KRISTIN NEUMANN
MyMicrobiome AG, Balzers, Liechtenstein

Abstract

Over one year ago we presented the world’s first certification for microbiome cosmetics and the challenges around cosmetic claims in the skin microbiome space. The microbiome topic has emerged over the last years and is here to stay. This article will summarize the development of the cosmetics industry in the microbiome arena and explain how the cosmetics industry can approach the microbiome.

The microbiome is a parameter which has by now established in the cosmetics industry, however regulation is still lacking. This leaves the question of how to approach the microbiome as a cosmetic brand. In 2018 MyMicrobiome launched the first independent certification for microbiome cosmetics, offering the industry a tool which gives meaningful data for claim substantiation for final products and ingredients. Since back in 2018, the demand for Microbiome-friendly certification is strongly increasing.

HOW SHOULD THE COSMETICS INDUSTRY APPROACH THE MICROBIOME?
Many brands would like to jump ahead of science and promise to improve the skin microbiome in many ways. But claims like these should be taken with caution. In the last two years some very well known brands had to remove their claims due to lacking substantiation (1, 2).

And here comes why that is: Claims that state to improve the skin´s microbiome are “breakthrough claims that would require a high level of evidence to substantiate them” (1). The skin microbiome is highly complex, with “many layers, with microbes being detected in the dermis, adipos ...