The beauty industry is so saturated with products, it’s hard to imagine how any brand could come up with something genuinely new. But a lip balm grown in space? Well, that’s different.
‘Spacelip’ lip balms are the debut products from London-based brand Exist. Available in two iterations – Origin 001, a richer formulation scented with a fragrance co-designed with Givaudan; and Void 000, an unscented and lighter formulation – the balms are the first product to use a bioactive complex cultivated aboard the International Space Station.
Is Exist’s space-grown lip balm the future of beauty?
(Image credit: Exist)
They are simply the beginning of what will become an ever-growing beauty line that uses extremophiles (ingredients that can survive extreme environments, like outer space or inside volcanoes) to disrupt the beauty industry. Having launched in London last week (30 April 2026), Exisit is the brainchild of Lauren Bowker, a designer with a background in chemistry, whose previous beauty brand, The Unseen, was known for pioneering products such as colour-changing hair dye and eyeshadow that looks different on your phone screen and in real life.
When The Unseen shuttered its doors two years ago, Bowker was ready to leave the beauty industry behind and never return, focusing instead on working with companies including Nasa to develop adaptive, smart textiles for future environments. Yet she couldn’t help but think about how the work she was doing in science could be translated into products that reflected the vision she had always had for a beauty brand: one that used clean, renewable chemistry and circular materials to create highly effective products in design-conscious packaging.
‘There was always work happening on the space station around biotechnology and advancements in medicine, about how if we grow Earth-based materials on the space station in zero gravity, when you bring it back down, does it have an effect?’ says Bowker.
(Image credit: Exist)
‘Then I found out that Nasa had a library of these extremophiles that had already been tested, including Lysate (the ingredient in Spacelips), which was grown outside of the space station for 18 months and then brought back down to Earth. When they analysed it, Nasa found that it had the most insane healing properties – hydration, wound healing, line reductions. It’s like a hyaluronic acid, in terms of what it does, but because it was grown in space, it has 300 times more power than anything Earth-grown.’ That is why, within just ten minutes of using Spacelip, lips are visibly smoother and more hydrated; within three days of continual use, they have the smoothness and firmness usually only possible with filler use, as well as hydration and subtle plumpness.
Each Spacelip comes in one of two, futuristic-looking, completely plastic-free cases that took Bowker and her team almost a year to develop. Inside her east London studio, Bowker has an Eames table covered in animal teeth and 1930s lipbalm cases, the primary inspirations for the packaging’s design, which, finished, looks similar to the spaceships in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival.
For Bowker, it was essential to create packaging that looked as intriguing as the product inside it, knowing that this is the most effective way to draw in customers – and that drawing in customers is the only way to effectively, positively change the beauty industry. She points out that because of environmental changes, materials commonly used in beauty products won’t be as accessible in six or seven years as they are today. ‘We’re already seeing a shift in consumer behaviour, like with sunscreen and microplastics, where people are starting to say, “I don’t want to put that on my face,”’ she says.
(Image credit: Exist)
‘That pressure will force change, but many companies aren’t moving fast enough to adapt. So there’s an opportunity for someone to step in with a better solution. With Exist, the goal is to build something at a global scale that proves a better approach is possible, and that doing things more responsibly actually leads to a higher-performing product that people genuinely want.’
In Bowker’s view, Exist’s success can open up space for collaboration more than competition; it’s an opportunity to give brands access to Exist’s patents and processes to create their own commercially viable, high-performing products. If Bowker has it her way, and let’s hope she does, then we’re just seeing the beginning of a major industry shift.
Exist ‘Spacelip’ is available to pre-order on Exist’s website. It will ship from 28 May 2026.
