JAPAN - French cosmetics company Icy Beauty will launch its range of cosmetics in self-cooling packaging in Japan and China within the next 9 months.

Icy Beauty’s Ice Cool range of cosmetics includes moisturising creams in self-cooling packaging developed by Thermagen.

The self-cooling packaging cools the skin care products from 22˚C to 2˚C in less than two minutes, 70 times faster than a fridge,

The cooling process of the package is activated when the consumer turns the jar over, removes the bottom label and presses the bottom of the package until it clicks.

Fadi Khairallah, chief executive officer of Icy Beauty and Thermagen explains why the packaging is vital to the products’ effectiveness. “The high speed cooling effect makes the cream work – the product would not work if you placed the package in the fridge. The cooling effect of the package restructures the formula of the cream to enable better penetration of the skin.”

The self-cooling products already have a strong market in Taiwan. Ice Beauty is now looking at the Japanese market and will carry out a small market trial in Japan in 2006 on a select number of consumers before a full roll-out to assess acceptance of the self-cooling packaging and range of cosmetics.

‘Japan is a huge market and we only have one chance – we want to get it right,’ says Khairallah.