Civilization has long been associated with a sense of “clean” that requires us to rid ourselves of nature and place ourselves on a pedestal above all other life. We soap down daily, stripping oiliness from our skin, and disinfect to kill 99.9% of all known germs… If we could blitz 100% – no doubt – humanity in general would be pleased.

Are there consequences to these actions?

The answer – A DEFINITIVE YES!

Over the millions of years that humans (and all of life on earth) have existed, we have never done it alone; our very existence relies on thousands of unseen interactions with the microbial world around us. From microbes in our guts that turn amino acids into essential vitamins, to those that work closely with the cells on the surface of our skins in order to balance our immune response, we depend heavily on the microbial world. Even our moods are linked to the chemical messages that exist within our bodies because of microbes.

Science is only clipping the very tip of the massive and complex iceberg that is the microbiome, and what it is fast discovering is that we are successfully destroying the balance that evolution has expertly curated. Through our perception of cleanliness to the processed food we eat and our avoidance of the natural world around us, we’ve either destroyed or lost many of our essential microbe partners. This is evident through the increase in skin disorders such as eczema, acne and dermatitis, and the rise of lifestyle-related illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and depression. By breaking our microbial partnerships, we’ve broken systems that have existed for millennia. Now we will have to work hard to get the balance back.

Esse aims to promote awareness around the value of recognising and maintaining a healthy microbiome and offer the opportunity to Rewild your skin’s microbiome with probiotic microbes so that you can wear your best skin with confidence.

Have you had enough of hearing how the latest skincare fad is the only thing that will rescue your skin?

What if we told you that, to be at its best, your skin needs trillions of microbes from thousands of species? In the same way that your gut needs good microbes, your skin depends on its microbial partners to stay healthy. Often products that don’t consider the skin microbiome do more harm than good. So, less can really be more. If your moisturiser is not pH balanced, you’re wasting your hard-earned money. If your cleanser leaves your skin feeling squeaky clean, you’re stripping it of valuable natural oils. If your eye cream is loaded with bacteria-busting preservatives, you’re disrupting your skin microbiome and opening yourself up for all sorts of trouble.

Here’s what healthy resident microbes do for you:

1 – they protect you from pathogenic bacteria by colonising all the available space on the surface of your skin, leaving no room for troublemakers (this is called competitive exclusion).

2 – many good species of microbes found on skin produce anti-microbial peptides which actively fight off pathogens and strengthen skin defences.

3 – Lactobacillus microbes produce lactic acid, which keeps the pH of your skin right and improves moisturisation.

4 – they maintain the little stitch-like structures that hold your skin cells together (called tight junctions) which physically keep the bad guys out, and moisture in.

5 – some produce hyaluronic acid right on your skin – that’s pretty amazing, given what lengths some of us will go to to get it into our skincare routines.

It might sound as though keeping all of this together might require a load of expensive products, but in reality, it’s often the layers of skin potions and lotions that are responsible for modern skin concerns in the first place – acne, rosacea, eczema and sensitivity are all rooted in an imbalanced skin microbiome. Something has compromised the balance, allowing the wrong sorts of microbes to set up shop and run your skin into a state of chaos.

So, what can you do to restore balance to maintain a healthy state? Firstly, we need to identify what threatens a balanced microbiome:

• Preservatives – are designed to kill microbes. You don’t want to slap on harshly preserved products. The same philosophy applies to preservatives in processed food – they damage your gut microbiome.
• pH – products that are not properly pH balanced set the scene for rogue microbes to flourish. Beneficial skin microbes thrive at a pH of around 5 and easily overcome invader species when this pH is maintained.
• Foam dissolves oil. The oil your skin produces is valuable but (as recent research reveals) it is also high-energy food for friendly microbes. This oil (sebum) is metabolically expensive for your body to make, so in effect, it is you paying some pretty high-end staff to do a very important job for you. It makes very little sense to wash it down the drain.
• Hot water – this might be one of the toughest realities to accept, but hot baths and showers hurt the microbes on your skin. When our ancestors roamed the earth, living as one with nature, a hot bath was very hard to come by and so most of the skin microbes we have formed partnerships with cannot tolerate this modern-day luxury.
• Antibiotics are all too often prescribed for minor ailments but should be reserved for life threatening cases only. Antibiotics kill bacterial microbes indiscriminately. This leaves you vulnerable to secondary infection, with no natural defences in place to ward off future pathogen attacks.
• Municipal water – due to the risk of waterborne disease in urban areas, the vast majority of us have no option but to use and consume treated water. It may be hard to avoid, but be aware that this could affect the skin’s microbiome
• C-section deliveries can put babies on the back foot from birth. Our bodies are cleverly designed to deliver all the good microbes a new-born needs on its journey through the birth canal. Their skins are seeded with the right balance of microbes and they swallow their first microbes in the same journey, seeding their guts in the process. Breast feeding also helps with gut health as it’s now evident that breast milk contains prebiotics to feed an infant’s microbiome, as well as probiotics to seed the right species.

Now we know the things that can cause a microbiome to go out of kilter, it’s a little easier to know what to look for and what to avoid when choosing skincare.

More often than you would imagine, skincare products can harm your skin’s microbiome.  It is our advice that anyone struggling with any sort of skin ailment should start by cutting right back to the basics. Cleanse only in the evening and only if you are removing make-up – otherwise, rinse with water and use a cleansing cloth. Apply a little microbiome-friendly moisturiser and continue in this way for 2 weeks. Our bodies are always working toward an equilibrium, but the only way they can get on with it is if we don’t interfere too much.  You might be pleasantly surprised to discover that your body does a great job of getting back on track; and once it does, you can turn to Esse to get down to the nitty-gritty of great anti-aging skincare – because Esse puts microbes first, always.

“A change is as good as a holiday,” and who would say no thank you to that?

As 2020 gets underway, we’d like to challenge you to make some changes that will improve the outcomes for your skin (and overall health).  As with anything worth doing, some of the items on the list will require staying power but some are surprisingly simple – all come with benefits well worth the effort.

CHALLENGE 1

Quit the cleanse. Before you cringe, there is good reason to forgo your morning cleanse in favour of a little splash with water and here’s the thinking…
The natural oils that your skin produces overnight are very expensive (metabolically) to produce so it makes sense to assume that they are important; our bodies are not up for wasting energy for no good reason.  Our research has led to the discovery that these skin oils (sebum) are very useful to healthy skin microbes, the sorts of microbes you really want on your skin.  By removing all these good oils, we compromise our skin microbiome and open the playing field to unwanted bacteria that cause all manner of skin concerns from acne to eczema and rosacea.  Esse is all about creating a balanced skin microbiome – all our moisturisers contain prebiotics to feed good skin microbes in an attempt to keep them happy. If you stop to think about it, it’s like your skin makes its own nurturing moisturiser, so why wash it all away? Just rinse with a little water before toning and applying moisturiser. Aside from saving time and making your cleanser last longer your skin will be happier too.

CHALLENGE 2

Pick 1 day a week to go make-up free… no make-up means you can skip a cleanser all together that day. For compromised skin, this is probably one of the most beneficial practices you can get into. We’ve already explained the value of your skin’s natural oil, so give your microbiome a weekend to chill out too!

CHALLENGE 3

Turn towards the sun.  Spend at least 15 minutes in the sun everyday if you can – without sunscreen. Yes, that’s right!  Vitamin D is essential to your health on every level, including skin health. Vitamin D is made in your skin but your body needs unprotected exposure to direct sunlight to make it. For millennia our ancestors lived and roamed the great outdoors, so there is no reason to think we are not made for it.  Most of the western world is vitamin D deficient with known symptoms including auto-immune disorders, cancer, low bone density and depression. If you join the dots, these are the most common ailments affecting modern day humans – perhaps the first step we should take is a step back into the sun.

CHALLENGE 4

Quit sugar. This is probably the biggest challenge we have for you. It does require a lifestyle change but just say no thank you once, twice, three times and before you know it, it will be your natural response. Our bodies are built to seek out sugar and short chain carbohydrates as they represent free, easy energy, but a few hundred years back, these things were very rare and hard to find in nature. Dealing with the large quantities of sugar that are too easily accessible these days hurts you a lot. It’s often difficult to find anything that is not processed or sweet but if you plan ahead a little and have some healthy snacking options on hand, you won’t be tempted to cheat.

CHALLENGE 5

Sweat and breathe. Exercise is good for you, period. It’s also great for skin health. Sweating releases toxins that build up over time and getting your heart rate up, coupled with good breathing techniques increases blood flow to your entire body, skin included. We challenge you to get moving at least twice a week for 1 hour.

CHALLENGE 6

Go rewild yourself! This may sound like we’re encouraging irresponsible behaviour, but there’s nothing rebellious about rewilding. Getting out into nature reseeds your body and skin with an abundance of nature’s best medicine – good microbes. The side effects of rewilding are also great for reducing stress levels, elevating happiness and so much more. The best part is that there are so many ways to rewild that you will never tire of it:

• • Plant a garden – you’ll end up with beautiful flowers or fresh veggies as a bonus
  • Go for a walk in the wild – you’ll get fit and feel energized and inspired
  • Play with your pets – they’re masters at rewilding and will gladly show you how
  • Walk barefoot on the dirt, sit on the grass, go for a swim in the ocean
  • Hang outdoors with children – they also have a knack for it

CHALLENGE 7

Ditch the anti-bacterials. Our one last challenge to you is for the good of the planet as well… expose yourself and your family to fewer toxins – switch to eco cleaning products. A first step would be to reduce the number of cleaning products in your cleaning cupboard; do you really need a toilet cleaner, a shower cleaner and a surface cleaner? A quick search for eco cleaning products will result in a long list of companies making this simple change so easy. Many are even incorporating bacteria to do the job better than the nasty chemicals we have come to innocently trust.