Lactobacillus Ferment

A natural history

Fermentation is one of humanity's oldest kitchen crafts. The same lactic acid bacteria that turn milk into yogurt and cabbage into kimchi have been quietly at work in human food for thousands of years, preserving harvests and deepening flavor from Korea to the Caucasus. In the last couple of decades that ancient craft crossed into beauty, and fermented ingredients became a signature of Korean and Japanese skincare.

There is even a famous origin story. In a Japanese sake brewery, observers noticed that the elderly workers who handled the fermenting rice mash all day had remarkably soft, youthful looking hands, which set off a search for a fermentation derived skincare ingredient. Modern science has since reframed the idea around the skin's own microbiome, the vast community of microbes living on the skin, and the postbiotic ferments designed to support it.

What it does for your skin

Lactobacillus ferment is a postbiotic, an inactivated bacterial ferment used to support the skin's barrier and its microbiome. In a month long study in people with sensitive skin, a lotion built around probiotic ferment lysates was associated with a meaningful drop in water loss through the skin and a calmer, more comfortable look, though the authors call it preliminary.^[1] In laboratory skin models, a Lactobacillus lysate lowered markers of inflammation after stress and supported a barrier protein.^[2] In a formula it helps skin look balanced and soothed. This is an emerging area of science.

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