The bacteria have long been tarnished with a tarnished reputation. It's a little ironic because they were here on Earth long before us. For about three billion years, they have colonized the planet – compared to the modern history of man that began only three hundred thousand years ago.

We have a deep-rooted habit of seeing bacteria as evil, which is an attitude we have inherited from the 19th century. For a long time, in our culture, we have regarded bacteria primarily as enemies to be exterminated. We can also see this in our lifestyle habits with daily showers or baths, chlorinated water and frequent use of soap. We are so focused on staying clean and getting rid of bacteria that we may have encountered but, without microorganisms like bacteria, we humans would not survive. They collaborate with our cells and play an important role in all aspects of our health.

Fortunately, we are starting to get a better relationship with our microorganisms and bacteria. Most of us know the importance of a balanced intestinal flora for good health. But what about the skin flora? What do you know about your skin flora and how good a relationship you have with it?

We think it's time to start rethinking how we treat our ecosystem of bacteria in our skin - our protective microbiome and skin flora.

Microbiome = skin flora

The microbiome is the genetic genome of all our microorganisms that live and live in and on us. A certain set of microorganisms forms the well-known intestinal flora and another unique set forms the skin flora. 

Why is the skin microbiome important?

Skin microorganisms protect the skin from attacks from harmful bacteria and viruses and controls the overall health of our skin. That is why we want to take care of the microorganisms that live on our skin and not interfere with their "home". A disturbance in the balance between different types of bacteria living on the skin can lead to skin conditions such as acne, rosacea and eczema. 

How do the bacteria protect our skin?

The good bacterial flora, also called commensal bacterial flora, is the skin flora that has our skin as its home. We have thousands of different species of bacteria and other microorganisms that live and live in and on our skin. These microorganisms provide two important protective mechanisms in the skin.

• They form anti-inflammatory substances, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and anti-microbial peptides (AMP's) that support our immune system in the skin.
• They form a series of naturally occurring moisturizers in the skin. The reason for this evolutionary invention is to counteract dry skin.

Humans discover the bacteria

Bacteria were first observed in 1674 by Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. He saw the tiny organisms through a microscope that he had constructed on his own. In 1861, the French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur was able to show that fermentation is caused by microbiological activity, and it became known that bacteria can cause diseases.

In 1928, the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered the penicillin, seemingly giving man control over the both invisible and ever-threatening bacterial colonies. But even then, Fleming warned of the side effects of antibiotics. Today, 90 years later, we are faced with the post-antibiotic era, resulting in antibiotic resistance and other diseases. For the gut microbiome, antibiotic treatment has a serious impact and it may be months before the body's microbiome has recovered properly. Side effects such as upset stomach or diarrhoea are just as likely in antibiotics as rashes and fungal infections of the skin.

For the skin's microbiome, the exploited use of hygiene products probably also has a serious impact on our natural skin flora. Recently published research studies show that over-cleaning of facial skin can worsen, for example, the skin condition rosacea (Li et al., 2020), but also that the microbiome is affected by topical application of skin care products (Bouslimani et al., 2019).

The knowledge of the skin flora

Although since human history we humans have been colonized by microorganisms to survive, the knowledge of our living friends has been very limited. Already during childbirth we are colonized by the microbiome of our mothers. Our bacteria then follow our journey through life and protect our skin, our gut and yes, our entire body.

The reason why we have not heard much about the skin's microbiome is that it is such a new area of research and it is only in recent years that it has been possible to research and study it to a greater extent. The gut microbiome is also a relatively new field of research. It is only about 5 years ago that ways were found to study the trillions of microorgans that live and live on our skin. Thanks to modern sequencing methods that have led to a revolution in medical science, it is now able to understand more about which bacteria are good for us and which are less good.

Just as links have been found between several common diseases and different compositions of gut flora, links have also recently been discovered with certain compositions of skin flora linked to skin diseases such as eczema, psoriasis, acne or rosacea. However, there is still much to explore in our bacterial flora to understand the link to skin health and disease.

Maybe in the future we'll transplant bacteria from one skin to another to treat different skin conditions. But until we are there, both intestinal flora research and research point to the skin flora that a good strategy is to take good care of our microorganisms and not disturb the order unnecessarily.

Our strategy for a healthier microbiome!

We believe that the best strategy is to treat our skin flora with respect. That's why all our products are formulated to be as microbiome-friendly as possible and work to strengthen the skin's flora. 

Our recommendation is that you only wash your face in the evening to allow your skin to retain the good bacteria it produced during the night. After the evening cleansing, you can, if you wish, apply one of our moisturizers together with one of our night concentrates to restore the balance of the skin flora. In the morning, simply rinse your face with lukewarm water and then apply one of our moisturizers. If you want to explore more about our products, you can find our full range here.