Skin microbiome and cosmetics – peppermint oil and hair growth – episode 190

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

Hi, I'm Perry, and this is The Beauty Brains.

Hello, and welcome to The Beauty Brains, a show where real scientists answer your beauty questions and give you a different spin on the beauty product industry. This is episode 190 I'm your host, Perry Rofanowski. It's a solo show today because Valerie is off traveling and learning how to be a barista, I think. Who would have known that being a cosmetic chemist involves so much traveling? Actually, I'm traveling today too. I'm heading to New Zealand, and when this show gets posted, I'll probably be on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean. I'm speaking at a conference in Queenstown, New Zealand.

So it'll be a short show today, but I wanted to, you know, at least put out a show and check in with you and answer at least a couple of questions. And I had a topic I wanted to cover, specifically the topic of the microbiome. So let's get into another of Perry's rants.

Perry Romanowski (1:11)

Microbiome, a term beauty marketers like to use because it sounds much better when what they're really talking about is that fact that your body is covered with microscopic critters that feast on your skin waste. Yes, you are literally littered with tiny worm-like creatures that crawl around and eat up the bits of dead skin that you shed every day. You can't see them, but they're still there. Now, the microbiome is really becoming popular. According to Google Trends, interest in the microbiome has steadily grown since 2013 And beauty product makers have taken on to launching products specifically targeting the microbiome with names like probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics. One company is even claiming to sell live bacteria that supposedly cleans your skin while repopulating your bacteria. But seriously, are these products really beneficial to your skin? Before we talk about products, let's first look at exactly what is the microbiome. Microbiome refers to all the microorganisms that populate your body both inside and out. It includes such things as bacteria, yeast, mold, mites, and even parasites. In fact, it's been estimated that there are 10 times more microbial living cells on your body than human cells. If aliens came down to earth and took a look at you, they might mistake you for a walking microbial motel 6 There have long been products targeting your gut microbiome, which has been studied for a couple of decades. And whether those products show any health benefits is debatable. In fact, a recent study in the journal Cell showed that the gut microbiome is complex and resists change, and that we currently have no way to assess the microbiome effects of things like probiotics. A BBC report on this study put it more bluntly saying that food packed with probiotics are almost useless.

Like your gut, your skin also has organisms living on it. It's got a whole tapestry of microorganisms. In fact, even if you use antimicrobial soap, the microbes that live on your skin will quickly repopulate. The types of microorganisms vary widely depending on the different parts of your skin that they're on, depending on what time of year it is, and they vary between people. The organisms that make up your microbiome are different than the ones that make up my microbiome or the microbiome of your friends and family. Which is why you really shouldn't be sharing your makeup with your friends or family. Every time you use a cosmetic applicator on your skin and you dip it back into the product, you're putting your own microbes into that product. Now, if it has a good preservative system, that's less problematic, but most don't. And when your friend uses your product, they're essentially putting all of your bacteria all over themselves. And their body might not properly adapt to your microorganisms. It's not much different than if your friend picked your nose and then smeared it under their eyelids.

Don't do that.

All this is to say that the microbiome is a complicated topic. The science is immature. We are just learning about it, and at the moment, we don't really know what are the good microbes and what are the bad microbes or how much you should have on one part of your skin or how much you should have on other places. There have been some correlation studies, of course, for microbe populations on different skin conditions, but the reality is that science just cannot tell you what is the ideal population of microbes for your particular skin.

We just don't know. We certainly don't know enough to be recommending interventions to improve, fix, or support your microbiome.

Of course, that hasn't stopped the marketers from telling you that they can do that. They can't do that.