Additionally, if you are going through menopause, you may see more dramatic changes. “As our hormones diminish in menopause, the functions they perform to maintain the health and vitality of the skin diminish as well, characterized by a decrease in sweat, sebum, and the immune functions resulting in significant alterations in the skin surface including pH, lipid composition, and sebum secretion,” board-certified dermatologist Keira Barr, M.D., previously told us about menopause and skin. “These changes also provide potential alterations in the skin that may affect the skin microbiome.” 

Now add in the fact that hands get more physical and environmental exposure than other parts of your body, and they can become quite the delicate spot. It’s no wonder experts and dermatologists are so insistent you protect them with a barrier-supporting cream. 

But, like all skin care, not all formulas are created equal. In order to help your skin as it ages, you should be mindful of the ingredients you are using—and look for ones that not only feed your skin lipids but address the other areas of barrier function as well. 

So, of course you’ll want to look for a cream with dense, rich oils and butters to keep your skin hydrated and conditioned. Shea butter and moringa seed oil are both sophisticated options that contain fatty acids and more to help bolster the barrier. But then look for additional ingredients like targeted antioxidants to help improve your skin’s free-radical-fighting abilities, lighten age spots, and reduce signs of premature aging. Vitamins C, E, niacinamide, and coenzyme Q10 are all potent and popular options that have significant research backing up their skin-healthy benefits. Finally, you’ll want to support your flora as you age since the changes in the biome can make your skin more sensitive: Pre- and postbiotic ingredients have been shown to help calm the skin, nurture the natural flora, and improve your skin’s defense system. 

That may sound like a tall order for a hand cream—but we’ve seen some pretty sophisticated formulas enter the market. Don’t know where to start? Check out our all-time favorite hand creams here. 

So where does this leave biotic skin care in general? The need to innovate. Technically, those non-living “probiotics” could fall under the postbiotic umbrella, but as we’ve discussed—the jury is still out as to if they’re beneficial for the skin. Regardless, they are certainly not innovative.  

Instead we look to technologically advanced, unique, and highly-targeted postbiotics to care for the skin. 

Researchers have been able to identify key, beneficial outputs from the bacteria living on our skin naturally. I like to think of these as synergistic gifts, from our microbiome to our skin; our skin, in turn, becomes a more harmonious and habitable place for the bacteria. A beautiful cycle is born. These outputs are called postbiotics.

In our skin’s natural ecosystem, postbiotics come in the form of several key outputs. For example, the strain Staphylococcus epidermidis produces specific serine protease enzymes and the strain Staphylococcus hominis produces antimicrobial peptides, both of which support the skin’s immune function. 

In an ideal world—one in which your skin’s ecosystem is unbothered by environmental agitators, internal stressors, and other damaging irritants—your microbiome would do this all on it’s own, all of the time. That’s not the world we live in. 

So not only were researchers able to identify these very specific outputs, they were able to recreate them, en masse, without having to inactivate or fragment bacteria (like para probiotics or lysates). This technological development means researchers can create targeted actives—of which are able to immediately activate cross talking with the skin directly.

Textbook sounding explanation aside, this is very cool. See, when actives are able to directly cross talk with the skin, they can inspire changes in skin behavior—rather than just enacting superficial changes. (It’s why dermatologists obsess over retinol’s ability to interact with retinoid receptors or L-ascorbic acid’s ability to inspire collagen cross linking.) 

In the case of postbiotics, we find a few impressive changes. (And a fair warning, we get very science-heavy here, but it’s a dense topic). Let’s look at Lactobacillales, the “educational” bacteria of the skin. It’s actually a strain of bacteria that populates our skin in our youth, but declines as we age. As its role as educators, it teaches skin to act young, protect itself, and revitalize barrier function. Its postbiotics are things like oligopeptides (even more specifically oligopeptide-5 through 13), fatty acids (including UFA, PUFA, and EFA), as well as biosurfactants, like rhamnolipids. And now, through modern technology we are able to bioidentically recreate these natural postbiotics and infuse them into skin care. 

Once on the skin, they are able to cross talk with various receptors (such as G-Protein coupled receptors, epidermal growth factor-receptors and toll-like receptors) to improve the epidermis framework regeneration, skin hydration, reduce signs of aging thanks to exposure to irritants and pollutants, stimulate microcirculation, support the skin’s immune system, and calm inflammation. 

It is the next generation of advanced biotic skin care. Our hand cream delivers a blend of thoughtful, sophisticated ingredients that work to bolster every element of your skin barrier. 

To start, the pre- and postbiotics support your skin’s microbiome, or the flora living on your skin that plays several roles in your overall health. (I encourage you to read up on it in our skin microbiome guide if you aren’t already familiar.) I think that the skin microbiome is one of the most fascinating and exciting areas of research—and as we learn more, we understand just how important it is to your overall health and just how poorly modern lifestyle habits affect it. 

We wanted to do something about that: Postbiotics are some of the newest areas of development in microbiome-supporting personal care products. It all started when researchers were able to identify key outputs from the good organisms living on the skin, such as enzymes, certain fatty acids, humectants, biosurfactants, and peptides. So they took these findings and recreated those beneficial offerings, which we infused into our formula. Our special strain of postbiotics provides skin with very specific fatty acids and peptides that have been shown to soothe inflammation, help protect skin against environmental stressors, regulate microcirculation, and activate the skin’s immune system. 

For added support, we also included prebiotics to make sure that the living flora already present on the skin was being taken care of, too. There are several kinds of prebiotics to use, and we selected one made from microgreen algae that has been shown to have a soothing effect on the skin as it prevents inflammation triggered by an unbalanced microbiome. 

We also knew how important it was to enhance the lipid layer. The creamy base contains several botanicals to moisturize and soothe the skin: shea butter, moringa seed oil, aloe vera, and oat oil. Each of these individually is a powerful natural ingredient, but together they’re far more robust in their efficacy. 

Additionally, it’s topped with powerful antioxidants like coenzyme Q10, a potent antioxidant naturally found in the body, and a watermelon, lentil, and apple complex that delivers a wide range of skin-supporting nutrients and benefits. For example, citrulline and polysaccharides for water retention, vitamin B5 to smooth skin, and trisaccharides to enhance epidermal barrier function. Antioxidants are a vital part of barrier function, as they are able to help the body deal with free radicals and all the damage that comes with them.