A Skincare Factory Living on Your Skin

Imagine skincare containing amino acids, peptides, glycolic acid, ascorbic acid, ferulic acid, and niacinamide. You probably thought of several different lotions and potions, how to combine them all, and when to use what. Perhaps you also thought that it sounds expensive.

What if we told you that probiotic bacteria produce all of those “ingredients” and more?

Probiotic bacteria work like a tiny skincare factory, making some of the skincare industry’s most hyped active ingredients, directly on your skin. It doesn’t get fresher than that. Creating acids and peptides is part of their normal metabolic function as they go about their business. Which metabolites (“ingredients”) they produce, can be impacted by the type of probiotic they are, the food they get, as well as the environment that they’re in.

Think of probiotics like humans: we are all different, and there are billions of us, and we all go about our lives and produce things. What we produce depends, to some extent, on our environment but is largely dictated by who we are. In my kitchen, my output might be a lasagne, whilst in the office my output might be this blog-post. You might cook risotto at home and makes vases when you’re at work. Probiotic bacteria work kind of in the same way. They have a core function/identity, but their output is also impacted by their environment and the materials they have to work with.

The two main probiotic strains that we use in BAK’s skincare, both in pro- and postbiotic products are:

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LB244R®: A bacteria found in fermented cabbage, which inhibits a specific clonal type of Staphylococcus aureus associated to severity of eczema. It is a probiotic strain suitable to balance the skin microbiome, improve hydration, soothe rashes, irritated and itchy skin, balance skin tone and complexion, and calm inflammation of the skin. The strain produces hundreds of metabolites with known beneficial effects on skin including CDP-choline, vitamin C, ferulic acid, glycolic acid and multiple anti-aging compounds.

 Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LB356R®: A bacteria found in fermented beetroot, which binds to pathogenic ribotypes of Cutibacterium acnes and inhibits biofilm formation of the C. acnes bacteria. It is a probiotic strain suitable to balance the skin microbiome, control breakouts, improve hydration, balance skin tone and complexion and the calm irritation and inflammation of the skin. The strain produces hundreds of metabolites with known beneficial effects on skin including metabolites like salicylamide, vitamin C, niacinamide (VitB3), pyridoxine (VitB6) and indole-3-lactic acid and succinic acid which un-clog pores.

Metabolites and their functionality

To help you make sense of the probiotics’ metabolites and their functionality, we made a short cheat-sheet below. There are many more metabolites, but these are the ones you’re probably most familiar with from “regular” skincare products. Different probiotics produce different metabolites, and complete mapping of metabolic output would be very difficult to achieve.