While you were sleeping: SOVA focuses R&D on developing serum-infused textiles to enhance beauty sleep

Founded in 2020, SOVA specialises in the development of mulberry silk sleep products that can impart skin benefits.

The brand’s lineup includes pillowcases, sleepwear, eye masks, and scrunchies.

“The average person spends about seven to nine hours in bed. During this whole time, your face is actually on your pillowcase. With the right pillowcase, it can promote better sleep and better skin just by lying on it. It can help you retain the creams and serums you have on your face and not rob the moisture away from it,” said Gidania Wong, founder of SOVA.

In August, it launched hyaluronic acid-infused pillowcases.

According to Wong, it utilises Advanced Micro Encapsulation to develop this textile.

“With this technology every fibre is coated with hyaluronic acid during the mixing phase, and that creates the textile that is made into our pillowcases,” she explained.

With growing awareness of the importance of sleep and the lines between beauty and wellness increasingly blurring, the company sees significant opportunities for development in this space.

Wong told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that that the company's current focus is on developing more textiles infused with different skin care ingredients.

“This is something we’ve always wanted to do, but the technology wasn’t as readily available then. We started with hyaluronic acid because it is an ingredient that everyone knows, and everyone knows that it is for hydration.”

The company is currently developing copper ion-fused textiles, which has been clinically proven to visibly reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It is also known to have antimicrobial properties.

Wong has observed that the current skin care market has a heavy focus on classic skin care ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, or retinol.

However, the company believes there will always be appetite for novel solutions.

“Beauty has tapped into many trends, from snail mucin to stem cells. For instance, there are many skin care products in the market that already use silk. There are other materials that can be incorporated into beauty to make it more interesting. Copper, silver… I see these as the way forward, said Wong.”

The company sources its silk from Suzhou, China, which has been the centre of silk production for centuries and is often known as the silk capital of China.

SOVA uses grade 6A 22-momme mulberry silk, which Wong said was the highest grade available for commercial use.

The effects of the hyaluronic acid coated mulberry silk are at their strongest for the first six months.

“The efficacy will decline with more washes. It will not disappear overnight, but it is not true that it lasts forever either. The recommendation is to wash it once every one to two weeks. You can also dry clean it to preserve the efficacy,” explained Wong.