The probiotics rage of 2012 - 2014 feels long over. Do you remember going into Whole Foods and seeing those little bottles of kefir for sale for like five bucks? That may seem like a lifetime ago but the institution of seeing to our bacterial health is still with us. You can buy once-hip brands of Kombucha at gas stations nowadays.

As the probiotics movement (or the prebiotics movement, as the case may be), has moved away from the very limited fixation on gut health, it has expanded into other regions of personal health and well-being. Now, in 2021, the skincare industry is looking at probiotics and prebiotics in a completely new way.

Or are we?

Is it possible that the buzzwords of today have been in your skincare all along?

Well if you have been a member of the Skin Actives Family for more than just a while, you know that the answer is always “yes!”

Skin Actives, ever dedicated to the best that science has to offer your skin-health routine has actually been on top of this trend for some time now. As it turns out, we sometimes lack a vocabulary to communicate directly with the people that use our products, until such a time that a wider skincare movement emerges.

How do you talk about the benefits of biofermented products in a world that’s not necessarily looking for them?

At Skin Actives, it’s the core of our mission to educate people about science and the science of skincare while simultaneously making the best skincare products in the world. So you may have heard us talking about our incredible Sea Kelp Coral at some point in the past. If you’ve been with us long enough, you may remember it as plainly “Sea Kelp Bioferment.”

We’re happy to tell you that if you’ve been using Sea Kelp Coral, or our products that contain Sea Kelp Coral, you’ve been doing it right all along!

Read on.

What is a Bioferment?

Bioferment is a bit of a weird word. Researching it will inevitably direct you towards a process that is much more familiar on the surface: fermentation. 

We associate the word “fermentation” with beer and yeast, and there is a reason for that. The concept of what fermentation is, and how it works, has been under constant examination and revision by scientists beginning in 7000 BCE, through to the Roman Empire (where fermentation received its unflattering name), and through to contemporary scientific history.

We’re probably most familiar with the experiments of the French microbiologist Louis Pastuer in the mid-19th Century which gave us both the term “pasteurization” and the indelible link in our minds between fermentation, yeast, and beer.

In fact, fermentation is not a characteristic exclusive to yeast, or to the production of imbib-able spirits, but its definition has been expanded to an “enzyme-catalyzed energy yielding pathway involving anaerobic breakdown of molecules.” Fermentation is something that even happens inside of your muscles when, after working out, your body creates lactic acid to generate new muscle, resulting in the feeling of soreness. 

So why fermentation? What’s so great about it?

Well on one hand fermentation can unlock all those beneficial bacteria and nutrition that your body needs to function at an optimal level. The process of sea kelp biofermentation, for instance, unlocks and makes bio-available all of the vitamins and minerals found in sea kelp that your skin craves. This is a powerful phenomenon as anyone that has used our Sea Kelp Coral to recover from a harsh sunburn can tell you.

Additionally, and this is perhaps the kicker, fermentation allows your skin to absorb the molecules that your body needs to integrate their activity into the day-to-day processes that contribute to your health. This goes back to our discussion in a previous blog about the function of the skin as a barrier against the outside world. 

Of course this barrier is porous and looking to absorb certain things from its environment.

But the skin can’t absorb molecules that are too large. You’ll find a lot of skincare experts talking about just this thing online. In order for a skincare product to work, it’s got to be effectively absorbed into your skin. Now, science tells us that substances with molecular weights of greater than 500 daltons cannot be absorbed by the skin. What we use fermentation for is to reduce those molecular weights into small compounds that can then be absorbed.

Getting the Most Out of Bioferment with Sea Kelp Coral

At Skin Actives Scientific we absolutely LOVE our Sea Kelp Coral. You’ll find it as an ingredient in many of our most popular products, and you’ll find it available as a stand alone product for you to apply directly to your skin or to add to your own DIY creations.

Here’s the Top 3 Reasons we Love Sea Kelp Coral

1. It’s Antioxidant Rich - While our sea kelp bioferment is already a complete mix of vital nutrients for your skin and hair, we add in kelp-based antioxidants. This means that Sea Kelp Coral is ready to help you in the ongoing struggle against physical aging caused by free radical damage. 

2. It’s Got Anti-Inflammatory Properties - Some scientific sources suggest that the process of fermentation increases the inflammation and redness fighting properties inherent in the fermented substance. We’ve always used Sea Kelp Coral as a great way to assist your body in recovery. Pushing back against inflammation and redness is a big part of that!

3. It’s Nutrient Dense - Of course, the jewel at the center of Sea Kelp Coral’s crown is its immense nutritive density. Would it surprise you to learn that when the body is regulating where it’s going to devote the contents of the nutrients it absorbs orally, it accounts for the skin last? That’s crazy! So those vitamin and mineral supplement pills you swallow might be helping out your internal health, but probably not doing anything measurable for your skin. So use Sea Kelp Coral to feed your skin! With its nutrient density, soothing texture, and great absorbency, it’s the food your skin (and the skin that makes your hair) is craving!

You can find Sea Kelp Coral in 4 oz and 8 oz jars on skinactives.com today as well as the primary component in our Intensive Recovery Mask. Follow this link to see all the great products that include fermented sea kelp as an ingredient.

If you’d like to see some great ways to use Sea Kelp Coral all its own, check out this blog, and don’t forget to check back twice a week for new blog content. 

Thanks for reading Skin Actives Family, see you back here Friday!