Curious about probiotic skincare? Start here.
Picture yourself about to launch a kayak into a beautiful body of water. You’ve got the paddles ready, but before getting into the water, it’s time to decide which direction you want to go. While it may seem obvious that you want to follow the flow of the water, that’s not always the path we choose.
Why are we talking about kayaking? Because that metaphor is a good way to understand how your body works. You’re the kayaker making the choice, and the water is your body. Your body just does its thing…flowing in the direction that nature wills it. The question is, why are we so often choosing to paddle against the stream, rather than with it?
MEET YOUR MICROBIOME
If you’ve never heard about the microbiome, then prepare to meet your body’s biggest system of defense. Your microbiome is the collective shield that protects your body, and it’s made up of almost 40 trillion (that’s with a T) microbial cells. These varying groups of bacteria, fungi, and viruses form teams, and each team has a job to do.
For example, the skin on your back or on your upper thighs tends to be covered with clothing. But, the skin on your face and neck deals with more external exposure. The skin on your hands does a lot of physical work, while the skin under your feet gets exposed to rough elements like floors and sand on the beach. All of those different environments require a different set of needs and protection. So, all of these microbes work differently both inside and outside of your body to protect your skin depending on the elements they’re exposed to.
WHAT DOES THE MICROBIOME DO?
In addition to acting as your protective shield against the elements, your microbiome has a lot of other important jobs. We really get into the details in What is the Microbiome and Why Should You Care, but to give you a quick overview, it’s essentially what determines our mood, our unique scent, our sleep patterns, and even our immunity. It also plays a role in how rapidly our skin cells turnover, which is an important factor in slowing the signs of aging.
When your microbiome is supported, meaning it’s getting everything it needs to do its job well, then your skin benefits. So, back to our kayaking scenario. If you choose to paddle against the flow of the river, then you’re making your microbiome work harder than it needs to. And, who wants to work harder when you don’t have to?
Your microbiome was built to function with lots of healthy and diverse microbes, but decades of skincare advice has been telling us to paddle upstream. Harsh chemicals, damaging exfoliators and scrubs, and irritating treatments have been the dominant direction in skincare for too long.
WHAT IS MICROBIOME SKINCARE?
Microbiome skincare is a better path to beauty. It’s a way of working with your skin rather than against it; going with the flow of the stream instead of stressing and tiring your defense system out when you don’t have to. That’s the concept behind it, so naturally, you’re probably wondering how you apply it to start helping your skin now?
First, it’s important to understand what “healthy skin” means. Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean. Healthy skin doesn’t mean flawless skin. You could say it’s more akin to “happy skin”. Microbiome focussed skincare is about optimizing the health of your skin so that it’s equipped to face what you put it up against.
Here’s what happy skin looks like:
- It protects us against the elements like pollution, smog, and harmful bacteria
- It reacts in a reasonable way to our internal stress (meaning it doesn’t overreact)
- It helps our skin retain moisture
- It heals quickly from scrapes, cuts, and breakouts
- It produces collagen at a normal rate
GETTING STARTED WITH MICROBIOME SKINCARE
Microbiome skincare is first and foremost about simplicity. By streamlining your routine towards simple and effective probiotic skincare products, you’re giving your skin what it needs while also making a little more room in your beauty cabinet.
Here are the basics:
- A gentle cleanser with probiotics to help balance your skin pH. Try our Balancing Milky Cleanser with Lactobacillus ferment and probiotic-rich yogurt powder.
- A serum with a gentle alpha hydroxy acid to exfoliate dead skin cells naturally. Try our Renewing Probiotic Serum with Lactic Acid (a gentle AHA) and Meadowfoam oil to keep your skin plump and hydrated while washing away dead skin cells.
- A powerful but light moisturizer to lock in hydration. Try our Immunity Moisturizer with Lactobacillus ferment to protect and rebalance, pomegranate extract for antioxidant power, and calming milk thistle.
- Daily oral probiotics to promote gut health. Try our Daily Glow Supplements for an easy, once-a-day boost of healthy microbes that will strengthen your microbiome from the inside out. It has a proprietary blend of 5 effective, skin-loving probiotic strains plus ceramide oil extract to help firm, protect, and moisturize.
THE FUTURE OF MICROBIOME SKINCARE
Let’s just say the future is looking very bright for this new generation of skincare. Not only are we seeing it show up in a lot more beauty and skincare products, but there’s increasing investment into the research around its benefits. This is particularly promising for sufferers of chronic skin conditions like acne, rosacea, dermatitis, and even skin cancer.
If you’re looking for an easier way to treat your skin and finally stop paddling upstream, then give probiotic skincare a try. It’s not only clinically proven to be effective, but it’s gentler on your skin. Probiotic skincare is for everyone, no matter your skin type. And, working with nature rather than against it just makes sense. See what your body can do for you, from the inside out!