When I think about silk, I imagine beautiful scarves or neckties. But it turns out that silk has many properties that make it useful for more than just fabulous, fashionable accessories. For instance, silk has been used in the medical industry for helping to heal wounds, since the materials mimic the skin’s protective barrier and helps to retain moisture.

“The structure of silk molecules have endless applications,” says Lindsay Wray, the associate director of materials development at Bolt Threads, a materials innovation company that has found ways to manufacture silk and mushroom leather in a lab. “If you scan through peer-reviewed journals, you’ll see scientists finding uses for it in almost every industry.”

Wray should know. For the last decade, she has studied silk as a biomedical engineer. She earned her doctorate from Tufts, where she worked in a pioneering lab that developed ways to apply silk protein to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Five years ago, she joined Bolt Threads, then a 5-year-old company commercializing new materials. So far, Bolt Threads has developed Microsilk, a full-length silk protein, which it has used to make items like a $314 tie and $200 cap, and well as Mylo, a leather-like material that is made from mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms.

Wray’s job at the company was to help develop new uses for lab-produced silk, and today, the company is announcing one new application of this technology: skincare. Bolt Threads has launched an entirely new company called Eighteen B, which debuts with two products, a moisturizer and a cream, both of which use silk as a key ingredient. Wray is serving as the chief scientific officer of this new direct-to-consumer startup.

Silk has been used in the beauty industry for some time, with brands like Silk Therapeutics and BioSilk using it as a key ingredient in their products. Silk proteins can serve as a barrier to protect hair follicles and the skin, which makes them a useful ingredient in moisturizer and conditioner. But most brands use hydrolyzed silk protein, which means that the chemical structure of the silk has been divided into smaller components with the addition of water, diluting its effects. Wray says that Eighteen B is different from these other brands because the company has found a way to manufacture the silk protein without hydrolyzing it or degrading it, which allows it to retain more of its valuable properties.

“If you think of the silk protein as a pearl necklace, hydrolyzing breaks apart each of the pearls,” Wray explains. “You can’t put them back together again. But our silk protein exists in its unbroken form, which allows it to be a more protective barrier for your skin.”

Eighteen B’s protein, which it has trademarked under the name “B-silk,” is designed to work with the structural proteins found in the skin, like collagen and elastin. The company says that the products will form a breathable, protective barrier that will help the skin retain moisture, while also firming and smoothing the skin over time.