Our collaboration with Cellsense

We first encountered Aradhita's work in 2023, but it was her visit to London in June 2024 when the possibilities became clear. Talking through her samples of the algae-based beads, we could envision how her pioneering material development might translate into skincare tools that honour both innovation and environmental responsibility.

Aradhita, the visionary behind Cellsense, represents everything we admire about contemporary material science. A graduate of Parsons School of Design and recent addition to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, class of 2025, her journey from India through the Swarovski Foundation's Creatives for Our Future mentorship program speaks to a generation reimagining what sustainable beauty can be. Her work transforms textile waste and algae into functional materials. A philosophy that resonates deeply with our own approach to sustainable sourcing of seaweed.

The Citizen Subscription Box became the natural home for this collaboration. Here, within our curated space for experimental creations, we could share Ari's revolutionary material with our community—beads that can be infused with targeted ingredients to address specific skincare needs. But this is more than a product launch; it's a documentation of innovative material experimentation that deserves sharing.

Our exfoliating cloth represents months of co-development grounded in shared values: a mutual fascination with seaweed, a commitment to compostable solutions, and a determination to combat microplastics in the skincare industry. The uniqueness of this product demands we share not just the success, but the journey—our failures, our process, our learning. Transparency, we believe, is how we inspire industry change.

Together with Cellsense, we developed this exfoliating fabric using a proprietary blend of algae polysaccharides and regenerated cellulose derived from post-consumer cotton waste, reinforced with charcoal for anti-acne and anti-eczema properties. The solidification process drew inspiration from biomineralisation—the natural process by which living organisms create minerals to form shells, bones, and other structures. Cellsense replicated this using ionic crosslinking to achieve ambient temperature curing without synthetic solvents—a breakthrough that eliminated harmful chemicals from the making process.

The fabrication journey proved as innovative as the material itself. Cellsense designed custom 3D-printed looms and adapted their robotic deposition system to lay the biopolymer beads (seaweed, cellulose and charcoal) directly around a threaded grid, eliminating the repetitive manual assembly that would have made production unsustainable. As the biopolymer crosslinks, the beads naturally secure onto the textile structure—creating two sides that are then seamed together to form the final exfoliating pad.

Our greatest challenge emerged in joining the two bead-coated fabrics into a seamless exfoliating pad using an efficient process. Each 40mm cloth—including front, back, and seam—initially required one hour and twenty minutes of manual labour. The Cellsense team responded by exploring commercially available meshes to water-soluble fabrics that could serve as structures for bead deposition, from single-loop constructions to lace patterns using embroidery machines, gradually reducing the manual labor required while maintaining quality. 

Cellsense prototyped over thirty mould designs, testing everything from circular shapes that created excess gaps to square patterns that provided structure. The rectangular pattern ultimately proved most user-friendly based on 95th percentile usage data, paired with black cotton thread for durability and a more polished appearance. The result is a reusable pad that maintains structural integrity during use and fully composts at end-of-life. 

The result is a reusable pad that maintains structural integrity during use and fully composts at end-of-life. According to Cellsense, the beads retain their effectiveness for up to five years under standard conditions, making it a reusable alternative to single-use exfoliation products. Cellsense's four-month moisture resistance testing period demonstrated the cloth's durability and long-term effectiveness, while its porous structure naturally protects against fungal growth. 

At FKA Haeckels, we've always believed that the future of beauty lies in questioning the fundamental. Our collaboration with Aradhita and Cellsense represents this philosophy in action—a partnership that transforms industrial waste into skincare innovation while challenging an industry to imagine beyond microplastics and single-use solutions.

This exfoliating cloth is more than a product; it's proof that sustainable innovation doesn't require compromise. It's evidence that the next generation of material scientists and sustainable beauty pioneers are already here, already working, already changing everything we thought we knew about what's possible.

Stay tuned for our upcoming conversation with Aradhita, founder of Cellsense—a dialogue that delves deeper into the vision behind combating microplastics anywhere and everywhere.