It’s crazy how many options we have to consider on a daily basis for our skin health these days isn’t it?

When we were kids, it seemed like washing our hands when we came in from outdoors was a big hassle. Then as we matured into adolescence there was dealing with blemishes and hormonal changes. You reach adulthood and suddenly it’s beauty routine and anti-aging ritual.

Not only do our concerns seem to be multiplying, but so do the amounts of products we have at our disposal to contend with them. Remember when you just needed “soap”? Now it’s cleansers and jade rollers and multistep routines made popular in far-off countries.

What have you heard about probiotics for your skin? Here at Skin Actives Scientific, we’ve been following this trend with great interest. About 10 years ago probiotics were the hot trend for gut health, now people are talking about them for skincare.

So what’s the story with probiotics? Do you need them? Do they work? 

Today we are joined by Skin Actives Scientific Founder, Dr. Hannah Sivak. She’s going to walk us through the science of probiotics for your skin. Let’s explore.

What Are Probiotics For Skin, and How Do They Work?

In this matter, Dr. Sivak, a biochemist has an incredibly succinct and straightforward answer for us:

“Probiotics are mixes of bacteria that you take orally in order to modify the bacterial composition of your gut. This is done usually after taking antibiotics, used to combat respiratory or other infections. Oral antibiotics may decimate gut bacterial flora and lead to intestinal problems.

It used to be that we only discussed skin bacteria when speaking about infections, and how to kill the recently renamed acne bacterium, Cutibacterium acnes (a.k.a. Propionibacterium acnes). But now, you can see bacteria and the ‘microbiome’ everywhere in magazines that advertise skincare products.

We do have bacteria living on our skin and sometimes they are disrupted. However, we are not allowed to ‘play’ with skin bacteria by applying bacteria topically as we do orally.

Why the difference? Our digestive system is better prepared to contend with bacteria, the high acidity in our stomach will kill most bacteria. Conversely, our skin and eyes don’t have that kind of defense (although there are several immune actors in the skin). Government regulators (such as the Food and Drug Administration or FDA) do not allow skincare companies to add bacteria to our skin. In fact, there are stringent regulations that prevent the selling of products that exceed low limits of bacterial (and mold) content. These regulations originate in the ‘good ol’ times’ when contaminated products caused eye infections and blindness. I don’t like those good ol’ times.

Our skin does a good job of keeping ‘bad’ bacteria away, we can’t guarantee that the product inside that pretty flask is free of bad bacteria unless it is actually free of bacteria as proven by testing.”

So what we’re seeing here is that:
1.) Skincare companies are not legally permitted to sell products that will increase the bacteria on your skin, and for good reasons. These are reasons that make sense and we can understand.

2.) Even if skincare companies were able to sell bacteria enhancing products, there would be no way to differentiate between bacteria present that is beneficial to the skin and bacteria that is harmful to the skin.

Prebiotics: the Answer For Your Skin

Dr. Sivak continues:

“We can’t do topical probiotics, but we can do topical prebiotics.

What is a prebiotic? They are chemicals or mixes of chemicals that suppress the growth or activity of “bad” bacteria or fungi and induce the growth or activity of beneficial organisms.

When you eat prebiotics like natural food fibers you can alter organisms’ composition in the gut microbiome.

It isn’t simply that bacteria ‘fight’ each other directly for supremacy. They do it using chemicals: they make substances that can discourage the growth of other species. This means that you don’t need actual bacteria to discourage, say, acne bacteria from growing on your skin. What you need is the medium (or chemicals) produced by the ‘good’ bacteria. This is the principle behind the use of ferments in skincare.

Our main prebiotic ingredient is ‘sea kelp bioferment'; this is the INCI name (INCI refers to “International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients”. By law, we must use the names in the INCI list in our labels and ingredient lists), a more suitable name would be kelp Lactobacillus ferment. 

The sea kelp bioferment we use as a base for many of our products starts with the sea kelp. This plant material is rich in biochemical components that are already beneficial to our skin. But then we cultivate yogurt bacteria in this broth. What do we gain with this extra step? The microorganisms will make their valuable biochemicals and enrich the mix with prebiotics that will benefit the skin in other ways. They supply more vitamins and building blocks that our skin will use to make its proteins (collagen, elastin, and more), polysaccharides, and DNA. We are already experimenting with using a kefir mix to provide a different prebiotic base serum.”

So as you can see here: 

1.) The key to healthy bacteria colonizing on your skin lies in creating an environment where “good” bacteria thrive.

2.) Skin Actives Scientific is already beginning to roll out products with our new kefir bioferment mixture. This includes our brand new Nourishing Hair Mask. (You can read more about the expansion of our great line of hair care products here).

Final Thoughts

Dr. Sivak concludes as follows:

“The aim of skincare should be to keep a healthy microbiome, not ‘overcleaning’ to kill every single bacterium. A widespread modern affliction, sensitive skin, is usually caused by overcleaning, which removes the epidermis’ external layers that make up the skin barrier, plus the bacteria living in it.

Skin Actives’ bioferments aim to protect good bacteria and keep the skin barrier intact and functional, displaying the natural defenses the skin has.”

Thanks for reading everyone! If you enjoyed hearing Dr. Sivak’s thoughts, she maintains a personal blog where she writes about science and the behind the scenes happenings of the skincare industry. You can find her work here.