There is provided a method of preparing silica nanocapsules, the method comprising mixing a surfactant with water at a temperature that is above the gel-to-liquid transition temperature of the surfactant to form a mixture, passing the mixture one or more times through at least one pore to obtain a dispersion of vesicles, and adding a silica precursor to the dispersion of vesicles to form silica nanocapsules. Also provided is a silica nanocapsule formed from a vesicle template, and a method of delivering one or more types of molecules to a subject. In a specific embodiment, hollow silica nanocapsules having substantially lens-shaped are synthesized by employing dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (DODAB) or dioctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride (DODAC) as the vesicle template and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica precursor.