Understanding inside & out functional skin care.

Beauty is a global obsession. The $160 billion worldwide cosmetics and personal care industry is a testament to just how important it is to maintain beautiful skin. While much of the industry is centered around cosmetics products that only work on the surface, there is a growing segment of the industry offering products that promise more than a pleasing facade. These functional cosmetics, or "cosmeceuticals", offer true skin improvement for longer lasting beauty from the inside and out.

Cosmeceutical products are actually nothing new. For several decades, it has been possible to purchase lotions with Vitamin E that were intended to improve skin health. In fact, Nutrition Business Journal estimates that cosmeceutical products account for 17% of US body care retail sales. Some of these products, though, are of questionable value from the standpoint of functionality. Some "so-called cosmeceutical" products have been dusted with botanicals in sub-therapeutic amounts, often to cut costs on label claims.

This is where Draco Natural Products draws a line in the "dust". At Draco, we take the concept of beauty from the inside & out very seriously. As a world class innovator in the manufacture of botanical extracts for supporting vibrant, whole body health, we feel that great cosmeceutical products must start with high quality, well researched, truly powerful, functional ingredients. We know that many botanicals can provide benefits that single compound ingredients cannot. We see a need in the cosmeceutical segment of the industry for products that truly provide functional, natural skin care.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Our line of Vital Treasures[TM] Bioactive Botanical Ingredients is specifically designed to address this need and provide maximum functional benefit for all major areas of skin health.

What do we mean by Inside & Out?

Truly beautiful skin is a result of healthy skin--that which is cared for both on the surface and from within, with proper care of the whole body. How you appear on the outside is a reflection of your inner health. So it is our philosophy that the first step in improving the health of the skin is to improve the health of the body systems that are responsible for creating and maintaining it.

Skin wrinkles and sags as the body ages, due to a combination of factors including stress, poor nutrition, sleep deprivation, alcohol consumption, and exposure to cigarette smoke, sunlight, and pollution. Ultimately, a beauty system that treats the skin from both the inside, through supplementation, and from the outside, through topical application, is the best for the beauty and longevity of the skin. This is what we mean at Draco by the "Inside & Out" approach to skin care.

From a practical standpoint, we use the term Inside & Out to discuss our unique dual-mode-of-delivery system. You take a supplement internally (inside), and also apply a supplement topically (outside) to achieve the optimum result. Botanicals can be fast acting, but safer and more balancing than single compound agents because of an orchestra of constituents that work together throughout the body. In that context, our inside ingredients help create the proper conditions within so that improved health can radiate to the surface, and our outside ingredients provide local direct skin therapy right where it is needed most.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Each of our formulas for a particular function is designed uniquely for its mode of delivery. That is, for example, our Traditional Antioxidant Inside[TM] is a different formula than Traditional Antioxidant Outside[TM]. This is because the skin as a transdermal supplement delivery system is a different nutritional environment than the digestive system.

Legendary Draco Manufacturing

When you choose to include Draco Vital Treasures[TM] Bioactive Botanical Ingredients in your cosmeceutical products, you are choosing some of the best ingredients available. For over a decade, we have been a world leader in providing dietary supplement and functional food manufacturers some of the highest quality, purity and performance ingredients on the market. Now you can take advantage of Draco quality in your high performance inside and out cosmeceutical products.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

We tap a rich well of wisdom and empirical use from five millennia of Traditional Chinese Medicine for insight into which herbs can be most beneficial, and how they can be prepared and formulated. (over)

Vital Treasures[TM] Bioactive Botanical Ingredients

* Safe & Effective

* Balanced Full Spectrum

* Antioxidant & Phytochemical Rich

* Extracted in Only Pure Water

* Water Soluble/Dispersible

* Available as a Liquid

* Carrier Free

* Certified Organic Available

Draco's Fruit & Vegetable Extracts[TM] are great for inside & out!

As skin care ingredients, they excel.

* High ORAC value antioxidants

* Examples of functional support:

* Pomegranate for skin lightening

* Goji berry for anti-aging

* Date seed for anti-wrinkling

* Spinach for skin protection

* Kiwi for cellular support

We add layers of modern scientific research and technology to ensure accuracy, safety, quality and optimum performance. All raw plant materials are carefully selected at peak potency and certified to be pesticide and heavy metal free. Plant materials are "Full Spectrum" extracted using only pure, clean water as a solvent. Finished extracts are Kosher Certified and processed in our state-of-the-art UKAS accredited ISO9001:2000 Certified, HACCP Certified, and NOP/IFOAM Organic Certified facility.

Each Vital Treasures[TM] bioactive botanical extract ingredient is designed to take full advantage of its natural skin healing properties. Most of them have powerful anti-aging properties for the skin, but it is important to understand how they also perform in other ways that are unique to each ingredient. Most can be used effectively inside or out, but some are better at supporting only one mode of application. Properly balanced herbal combinations can bring out the best in these ingredients. Our expert formulators can assist you in developing the most efficacious formulas for your products.

Vital Treasures[TM] offer inside & out skin care support in 7 key areas:

Anti-inflammation Reducing redness and swelling on the skin Pine Bark, Licorice

Cell Physiology Enhancing total body cellular metabolism for improved skin Astragalus, Goji Berry

Immunity Enhancing total body immunity to ease burden on skin Astragalus, Ligustrum

Antioxidant Protecting the skin with powerful free radical scavengers Tea, Pomegranate

Microcirculation Improving circulation to peripheral blood vessels Gingko, Red Sage

Skin Matrix Supporting collagen and elastin matrix for supple firmness Eucommia, Gotu Kola

Skin Tone Lightening and toning the skin

Mulberry, Sophora

Case Study: Trinitea[TM]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

UV damage from sunlight is the single most significant factor in accelerated skin aging. It causes lipid peroxidation in skin cells, leading to the production of damaging free radicals. It also triggers the inflammatory reactions that lead to enzymatic damage of skin proteins. Polyphenols, such as EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) found in Tea (Camellia sinensis), are powerful antioxidants that help stop these effects.

To address this, we developed Vital Treasures[TM] Trinitea[TM], a high performance antioxidant formula that features a blend of white, green & oolong teas, specially selected for their superior antioxidant properties. As an Inside & Out system, there are two companion products: encapsulated oral supplement Trinitea Inside[TM], and Trinitea Outside[TM], a liquid extract for topical applications.

We were seeking a product system that could provide effective UV protection from lipid peroxidation, at concentrations as low as 1.0 mg/ml. In an in vitro test performed by a reputable independent lab, Trinitea Inside[TM] was dissolved in a water/lecithin emulsion and irradiated with UV light. At a concentration of 1mg/ml of Trinitea[TM], there was 100% inhibition of lipid peroxidation even after four hours of irradiation, compared with a control of water/lecithin. Even at 0.1 mg/ml of Trinitea[TM] there was 65% inhibition of UV induced lipid peroxidation. At these concentrations, Trinitea[TM] could add true efficacy to (non SPF claim) sun care products, without concerns for color or staining.

Draco Vital Treasures[TM]

Inside & Out Skin Care System currently features over 500 botanical extracts. Please call or email us for more information. A detailed formulary is also available upon request.