This is a good, loaded, question. But first, you need to have a basic understanding of your skin’s microbiome.

Like a fingerprint, we each have our own unique combination of tiny, diverse microbes and we call this the microbiome. The microbiome, although unique to each person, is not a human-only thing. You will find microbes everywhere. Essentially, we’re saying that whatever you come into contact with, there will be a transfer of microbes.

Over the last 100 years, our lives have changed and our skin is no longer exposed to the natural environments it evolved for. Our ancestors had better skin than us because their lives looked a little less sterile and much, much wilder. They would have come into frequent contact with clean river water, soil, and plants. All these interactions feeding the tiny, diverse microbes making up their skin microbiome. Our lives indoors have us a little less wild and the need to apply probiotics topically to our skin has become an important part of ensuring our skin retains its natural resilience.

Our microbiome skincare uses live probiotics at high cfu/ml to simulate the contact we no longer have with the natural world.

Sapienic acid is a fatty acid. And a particularly strange one at that. It is not found on the skin of any other animal that we know of, but it’s the most abundant fatty acid produced by human skin. Your skin goes to a lot of trouble to produce Sapienic Acid, it is toxic to pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus, but beneficial microbes can use it as a nutrient source. It’s a skin prebiotic that’s been honed by millions of years of evolution.

The probiotic powder is in a dormant state and can survive for long periods without nutrient or water. Once the powder is added to the Probiotic Mist, the probiotic microbes are activated so that they can start growing when they encounter the nutrients on your skin after application. We think it’s quite impressive that the active microbes can remain viable for two months.

Because soap is damaging to skin. We don’t like the idea of advertising and selling products that do people harm. We understand that the use of soap on skin is a well-entrenched habit in society, but it is a harmful habit that seems to exist solely for the profit of the companies that sell it. We prefer skincare that actually cares for skin and takes a sustainable approach that continues to provide benefits in the long term.

Yes … because you really have live bacteria on your face.

If you didn’t, you’d be in trouble. The first pathogen that came along would colonize and you’d get a really nasty skin disease.

We add the bacteria to protect you.

We set the pH of all our products at around 5,3. This is acidic enough to maintain the acid mantle and promote good barrier function without irritating skin.

We use three Lactobacillus species and one Bacillus.

Bacillus is spore-forming so it can stay stable in spore form in a buffered aqueous base – the Probiotic Mist.

Lactobacillus is a little more sensitive, so we encapsulate it and disperse it in an anhydrous oil base to keep it alive. It will only reanimate when it is exposed to water on your skin. These are in the Probiotic Boost.