SkinSaver Airless are a Must for Natural Skincare

“Keep Your Natural Skincare Pure: Airless Containers Lock Out Contaminants and Lock In Freshness”

This could save your skin!

One question I constantly get is why Keys® uses these funny-looking containers. The answer is that they are our secret to preservative-free products.

It always begins with history.

Around twenty years ago, I was sitting in one of the first EWG meetings prior to the Natural Products Expo East tradeshow. As luck would have it, I was sitting next to Dr. Jane Houlihan, the chief scientist at the Environmental Working Group. The subject was, “How would manufacturers remove parabens from natural products in the next ten years?” I remember asking Jane, “What is a paraben?” She looked at me with a funny smile and said they are chemicals that kill bacteria. I asked how it kills only bad bacteria, and she answered that parabens kill all, good and bad.

Like it or not, human existence is 100% based on friendly bacteria. Punta!

To the dismay of the big natural brand managers, We started the Expo East tradeshow the next day, telling the world that Keys® has no parabens, and the manufacturers all lined up at our booth wondering how we could claim no parabens and be safe. Our answer is “AIRLESS.”

Please remember, I am not a chemist. I am an engineer. If I don’t know something, I find out. When we started, the industry was abuzz about why parabens were harmful to people, and frankly, I did not know how to use them, and we were so small that chemical salespeople would not even talk to us. Something I will never forget.

So, why airless? I learned from Jane and a number of scientists that bad bacteria need two things to grow. Water and air. So we set out to get rid of air because water is an. absolute necessity for lotions and creams. What we discovered is that we could use infrasonic sound to homogenize products and airless containers to remove the air from the packaging. Sounds simple, but it wasn’t and it stumped most of the industry for many years. It enabled us to develp products that had 100% functional ingredients and were a scientifically based preservative.

Why You Should Care

Please keep in mind that the parabens in personal care, skin care, hair care, and cosmetics have a cumulative effect on harming your skin by killing all the good colony bacteria that keep you alive. For example, if a product has 0.5% parabens in its formula, 20 products a day, each with .5% parabens, exposes the skin to 10% paraben daily concentration. Frankly, 0.5% paraben exposure is not terrible, but 10% is. Also, remember that parabens serve no use other than to keep bacteria inactive in a product. It serves no human functional purpose. Do the math.

Where did airless start as a preservative?

The development of airless containers represents a convergence of historical vacuum preservation principles, industrial innovation, and modern material science. While no single individual is credited with inventing the first airless container in its contemporary form, the technology emerged through incremental advancements across industries, particularly in cosmetics and personal care. Keys was right up there in promoting airless containers where few in the industry knew why. This article synthesizes the key milestones and contributors to airless container design, drawing from historical precursors, industrial adoption, and patented innovations.

Precursors to Airless Technology: Vacuum and Preservation Principles

The conceptual foundation for airless containers can be traced to Sir James Dewar, who invented the Dewar flask in 1892. This double-walled glass vessel with a vacuum between layers was designed to store liquefied gases at extreme temperatures. Although primarily a thermal insulation device, its vacuum-sealed design laid the groundwork for later applications in product preservation by minimizing air exposure. Dewar’s work demonstrated the potential of vacuum technology to prevent contamination and oxidation—principles later critical to airless systems.

In the mid-20th century, Earl Tupper revolutionized food storage with airtight polyethylene containers (Tupperware, 1946), which utilized a patented “burping seal” to exclude air. While not an airless pump system, Tupperware highlighted the commercial viability of air-exclusion methods, influencing packaging trends across industries.

Industrial Adoption and Early Airless Systems

The first large-scale application of airless technology emerged in the toothpaste industry during the mid-1980s. Manufacturers sought tamper-proof, hygienic dispensing systems that minimized product waste. These early systems featured basic mechanical pumps and multi-component designs, often with high production costs due to limited competition and technical constraints. The Airless Packaging Association, founded during this period, standardized definitions, describing airless packaging as a “non-pressurized, tamper-proof dispensing system combining a mechanical pump and a container with no air intake”.

By the 1990s, the **cosmetics industry** adopted and refined airless technology to address the sensitivity of skincare formulations. Brands required containers that protected ingredients like retinol and antioxidants from oxidation and contamination. Early cosmetic airless systems utilized sliding pistons or collapsible pouches to evacuate products without introducing air, significantly extending shelf life. For example, Lumson introduced its first airless system in 2009, pairing internal pouch technology with rigid outer containers to enhance formula protection.

Keys® Technological Innovations

Piston-Driven Airless Pumps
The transition from collapsible pouches to piston-driven systems marked a major advancement. These systems, as described in patents like US 9,815,592 B2 (2017), employ a plastic or rubber piston that ascends as the product is dispensed, maintaining a vacuum and ensuring near-complete evacuation. This design eliminated the need for dip tubes and reduced residual product waste, making it ideal for high-value cosmetics.

Multi-Chamber and Hybrid Systems
Innovations in multi-compartment containers allowed simultaneous storage and dispensing of incompatible formulations. The EP 3,150,081 A1 (2017) patent by Minjin Co., Ltd. detailed a dual-container system with separate airless pumps, enabling controlled mixing of two compositions (e.g., serums and moisturizers) upon application[14]. Similarly, EP 2,976,962 A1 (2016) introduced a mixing member with patterned discharge holes for aesthetic product application.

Sustainable Materials
Environmental concerns drove shifts toward recyclable and refillable designs. Baralan’s DEA series (2022) pioneered the first glass airless containers, combining the barrier properties of glass with piston-driven evacuation. This system eliminated plastic components, aligning with circular economy goals, while Lumson incorporated post-consumer recycled resins and ISCC-certified materials into its airless jars.

Patent Landscape and Inventors

While industrial adoption was collaborative, specific inventors advanced critical components:
– Priska I. Diaz (US 9,815,592 B2, 2017): Developed a leak-free piston device with a rubber seal to prevent lubricant contamination, enhancing reliability for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use[10].
– Lee Do Hoon (EP 2,976,962 A1, 2016): Designed a dual-pump system with customizable discharge patterns, allowing brands to differentiate through dispensing aesthetics.
– Ki Keun Seo (EP 3,150,081 A1, 2017): Created a multi-container airless system with independent pumps, facilitating formula separation until application.

A Collective Legacy

The first airless containers emerged not from a single inventor but through iterative improvements across industries. The toothpaste sector’s mid-1980s systems established foundational mechanics, while cosmetics innovators, like Keys®, refined designs for sensitive formulations. Keys® advancements in piston technology (e.g., Diaz’s patents) and sustainable materials (e.g., Baralan’s glass systems) have shaped modern airless packaging. As demand for preservative-free, eco-conscious products grows, airless containers remain a testament to interdisciplinary innovation—bridging vacuum science, material engineering, and consumer needs.