Beautiful innovation by university students goes commercial

Tang Ying, a junior student at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Northwest Normal University, has been conducting experiments over the past year with her fellow students to create lipsticks using new materials.

"Girls outnumber guys at my school and when girls get together we fancy making lipsticks and clay masks by ourselves," Tang said.

Beginning at the end of 2018, Tang and her classmates tried to add new materials such as palygorskite, a kind of fibrous clay mineral found widely in Northwest China's Gansu province, to lipsticks.

"Amounts of palygorskite in the self-developed lipsticks have been moderate, below 10 percent of the total ingredients," said Zhang Zhe, an associate professor at the university, which is located in the city of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu.

"Tests have certified the safety of the edible lipsticks. With less pigment, they're healthier, while the color is brighter and can last longer," Zhang said.

By the end of 2019, students at the university had developed a variety of makeup and skin care products. These included the palygorskite-based lipsticks, lip balms and clay masks, which were patented with the help of the students' lecturers.

The university also established a high-tech industrial research institute in Baiyin, a city neighboring Lanzhou, to explore the market for the products made by its students and to encourage them to innovate.

"The university aims to use the institute to show off its high-tech achievements and its role as a cradle of innovation, which can promote the socioeconomic development of Gansu," said Dong Chenzhong, vice-president of the university.

With the help of the research institute, Tang and her fellows passed a pilot test and managed to register a company. They are now preparing to enter the market.

"The products will be mass produced in factories elsewhere. In the meantime, we've got more than 1,000 orders for the lipsticks," said Xu Lei, a postgraduate at the university who is in charge of the company. He added that more than 20 of their employees are students or recent graduates.

Recently, Xu and his team celebrated as orders kept pouring in. For their next step, Xu said they planned to develop eye shadow, mascara and hair dye with the use of palygorskite. "These products cut the distance between the public and new chemical materials. This is how technology makes life better."

Zhang Xiaolu, a resident in Lanzhou and a graduate of the university, bought the newly developed lipstick from a social media platform. "For those of us who have long left the campus, these products remind us of the college's more than 100-year history and the academic spirit. It's very meaningful."

Featuring coats of arms, mottoes and images of iconic buildings, diverse cultural and creative products made by colleges and universities, which range from cosmetics, postcards to notebooks and key rings, have become popular among not only alumni but ordinary consumers across the country.