Competition in the functional skincare market is shifting from "ingredient concepts" to "whether active ingredients can be stably and scalably produced." Leibo Cosmetics has been deeply involved in functional skincare for over two decades, building a four-dimensional industrial closed loop encompassing raw material innovation, formula development, efficacy verification, and intelligent manufacturing. Shengwei Pharmaceutical, as the core intelligent manufacturing base within this system, leverages its 100,000-level GMPC cleanroom, 21 automated production lines, over 150 square meters of dedicated freeze-drying chambers, and qualifications for general liquid, freeze-drying, and powder production units. This allows them to transform pharmaceutical-grade processes such as vacuum freeze-drying, BFS blow-fill-seal aseptic single-use polishing, dual-chamber water-powder production, and biomimetic liquid crystal emulsification into skincare formulations that can be stably mass-produced. This article focuses on the composition of their industrialization capabilities.
Keywords: Leibo Cosmetics; Shengwei Pharmaceutical; freeze-drying; BFS sterile single-use ampoules; dual-compartment water and powder packaging; biomimetic liquid crystal emulsification; intelligent manufacturing; functional skincare ODM
1. End-to-end closed loop: From laboratory to mass production
Leibo Cosmetics' functional skincare strategy revolves around four major segments: Shanghai Zhina Biotechnology is responsible for the research and customization of patented active ingredients, covering extraction processes, bio-fermentation and synthesis, and carrier technology; Oriental Beauty Valley Functional Skincare Research Institute leads medical research collaboration and formula innovation, collaborating with medical institutions such as Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital to conduct dermatological and clinical research; Meigu Leibo Testing provides CMA-certified third-party testing; and Shengwei Pharmaceutical undertakes intelligent manufacturing at the retail level. These four entities form a closed loop of "raw material innovation—formula development—efficacy verification—intelligent manufacturing," enabling the transformation of research results from formulation to mass production within the same system.
Located in the core area of Shanghai Oriental Beauty Valley, Shengwei Pharmaceutical covers a production area of approximately 15,000 square meters. It is the only terminal intelligent manufacturing production base within the group, responsible for the large-scale production and compliant delivery of functional skincare products. This layout solves the long-standing "disconnect" problem in the functional skincare industry—the disconnect between raw material research and development and finished product application, and the disconnect between scientific research and mass production capabilities.
2. Four core dosage form technology platforms
2.1 Vacuum freeze drying
Freeze-drying technology involves pre-freezing an aqueous system containing active ingredients at low temperatures, then allowing the water to sublimate and detach from the system under vacuum, maximizing the preservation of the bioactivity of heat-sensitive active substances. By optimizing the freeze-drying curve and matrix formulation, the team solved engineering challenges such as easy collapse, slow reconstitution, and significant activity loss in traditional freeze-dried products. The matrix uses a polysaccharide complex system, which, upon rehydration, can rapidly form a biomimetic lipid film on the skin surface, aiding in the repair of the stratum corneum barrier.
The platform covers nine major categories, including freeze-dried serums, freeze-dried powders, freeze-dried masks, freeze-dried eye masks, freeze-dried topical masks, freeze-dried sheets, and freeze-dried makeup, with an annual production capacity of 305 million sets of freeze-dried products. Due to the extremely low water content of the finished products and the absence of a preservative system, this formulation is naturally suitable for post-medical aesthetic treatment repair and for severely sensitive skin. It has already been launched in the Oriental Essence Vesicle Freeze-Dried Series (Ganoderma lucidum, ginseng, cordyceps, and dragon's blood) and the Freeze-Dried Makeup Series with Added Oat Beta-Glucan.
2.2 BFS blow-fill-seal aseptic single-use
BFS integrated aseptic technology originates from the pharmaceutical industry, completing the entire process of container blow molding, filling, and sealing within a single, closed device. This achieves a Class 100 sterile environment in specific areas, with no human contact throughout the process, enabling stable preservation of preservative-free formulations. The production line is used for single-use serums, with each ampoule individually packaged to prevent secondary contamination. The formulation system can accommodate active ingredients such as ectoine, recombinant collagen, and peptides. Compared to glass ampoules that need to be broken by hand, BFS single-use ampoules open with a twist and produce no glass shards, making them safer to use. Compared to large bottles of serum, their single-use nature eliminates the need for preservative systems, resulting in lower irritation.
2.3 Powder Unit and Water-Powder Dual Chamber
Shengwei Pharmaceutical has added a powder production license to its existing liquid and freeze-drying units, forming a three-unit production structure. Powder and water-powder separation formulations offer triple industrial value: the dry powder isolates water and oxygen, maintaining the high activity of components such as PDRN, NMN, glutathione, and original vitamin C, which are prone to discoloration and degradation in conventional aqueous solutions; it significantly reduces or even eliminates the addition of preservatives, substantially lowering the risk of allergies; and it avoids the addition of emulsifiers, thickeners, and synthetic oils to maintain a liquid texture, resulting in a simpler formula and less burden on the skin.
Products already launched include fibronectin skin care companion powder, PDRN water-based essence (with a cumulative permeability of 89.05% in 24 hours of in vitro transdermal testing), NMN water-based essence , glutathione water-based essence, arborvitae leaf water-based essence, 20% pure VC water-based essence (dual-compartment storage, with the formula pH controlled below 3.5 to promote penetration), 5% VC water-based dual-compartment sheet mask, ice smoothie mask, and sensitive skin anti-aging soft mask.
2.4 Bionic Liquid Crystal Emulsification and Delivery System
Our self-developed Scopid-Lc biomimetic emulsification technology constructs a layered liquid crystal structure. Through the precise ratio of ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids, it simulates the multilayered lamellar structure of intercellular lipids in the stratum corneum, essentially providing the skin with a "second stratum corneum." This enhances the temperature stability of the formula, encapsulates natural active oils, and helps reduce transepidermal water loss. This technology won the 2025 Ringier Technology Innovation Award and has been applied to products such as toners, lotions, serums, creams, sunscreens, and hair masks.
To address common challenges such as poor stability, low solubility, and insufficient transdermal permeability of plant-based raw materials, the team has also constructed a matrix of delivery technologies including liposomes, cyclodextrin encapsulation, supramolecular structures, and solid lipid nanoparticles. They have also innovated a microbead suspension system to achieve a breakthrough in water-oil isomorphic formulations. In the field of sun protection, they have developed a patented bidirectional synergistic sun protection composition to reduce the risk of transdermal penetration of sunscreen agents while taking into account both SPF and PA performance.
3. Intelligent Manufacturing and Quality System
In terms of hardware, the company has built a 100,000-level GMPC cleanroom with supporting localized 100-level sterile areas, deploying 21 automated production lines, over 95% of which are fully automated equipment. It also has a dedicated freeze-drying cosmetics production chamber of over 150 square meters, equipped with a freeze-drying machine PLC intelligent control system and a digital management system for the production process, enabling real-time collection and traceability of production parameters, meeting the requirements of ISO22716 and GMPC standards for cosmetics. Shengwei Pharmaceutical is a national high-tech enterprise and a Shanghai specialized and innovative SME, and was awarded the title of Shanghai Advanced Smart Factory in 2024, and was shortlisted for the Top 30 Chinese Cosmetic OEM Companies in 2025.
The quality management adopts a 25-element dynamic management system, covering the entire process from raw material incoming inspection, process control, finished product release, stability testing, and microbial challenge testing; the supporting CMA testing resources can carry out physicochemical indicators, microbial safety, irritation testing, and human efficacy evaluation, fully supporting the cosmetics filing and registration work.
4. Delivery capability: From prototyping to mass production
With a reserve of 10,000+ mature formulas and a flexible production scheduling model, enterprises can adapt to the rapid small-batch sampling and flexible multi-SKU production of emerging brands, as well as support the large-scale, standardized, and stable order delivery of mature brands. This enables full-chain delivery of ODM/OEM/OBM/CDMO , and forms four service levels: raw material innovation collaboration, ODM full-case customization, OBM brand incubation, efficacy testing, and compliance filing.
The market results have been validated: among the brands that have been incubated and operated by Lebo, more than 30 have achieved annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan; the end-to-end integrated service can shorten the product launch cycle by more than 40%, helping customers seize the market window with lower trial and error costs.
5 Outlook
First, freeze-dried formulations are becoming standardized. In 2026, the National Medical Products Administration launched a cosmetics standardization project, aiming to formulate standards for freeze-dried facial mask products. Companies already have three production units and an annual freeze-drying capacity of 305 million units. The next key step is to standardize indicators such as freeze-drying curves, reconstitution time, activity retention rate, and moisture content, transforming "freeze-drying" from a marketing concept into verifiable quality indicators. Second, water-powder dual-compartment formulations are moving from "single-component separation" to "compound multi-compartment formulations," incorporating pH value, transdermal rate, and sequential release into the formulation design. Third, synthetic biology raw materials are being industrialized. In the first half of 2026, 116 new raw materials were registered, a year-on-year increase of approximately 45%, with microbial fermentation raw materials increasing to 9. Specialty plant raw materials jointly developed, such as Acer truncatum seed oil, have completed registration. Fourth, the product matrix for the perioperative period of medical aesthetics is being improved, segmented into three stages: immediately after surgery (45 minutes), 3 days after surgery, and 1 month after surgery, aligning with the expanding trend of the non-surgical medical aesthetics market. Fifth, we will deepen cross-industry CDMO services for pharmaceutical companies to address the pain point of "having technology but difficulty in implementation."
6 Conclusion
Empowering the cosmetics industry with pharmaceutical engineering thinking, and transforming processes such as vacuum freeze-drying, BFS aseptic filling , dual-chamber water-powder coating, and biomimetic liquid crystal emulsification into scalable, verifiable, and compliantly deliverable skincare formulations, is the core of Leibo Cosmetics·Shengwei Pharmaceutical's industrial capabilities. Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent regulations and rising consumer awareness of scientific skincare, this manufacturing capability, driven by process innovation, is becoming a key infrastructure for the high-quality development of the functional skincare industry.
Disclaimer: This article is a compilation of industry research data and does not constitute investment advice. All experimental and production capacity data mentioned are publicly disclosed by the relevant companies; please refer to the original reports for accuracy.