnership?

Ballou: The Blue Zones partnership will initially introduce three of Immunocologie's signature products to the Blue Zones audience:

1. Vital Clay Mask, a skin balancing earth grounding mineral mask that creates the highest level of skin detoxing while hydrating and reducing redness with the powerful and enriched formula derived from green clay from France.
2. Vital Ionic Mist, a topical pH skin balancing daily wellness ionic water misting spray powered by the science of clay.
3. Lava Mask. This thermal earth-derived sheet mask was developed to honor the skin's bio intelligence of skin health. [It features] a combination of its earth elements of lava, marine algae and hibiscus that gets warm with water. It's a luxurious way to increase blood flow to the skin increasing blood flow for congested dull sluggish and detoxing the pores as it hydrates leaving the skin soft supple and glowing contributing to a mind-body balancing experience.

What role do you see skin care playing in the larger health/longevity conversation?

Ballou: I see the role of skin care as being a part of everyone’s conversation about their healthy lifestyle. The subject is a new conversation we are having. It's a light bulb moment that the amount of people using products daily that have toxins in them is an extreme amount of our population. This conversation of longevity with skin care will be the top conversation as we move forward playing a larger role for better living and well-being.

Walk us through how you initiated the partnership.

Ballou: What lead us to the yes is we are a brand about well-being and longevity! With earth's minerals and plants being the base of everything we do in creating formulas for the skin.

We use them with our delivery methodology our patented ionic exchange from our earth mineral, clay. We use this ionic exchange water to deliver to the skin a simple but natural pH approach using nature to supply our skin's microbiome with the much-needed benefit to our largest organ, this is what skin needs to be beautiful, healthy and glowing but without inflammation.

We cold press, we are fermented we are conscious of ingredients as they are for food and lifestyle, and it is this we are aligned with the philosophy of Blue Zones which makes us ideal for this type of partnership!

What about Immunocologie's underlying ingredient and formulation philosophy makes it ideal for this type of partnership?

Ballou: We often forget that our skin is the largest and one of the most important organs of our bodies. Consequently, our safe and non-toxic ingredients and natural formulations mean that our pro-longevity products are supercharged, superfoods for the skin and body contributing to a longer better life. Our partnership for skin health with Blue Zones provides an evidence-informed way to naturally boost well-being from the outside in.

What is the importance of these types of partnerships in building a brand?

Ballou: These types of partnerships are critical to our brand. They help shape Immunocologie as a lifestyle concept and engender extended branded moments with consumers. Moreover, they bring awareness and validates a brand. A brand can say what its purpose is and the why of what it stands for but when you have someone from a larger brand with a proven audience that stands by you it brings your brand to another level of awareness and it allows you to be noticed for growth!

How do you ensure your brand doesn't get lost in the "wellness" noise?

Ballou: Great question. Our Skin Health approach is different making us a different type of brand, one that is exclusively focused on skin’s microbiome. We have never wavered, we march to the sound of ‘skin health is health’, always knowing the most important is true to our largest organ on the body and it needs to be cared for just like we care for our gut health, and we do just that! Simply put...we do us and choose not to get lost by trying to do someone else.

We do not subscribe to all the artificial stimuli that comes under commercial wellness. We in turn create balance to the skins pH and we like to say at Immunocologie, we are 'juicing for the skin’. We look like skin care; we act like skin care, but we are more than skin care in that we promise skin health and glow naturally with balance!

What's next for your brand? 

Ballou: We have some exciting strategic partnerships coming in the next year or so. We recently closed a distribution deal for Mexico and the greater Latin America and are working on deals for Europe & Greece too. Moreover, we are in the final discussions with a major new age lifestyle advocate for a series of wellness and health related endeavors. We are also in talks with more spa and wellness centers around the world!

Next year at this time our distribution will be mighty and new product launches will be added. I think about the many people we will be helping through their journey of wellness; we'll continue to bring products together for all our well-being to live better longer and making the best products for longevity!