Pineapple

A natural history

The pineapple is native to tropical South America, where Indigenous Tupi-Guarani people bred the wild plant into a sweet golden fruit and used it as food and folk medicine long before Europeans arrived. They put its juice and flesh to work on the skin and to aid digestion, an old instinct that science later traced to a protein dissolving enzyme in the fruit called bromelain.

That enzyme is the pineapple's gift to skin care. Bromelain gently digests the proteins that glue dull, dead cells to the surface, the very same action you feel as a faint tingle on the tongue when you eat fresh pineapple. What once softened tough food and soothed traditional ailments now lends a gentle, fruit powered way to smooth and refresh the look of skin.

What it does for your skin

Pineapple owes its smoothing reputation to bromelain, a natural enzyme that gently digests the proteins binding dull cells to the skin's surface. A review of enzyme exfoliants describes bromelain mimicking the skin's own shedding to help reveal a smoother surface, while noting clinical data is still limited.^[1] Laboratory testing found fresh pineapple has the highest protein digesting activity of the fruits and products measured, confirming the enzyme's power.^[2] In a formula it is a gentle, fruit derived way to support a fresher, brighter looking surface.

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