This is Silk skincare
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This is Silk is the award-winning new luxury skincare range with formulations based around a unique-to-the brand silk peptide advanced technology. The idea came to founder, Sonal Keay, having been afflicted by a life changing skin allergy to UVA daylight since youth: having researched silk’s ancient wound healing properties and experienced its efficacy on her damaged skin, she launched This is Silk a curated range of silk peptide products also formulated with exquisite essentials. I caught up with her to find out more about the profound story and the cosmeceutical-grade magical products.
I was immediately drawn to the This is Silk story having enjoyed using silk based makeup foundation but never ever seen it used in skincare: the sleek, super fine texture that glides easily into the skin might confuse consumers as to just how powerful the unique silk peptide is at reaching into the epidermis layers, creating ‘denser’ skin and forming a protective barrier around the skin surface, ultimately with profound anti-ageing efficacy. Sonal is armed with all the facts; having spent years researching and clinical testing how she could use knowledge she had accrued from hours reading about silk in the British Library and translate it into skincare. (Note: This is Silk skincare has caused such a ripple, The British Library has recently made her an ambassador for their business centre)
Sonal explains, ‘As a child I had such severe eczema I was hospitalised and all there was then to treat it was endless steroids. At 14 years, I went on holiday with my family to France and got such severe burning which made no sense because all my family are of Indian origin and none had that reaction to the same sun exposure.’ She continues, ‘My skin was so sensitive it was blistering as if I had an allergic reaction: despairing what to do a friend posted on an internet forum – it was 1997 when the internet was academic based – and a top photo-dermatologist invited me for testing, he realised I had developed a very rare allergy to daylight.’ Following on from this diagnosis, Sonal’s life was turned upside down, she took to covering herself in silk scarves outside (the only material that soothed her skin), our conversation triggers memories of being stuck alone in dark hotel rooms abroad unable to venture out for fear of her skin reacting.
Years later during pregnancy, the allergy flared up again, ‘I started sleeping on silk pillowcases and researching further the science behind silk, including the Ancient Grecian communities who used it for wound healing with profound benefits.’ Interestingly silk as a material is so close chemically and structurally to that of the skin, that science still can’t replicate the natural silk making process where the silk moth spins the silk cocoon. Sonal met with Brighton University’s Head of Regenerative Medicine Centre, who developed this unique preparatory silk peptide for her. Known as SF-V11, the clinical studies tested the ingredient in in-vitro skin cells and showed a significantly increased proliferation of fibroblasts, keratinocytes and collagen; whilst the new silk rich cream soon to launch showed a 31.7% reduction in fine lines and crows feet in clinical tests.
Sonal takes a rigorous approach to every stage of the process, ‘the testing of the silk peptide by the professor began beginning of 2023, and we launched the peptide into the formulations in January 2025.’ The Silk Cream Cleanser and The Silk Face Oil were the first two products brought to market: ‘creating the cleanser I was motivated by memories of my mother at her dressing table at a time when skincare wasn’t about using multiple products but instead investing in your skin. I don’t like stripping cleansers due to my condition and as I always have to wear sunscreen it needed to really remove all the grime. If it wasn’t a nourishing formulation though I wouldn’t make it.’ The bestselling Silk Cream Cleanser is, therefore, also infused with botanicals such as mango seed butter, ‘lighter than shea butter,’ cacao seed butter, plumping propanediol and mood enhancing essentials jasmine, neroli, and rose amongst others. ‘I wanted this product to be more than a cleanser but actually indulge users as part of a self-ritual moment at the start or end of a day.’
The Silk Face Oil is full of sumptuous ingredients alongside the silk peptide technology, such as Bakuchiol, the rare plant-based retinoid alternative, and Rosa rubiginosa in a formulation that has triple skin regeneration benefits, including accelerated collagen synthesis, and noticeably firmer, softer skin. Sonal notes, ‘I wanted to create an oil that had a very strong scientific profile.’ Aware that consumers might initially be ‘skeptical’ about the profound skincare benefits of silk, Sonal decided to create the now best-selling Power Up Silk Concentrate, the silk peptide technology serum which shows instantly visible results in hydration, elasticity and firmness. I have been using a couple of drops of the Power Up Silk Concentrate mixed into my Silk Face Oil with transformative effect, ‘I have consumers who even mix it into body butter, hair oils and foundation,’ enthuses Sonal.
Sonal explains that hydration is at the core of the products because ‘silk is very biologically active, it can hold as much weight in water as hyaluronic acid. After it has formed the film on the skin, it gets to work as a hydrator; that is how powerful it is.’
So what is next for This is Silk? It has such an exciting presence in a saturated field; and the brand is already B corp certified, ‘after 55 iterations and 3 years of testing, the Silk Rich Cream launches next. Beyond the transformative effects on fine lines and crows feet, it gives skin that beautiful sheen’ enthuses Sonal.
‘Ultimately I just want to keep reaching new people with just how beneficial silk is for the skin and bring them into the story.’
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