The probiotic trend is gradually making its way into skincare and Esse Skin Care is leading the current market. The company’s Probiotic Serum contains 1 billion live probiotic microbes per milliliter and tests have shown that it has been able to improve skin firmness by an average of 16% in 28 days.
Skincare products have contained extracts of probiotics in the past, but these are far less effective than live probiotics. However, preservatives in common skincare products tend to kill the probiotics that are used in them. Esse seems to have bottled lighting with their use of advanced methods such as airless glass packaging and a preservative-free formula when creating the first live probiotic serum. The probiotic microbes encapsulated and suspended in an oil base. It is only until they come in contact with water on the skin do they start to dividing and restoring.
"We consider the skin microbiome in every product that we formulate."
The company hopes to revolutionize probiotic skincare by exploring the idea of personalized probiotics that can be generated to improve anti-aging results, which may be a possibility sooner rather than later since the cost of genetic sequencing is quickly falling and the skin microbiome can be characterized.
Esse’s founder, Trevor Steyn, explains the company’s mindset when creating their products, "It's now clear that skin is an ecology … an intricate interplay between human cells and microbes. Trying to optimise skin health without considering microbes is archaic. We consider the skin microbiome in every product that we formulate."
