Canada’s Answer to K-Beauty’s Snail Mucin: The PhytoSpherix® Breakthrough

*Originally published on Vainqueur Magazine. Read the original here: [https://www.vainqueurmag.ca/article/canadas-phytospherix-breakthrough](https://www.vainqueurmag.ca/article/canadas-phytospherix-breakthrough). Article shared with permission and proper accreditation to Vainqueur Magazine.

A patented biotech ingredient derived from Ontario non-GMO sweet corn is positioning Canada as a leader in results-driven, sustainable skincare innovation.

October 8, 2025

The beauty industry continues to innovate in biotech, exploring ingredients and materials that are responsibly sourced and extracted from nature to benefit our health. Foraged ingredients turned on-the-shelf have long been a template for the industry — in fact, if we trace beauty far enough back, regimens based on environment-to-skin rituals were the norm in their rawest form.

Recently, as sustainability evolves beyond buzzword status, beauty is entering a biotech era—where natural ingredients meet lab precision, there’s been a growing focus on Canada’s vegan and plant-based innovation. In a country with a population the size of California’s but landmass that far exceeds it, there’s an abundance of vegetation and natural resources shaping the beauty industry — from plant-based nail polish to, most recently, plant glycogen. While Canada didn’t invent plant glycogen, a Canadian lab figured out how to keep its nano-structure intact, proved what it can do on skin, and built the pathway to put it in bottles. That method, patented as PhytoSpherix®, is why you’ll now find phytoglycogen in results-driven Canadian formulas from Veriphy, a leading biotech skincare brand whose five-step system has achieved a 43 per cent customer return rate (CanBeauty™ Data Report, VQ Insights).

So why is this becoming CanBeauty’s “snail mucin” — plant-based, biotech-clean, built for real-world climates, and finally ready for prime time? The answer starts with Professor John Dutcher, CEPS Research Chair in Novel Sustainable Nanomaterials and Director of Nanoscience in the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph and his team of scientists, who developed a gentle isolation method (now protected under the PhytoSpherix patent) that stabilizes the particle, standardizes quality, and makes it formulator-friendly.

Dutcher says that when phytoglycogen was first explored, many of its properties were being destroyed. “They were heating it up and using enzymes and other standard techniques that chemists use to isolate molecules,” he explains, “but it was a little bit too harsh, and was actually breaking down the particles.” His team decided to approach things more gently. “We just used centrifugation and filtering at a very fine level, and we were able to get rid of all the other stuff within the kernel — fibre, proteins, lipids — and just isolate these little particles by themselves, using non-destructive techniques that preserved its special properties.”

From there came the clinical characterization: repeatable hydration improvements, better barrier comfort through temperature swings, and strong tolerance — all the things consumers actually feel when seasons change. This is particularly relevant to Canada, given its four distinct seasons and transitional periods that often disrupt even the most consistent skincare regimens.

Asked to explain phytoglycogen in plain English, Dutcher reduces it to three actions: “penetrate, hydrate, and feed.” In practice, that means the particle settles into the outer layers of the skin where it can actually do work rather than just sitting on top. It then acts like a water manager — holding onto moisture and helping the barrier feel comfortable when air shifts from humid to heated and dry. Finally, as a carbohydrate the skin can interact with, it supports the environment that helps other actives perform steadily.

 “Phytoglycogen actually does more than just moisturize — it has an anti-aging activity,” explains Dutcher. “These tiny particles can go through the skin’s layers, deliver moisture, and when they break down, they feed the cells that make collagen and other molecules produced at the dermis layer.”

“Phyto-glycogen actually does more than just moisturize — it has an anti-aging activity. These tiny particles can go through the skin’s layers, deliver moisture, and when they break down, they feed the cells that make collagen and other molecules produced at the dermis layer.”

The consumer translation is simple: fewer tight, flaky mornings when the weather flips; products feel cushy instead of tacky; and retinoid or acid routines become easier to tolerate. It also plays well with familiar hydrators such as hyaluronic acid.

As Dutcher puts it, the breakthrough is less about hype and more about consistency — a clean, reproducible material that behaves the same way batch after batch and can be dosed precisely in serums, creams, and sticks. “From a personal care perspective, PhytoSpherix has this special hydration property and anti-aging property that makes it a very valuable ingredient in cosmetic formulations,” he says. “You just need a little bit to get that enhanced effect, plus the fact that it can work together with other molecules that are already in there, like hyaluronic acid, for example, to get even better results — some kind of synergy happening. Cosmetic formulations are very complex, and everyone is different, and so it takes a little bit of playing around, but I think it’s worth investing the effort to see how PhytoSpherix can make your product better.”

That’s exactly what Veriphy did to champion its products. The science-led brand found that the performance of PhytoSpherix speaks directly to the needs of skin during seasonal change. In controlled studies, PhytoSpherix has been shown to boost hydration by up to 130 per cent, outperforming traditional humectants such as hyaluronic acid and glycerin. The synergy Dutcher mentioned is evident in Veriphy’s Self Absorbed Moisturizer and Power Trip Facial Serum, the brand’s recommended duo for Canada’s transitional weather — or any region that experiences humid mornings followed by windburned afternoons and, eventually, radiator air.

Québec-based brand Attitude has developed its phytoglycogen-based products under the Oceanly line, offering variations such as Phyto-Calm, Phyto-Cleanse, Phyto-Glow, and Phyto-Age — all of which highlight phytoglycogen’s impact on the skin. The line, released in 2023, is EWG VERIFIED™, but while the R&D is Canadian and conducted in-house, it’s unclear whether the sweet corn used is sourced domestically. Vainqueur reached out to Attitude for confirmation and comment, but did not receive a response.

Phytoglycogen behaves like a moisture manager, helping the barrier remain stable as humidity and temperature fluctuate. In practice, it layers neatly with hyaluronic acid — HA provides the instant plump, while phytoglycogen sustains comfort throughout the day — and it buffers the sting when users reintroduce acids or retinoids in autumn. Attitude’s Oceanly range, built around phytoglycogen across stick and cream formats, speaks to fuss-free routines that still deliver comfort when the climate is fussy.

This biotech rigour — paired with a domestic supply chain built on non-GMO Ontario sweet corn — signals where CanBeauty is headed: ingredients shaped by our environment, refined by Canadian labs, and built for real routines. Think of how SPF adoption accelerated during K-Beauty’s boom; the same consumer logic applies here. As Veriphy notes, “From a sustainability perspective, PhytoSpherix® is a renewable, locally grown input that reduces transportation-related emissions compared to imported glycogen.” And with tariffs rising, the case for local, clinically characterized actives only strengthens.

If K-Beauty’s snail mucin craze taught us anything, it’s that consumers love a story rooted in nature with visible results. Snail mucin is a raw secretion, filtered and purified but fundamentally harvested from the animal itself. Similarly, PhytoSpherix is extracted and purified from non-GMO sweet corn, offering the same reparative and hydration benefits while being vegan and renewable. This is a technology that was invented and developed in Canada, and it is now produced by Mibelle Biochemistry in Switzerland using the Canadian process. Mibelle took over the technology so that PhytoSpherix can be brought to the beauty industry around the world. 

Those advantages could position PhytoSpherix as a more scalable, ethical, and clinically verifiable next-generation ingredient. The reproducibility of the particle size means it can be standardized across categories in a way snail mucin might struggle to achieve. The molecule’s water-binding and barrier-supporting behaviour lends itself to serums, moisturizers, eye creams, lip treatments, and even post-procedure formulas designed to calm stressed skin.

The future of the ingredient looks bright. We could soon see it in body butters, scalp treatments, and barrier-repair hand creams, where performance under climate extremes becomes a selling point. As brands chase “bio-identical” hydration and sustainability becomes a marketing baseline, CanBeauty is steadily establishing itself as the vanguard of this form of beautification — with PhytoSpherix sitting at the forefront, making Canada’s beauty market globally legible.

***

Original article courtesy Vainqueur Magazine: [https://www.vainqueurmag.ca/article/canadas-phytospherix-breakthrough]