Mantle Creates Skin Care Inspired by Heart Transplant Tech

PARIS — Scandinavian beauty brand Mantle has taken a cue from heart transplant technology for its new product: The Organ Essence.

“Our chemist, who runs R&D in our lab, was doing research because her goddaughter — her best friend’s daughter — was having a heart transplant,” said Josefin Landgård, chief executive officer and cofounder of Stockholm-based Mantle. “She did research before the surgery and found out about the liquid that they put the organs in.”

“It prevents the organs from oxidation when they are outside the body,” Landgård said. “You need these very strong antioxidants to protect the tissue, but also to keep it from degrading.”

The chemist began experimenting to see if it is possible to make a similar liquid for skin care.

“Since we also want to preserve the tissue, things that protect from free radicals,” Landgård said, adding some difficulties can arise with traditional antioxidants, like vitamin C, since not everybody tolerates them well. However, that’s not the case with this tissue-preserving liquid, which is gentle and effective.

The dream became reality. “For the first time in the world, it’s available as a skin care product,” Landgård said.

She has been obsessed with The Organ Essence since the first sample, lauding the liquid for how it protects and can strengthen skin so that its surface dryness disappears.

“Over time, we could see the antioxidants are very efficient — so you get this brightening effect and pigmentation fades, et cetera,” Landgård said. “We’ve been working on this for quite some time now.”

The Launch of The Organ Essence, starting earlier this week, is to be Mantle’s largest. A 100-ml. bottle retails for 48 euros.

Mantle taps into its Scandinavian heritage to create products that can help skin weather the harsh elements like the cold of winter that can bring on dryness and sensitivity.

Landgård described the brand’s product formulas as “barrier-reparative and very nourishing, using biomimetic ingredients.”

Her background is in tech. “So everything is also tech-infused and innovation-driven,” Landgård said. In Mantle’s laboratory, it develops products and keeps searching for the new ingredients to combine with traditional ones.

She has a penchant for a wide range, including ceramides, bakuchiol, sea buckthorn, jellyfish mucin, EGFs, new peptides, orchid stem cells and bio placenta. Landgård aims to drive innovation, while keeping products highly functional.

Mantle, which was founded in 2020, has 38 products, including skin care, bath, body and hair care. The brand has linked with some hotel partners for amenities, including Ett Hem in Stockholm.

Mantle’s key skin categories include facial serums, moisturizers, cleansers and body care. The hero product is The Hydra Serum.

Face care product prices range from 28 euros for The Magic Milk to 159 euros for The Longevity Mask. For body, they run between 19 euros for The High Five hand cream and 58 euros for the Body Retinoil.

Mantle’s home market of Sweden remains its largest, followed by Germany and Denmark. The brand distributes elsewhere in Europe — such as at Liberty and Selfridges in the United Kingdom, and Le Bon Marché and Printemps Haussmann, plus Oh My Cream online in France — and in the U.S., through Mantle’s website and Printemps NYC.

Altogether, the brand is in 197 doors worldwide. Its e-commerce site ships globally.

The company has about 20 employees. Industry sources estimate its total sales last year were about 7 million euros.

In February 2024, Mantle raised 2.4 million pounds in a funding round led by London-based venture capital firm Venrex. That brought the company’s total funding to date to 6.9 million pounds. That investment was made to bolster Mantle’s European expansion.

H&M is another major backer of Mantle.