The base consists of flour and milk: Iman didn’t specify any particular type, so we’ll assume you can choose your own adventure here. All-purpose flour with oat milk, coconut flour with almond milk—the combinations are endless. Just make sure to choose a super-fine flour that’s not too abrasive on your delicate skin. 

Now, for what Iman calls “the magic”—turmeric and honey. Both ingredients have been used for thousands of years in skin care: Turmeric (and its active ingredient, curcumin) has antioxidant properties that can help combat oxidative stress; plus, thanks to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, it can help brighten tone and relieve dark spots. Honey also has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties that calm the skin and support a healthy complexion. It’s also a humectant—meaning, it can actually draw water molecules into the top layer of your skin from the surrounding environment. 

Essentially, these four, simple ingredients make one creamy, hydrating, and brightening face mask. Grab the details below: 

At mbg, high standards are earned—and there are no shortcuts. Our beauty editors stay up to date on the latest ingredient research and innovation. It’s a dynamic, continuously evolving space, and it’s important we look into the science so we can make informed choices about which formulas earn our stamp of approval (figuratively speaking).

Our high standards also come from testing products—many, many products. Our editors and writers rigorously test and research the products featured in our roundups to offer you the best, most informed recommendations. When we write reviews, you can trust we spend quality time with the formulas: We don’t simply rave about products we’ve slathered on the back of our hand. We endorse products we’ve tried and loved. 

Learn more about our testing process and clean beauty standards here.

Hi there, frequent lip picker, here—and if you’ve stumbled across this article, I’ll assume you are, too. Glad we can all gather in this safe space. 

As many of us lip pickers know, the habit has downstream effects (the thin skin on your lips is especially delicate and prone to scarring, discoloration, and the like), but sometimes you just can’t resist tearing off those dry bits. And while lip picking knows no season, it tends to get worse in the colder months when your pout becomes drier and thus more prone to cracking—so, ahem, right about now. 

It seems like an opportune time to round up the best (and we mean best!) expert tips to help curb the urge to pick and peel. Here’s how to keep finicky fingers at bay and keep your lips soft, full, and supple. 

And then, I go in with the cups. Wildling’s two cups are made 100% food grade silicone, one larger (for the neck, cheekbones, and forehead) and one about as thin as a marker (for delicate areas like the eyes and lips, or even for targeting individual lines). If you’ve never used a cup before, I recommend practicing on your forearm to nail down the technique—even though it’s quite simple. Slightly pinch the middle of the cone, and then place it on the skin before releasing: You’ll feel the skin being pulled into the cup. From here, there are two main movements. The first is that you can quickly go back to re-pinch the cup and release the skin. (Then do this a few more times in the same area.) The second is that you grab the cup, and slowly drag it across the skin until it naturally releases on its own. 

On the body, the cups are placed on the body and not moved—a still process that is about release. The face, however, is more fluid, and is about circulation and flow. There’s no perfect facial cupping process that everyone must follow, but for beginners, a simple routine acts as a good foundation. And as you get used to the process, you can make adjustments and tweaks that feel good to you. 

Start at the base of the neck, just above the collarbone, use the suction-and-release technique. This, experts note, can help kick-start lymphatic drainage and circulation. Do this several times on both sides of the neck. Then repeat this action just under the ear, right next to the jawbone on both slides. 

Once you’ve done this (it helps open the circulation in the face and neck), you can move onto the gliding technique. If you’re one to guasha or facial roll, you’ll see a lot of similarities in the movements. For example, you want to start to lift up and out as you drag the cup across the skin—you also want to make sure you’re keeping your other hand gently resting at the beginning point, as to limit aggressive tugging. 

I start at my chin and sweep across the jawline, slowly moving up to my cheekbones with each passing stroke. Then I skip over the eyes (I come back to them later with the smaller cup), and go to my brows and forehead. I start with the cup at the center of my brows and move out just above the brow bone on both sides. Then I work my forehead by pulling the cup into my hairline. 

Switching cups, I then tend to my eye area. The skin around the eyes is very thin, and requires extra care. You can use either technique when working here, but if you do glide the cup across the skin, do so extra lightly. You’ll find that the smaller cup doesn’t allow for much suction, which is the exact purpose for using it around the eyes: I cannot stress enough you should be cautious here. 

So often I get asked about how long you should do this for, and my go-to answer is whatever feels right! You certainly don’t want to overdo it, but you shouldn’t feel that there’s a singular, perfect routine that works for everyone. The best thing you can do is learn the basics, what you shouldn’t do (don’t be too hard), and the rest is, quite literally, in your hands. 

The kit comes with a cloud-like cloth made from viscose bamboo and certified organic cotton, which I use to pat off excess oil post cupping. There’s also a small round 1005 white jade stone, perfect for depuffing eyes. I’ve been keeping mine in the freezer, and using it in the morning when my bags are swollen. The cooled rounded end simply glides over my lids and under eyes, making me look and feel more awake in the process. 

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. 

Yes—in theory. “Wild-crafted, foraged ingredients are exposed to environmental stressors that traditionally harvested botanicals are spared from,” says clean cosmetic chemist Krupa Koestline, founder of KKT Consultants. “Therefore, these stressed plants produce higher levels of antioxidants as a coping mechanism to deal with the stressors. Therefore, in principle, wildcrafted varieties have higher levels of beneficial antioxidants compared to traditionally grown.” 

That in principle mention is important: We don’t have a ton of data right now when it comes to comparing wild versus organically farmed skin care. We do have science behind extremophile endurance technology, where plants living in extreme, uninhabitable environments—the desert, depths of the ocean, the Arctic—can have some pretty potent benefits for the skin (read all about it here).

But what about wild-crafted ingredients that don’t live in extreme conditions, like the bottom of the ocean? What about plants that are just a little more stressed by living in nutrient-rich, untouched soil rather than in nice, pretty rows on cultivated ground? 

It certainly makes sense, but it’s a wider-known concept in the organic food space—with topicals, the actual science isn’t caught up quite yet. “I don’t think it’s a hypothesis that’s been tested,” says board-certified dermatologist Cynthia Bailey, M.D., founder of Dr. Bailey Skin Care. “That may be a ‘cart before the horse’ situation.” 

In other words: It’s promising, but we do have some ways to go. Butler concurs: “We have only just begun to scratch the surface in regard to what benefits [wild plants] can bring to the surface of the skin when applied topically.” 

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. 

Short answer? Apply your vitamin C first, then pat on your HA. Vitamin C (especially L-ascorbic acid) is notoriously unstable—it loses potency when it’s exposed to air, light, and water—which is why you want to apply it on clean, dry skin right after washing. You’ll also want to let it dry completely, as piling on products right after could potentially deactivate the vitamin C. 

You don’t need to be as precious with hyaluronic acid. Yes, applying on damp skin will make it easier for the humectant to pull in water, but it can also draw in that moisture from the surrounding environment, too. Let’s not forget: Hyaluronic acid can hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, and you don’t necessarily have to provide that water yourself. “That way, you don’t need to worry that HA needs to go directly onto damp skin,” says board-certified dermatologist Ife J. Rodney, M.D., FAAD, founding director of Eternal Dermatology + Aesthetics.  

So you can apply your vitamin C first, let it dry completely, then apply your hyaluronic acid. Just remember to top everything off with a moisturizer—you still want to seal in the HA to lock in the hydration. 

Or, if you do want to apply your HA on damp skin to maximize its benefits, board-certified dermatologist Ava Shamban, M.D., founder of SkinFive, still recommends applying your vitamin C serum and letting it dry completely. “The highly reactive nature and low pH of vitamin C in serum form will usually allow it to penetrate the cleansed, dry skin quickly,” she says. After it dries, apply a water-based hydrating toner or essence (here are our favorites), then pat your hyaluronic acid serum onto the freshly misted skin. Again, follow up with a moisturizer to lock in the hydration.