What Biotechnology Means for Your Skin Microbiome

How I Found Biotechnology

For most of my career, I wasn't looking for biotechnology.

I was looking for a better way to formulate.

Long before I discovered biotechnology, I had spent decades observing how skin responds to what we ask of it. People arrived in clinic with different concerns, different routines, and different experiences, yet I often found myself returning to the same observation.

Skin seemed to function best when the environment around it was stable.

That doesn't mean doing nothing. It doesn't mean avoiding science. It simply means being thoughtful about what we ask the skin to respond to.

Much of my career was spent trying to reduce unnecessary disruption. I wasn't looking for less care or less science.

I was looking for ingredients and formulations that made biological sense and worked with the skin rather than constantly asking it to adapt.

As my understanding of the microbiome grew, many of the things I had been observing for years started to make more sense.

The microbiome is a living ecosystem. Like most living ecosystems, it appears to function best when conditions are relatively stable.

It responds to the environment we create around it, and that environment is influenced by everything from cleansing habits and ingredient choices to barrier function and overall health.^1, 4, 6

This is worth knowing, because it means your daily choices, how you cleanse and what you apply, matter more to your microbiome than any single product ever could.

For years, I knew the kinds of products I wanted to create. Products designed to work with the skin, respect the microbiome, and reflect what I had spent decades observing in practice.

The challenge was never knowing what I wanted to achieve. The challenge was finding a way to bring those ideas to life.

The webinar that changed my direction

Then I attended a webinar. At the time, I had no idea it would change the direction of what I was trying to build.

The webinar was presented by scientist Josh Britton, founder of Debut Biotech. What struck me wasn't a sales pitch or marketing narrative. It was a completely different way of thinking about formulation.

Listening to Josh, I realised I wasn't looking at another ingredient supplier. I was looking at a different future.

That was my lightbulb moment.

Biotechnology wasn't the destination I had been searching for. It was the tool that could finally help me get there.

So how does biotechnology support the skin microbiome? In simple terms, it lets us make ingredients precise enough to work with your skin's ecosystem rather than overwhelm it. Less disruption, more support.

What Biotechnology Is, and Why It Suits the Microbiome

Biotechnology sounds far more complicated than it actually is.

At its simplest, biotechnology uses biological processes to create ingredients with greater precision, consistency, and efficiency.^2, 3

While the term feels modern, the concept itself isn't entirely new. Humans have worked with biological processes for thousands of years through fermentation, bread making, yoghurt production, and cheese making.

Modern biotechnology simply takes this much further.

Rather than relying solely on farming, harvesting, or extraction, scientists can work with biological systems to create highly specific ingredients with remarkable accuracy.³

Why does that matter? Because precision matters when you're working with living systems.

The skin microbiome is a living ecosystem. It doesn't necessarily benefit from increasingly complex routines, excessive ingredient loads, or the assumption that more is always better.

Biotechnology offers a different perspective. Rather than asking how much we can add, it allows us to ask how precisely we can formulate.

For me, that distinction is incredibly important. It shifts the conversation away from more and towards better.

Why the two belong together

This is what drew me to biotechnology. Not because it was new, but because it offered a more precise way of working with biology.

For me, biotechnology and microbiome science are connected by a simple idea: the more precisely we can work with biology, the less we need to overwhelm it.

In practice, that means support can come from fewer, more deliberate ingredients, rather than asking your skin to cope with more.

Biotechnology simply gave me the tools to put that belief into practice.

Biotechnology shifts the question a formulator asks:

Why Observation Still Matters

One of the things my career has taught me is that science and observation are not opposing ideas. The most useful insights often come from paying attention to both.

Anyone who knows me knows I am constantly reading, researching, attending webinars, and looking for better information. My philosophy has always been simple: if you cannot show me the science, I am probably not interested.

At the same time, years of working closely with skin taught me the value of noticing patterns.

There were occasions when what I repeatedly observed in practice didn't align neatly with what was generally accepted, and those moments often led to the most interesting questions.

Asking why has shaped much of my career.

Where what I saw met what I read

When I started developing the formulations, I found myself asking those same questions again. I wasn't interested in including ingredients simply because they were considered standard practice. I wanted to understand their purpose and whether they truly belonged in the formulation.

Every ingredient needed to justify its place.

That curiosity was one of the reasons biotechnology appealed to me so strongly.

For the first time, I felt I had access to a way of formulating that shared that same mindset: looking more closely, asking better questions, and trying to understand what the skin actually needs.

What Does It Mean for an Ingredient to Be Compatible with the Microbiome?

One of the questions I am asked most often is what it actually means for an ingredient to be compatible with the microbiome.

To me, it begins with recognising that the microbiome is not something that needs to be controlled. It is a living ecosystem that has evolved alongside us.^1, 6

When I think about microbiome compatibility, I think less about targeting the microbiome directly and more about supporting the environment it depends on. The skin barrier, hydration levels, pH, and the overall condition of the skin all influence that environment.

For your skin, microbiome support is not about attacking or controlling anything. It is about helping the conditions your skin already relies on, its barrier, its hydration, its balance, stay steady.

Supporting the environment, not controlling it

Throughout my career, I have often found that skin responds best when we stop asking it to manage unnecessary complexity. Sometimes it needs support. Sometimes it needs guidance. What it rarely needs is more disruption.

That way of thinking is one of the reasons biotechnology appealed to me so strongly. It allows ingredients to be developed with a level of precision and consistency that simply wasn't available when I started my career.³

That consistency matters: it means ingredients behave the same way each time, so your skin is not constantly adapting to something new.

For someone who has spent decades trying to understand what helps skin function comfortably, that is incredibly exciting. Not because it allows us to do more, but because it allows us to be more thoughtful about what we choose to include.

Why Consumer Confusion Matters

One of the things that motivated me to create my own skincare line was the level of confusion I was seeing in clinic.

Not because people weren't interested in learning about their skin. Quite the opposite. Most were trying incredibly hard to make informed decisions.

The challenge was that skincare had become increasingly complicated.

People were being asked to navigate an enormous amount of information, much of it conflicting. Ingredients, trends, social media advice, marketing claims, product recommendations, and expert opinions. It could feel endless.

I often met people who were doing exactly what they believed was right for their skin yet still felt uncertain. Not because they weren't paying attention, but because they were receiving so many different messages about what they should be doing.

What struck me most was how much effort people were putting in.

What people actually wanted was clarity

Many weren't looking for more products. They were looking for clarity. They wanted to understand what mattered, what didn't, and how to make decisions that felt right for their own skin.

That experience stayed with me and reinforced something I had believed for a long time: skin is often easier to understand when we remove some of the noise around it.

Is Lab-Made Less Natural?

One of the questions that often comes up when discussing biotechnology is whether something developed in a laboratory is somehow less natural.

I understand why people ask.

For many years, skincare conversations have encouraged us to think in terms of natural versus synthetic, as though those are the most important questions to ask.

I'm not convinced they are.

One of my favourite observations is that even plants have scientific names.

Why behaviour matters more than origin

Nature is extraordinary, but our understanding of it comes through science. Science helps us understand how biological systems work, why certain compounds behave the way they do, and how they interact with the skin.

That is how I think about biotechnology. Not as something separate from nature, but as a way of learning from biological processes and applying that knowledge with greater precision.^2, 3

The question that has always interested me is not whether an ingredient originated in a laboratory or a plant. What interests me is how it behaves.

How consistent is it? How pure is it? How does it interact with the skin? Does it support the wider environment the microbiome depends upon?

Those are the questions I find most useful. Because once we move beyond simple labels, we can start thinking more carefully about what skin actually needs.

How Do We Know a Formulation Is Gentle on the Microbiome?

As interest in the microbiome has grown, so has the need for better ways of assessing microbiome compatibility.

For many years, brands could talk about supporting the microbiome, but there was very little independent testing available to help evaluate those claims.

That is beginning to change.

Today, formulations can be assessed using recognised testing methods that evaluate their compatibility with the skin microbiome.⁵

This matters to me because I have always believed that if we are going to talk about supporting the microbiome, those claims should be able to stand up to scrutiny.

Why I wanted independent testing, not a statement

When I began developing ONOURE®, I knew I wanted microbiome compatibility to be more than a statement on a website. I wanted an independent assessment of how the formulation interacted with the microbiome and whether it met recognised standards for compatibility.

That is what led me to Kind to Biome® certification.^5, 7

What appealed to me was not the certification itself, but the process behind it. It provided a framework for evaluating microbiome compatibility using established testing methods rather than assumption.

For consumers, I think that is important.

The microbiome has become a popular topic in skincare, but popularity alone does not tell us whether a formulation has been assessed. Independent testing brings greater transparency to those conversations and helps support claims with evidence.

For you, this is what to look for. Not whether a product talks about the microbiome, but whether it has actually been independently tested for compatibility with it.

To me, that is a positive step forward for both consumers and the industry.

What Excites Me Most About Biotechnology

People often assume that the thing I find most exciting about biotechnology is sustainability.

While sustainability is certainly important, it wasn't what first caught my attention.

What interested me was the possibility of creating the kinds of formulations I had been thinking about for years.

Long before ONOURE® existed, I had a clear sense of the products I wanted to create. I wanted formulations that worked with the skin rather than constantly challenging it.

Formulations that respected the microbiome, supported the skin barrier, and reflected what I had spent decades observing in practice.

For many years, I felt as though I was being shown different versions of the same thing. The stories changed. The marketing changed. But the underlying approaches often felt very familiar.

Sitting with the ingredients that became Complete Serum

When I discovered biotechnology, something shifted. For the first time, I could see possibilities that simply hadn't existed when I began my career.

It opened the door to ingredients that were developed differently, tested differently, and capable of delivering a level of precision that immediately resonated with me.

I still remember sitting with some of the ingredients that would eventually become part of Complete Serum and feeling excited, curious, grateful and, if I'm honest, a little nervous as well.

Not because they were new, but because they aligned so closely with everything I had been trying to achieve for so many years.

Why I believe so strongly in this direction

Choosing biotechnology was one of the biggest decisions I made while developing ONOURE®. It required significant investment, a great deal of trust, and a willingness to back something I had believed in for a very long time.

There were certainly easier ways to build a skincare brand. There were more familiar approaches and far less expensive ones. But none of them felt aligned with what I wanted ONOURE® to become.

Looking back, I realise I wasn't searching for biotechnology itself. I was searching for a way to create products that aligned with what I had believed all along.

The philosophy came first. Biotechnology made it possible to bring it to life.

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

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2. Lopes G, Pinto E, Andrade PB, Valentão P. Natural Products and Biotechnological Approaches in Cosmetics. Molecules. 2022;27(3):647.
3. Pimentel FB, Alves RC, Rodrigues F, Oliveira MBPP. Biotechnology in Cosmetics and Personal Care Products: Trends and Future Perspectives. Cosmetics. 2022;9(4):78.
4. Harris-Tryon TA, Grice EA. Microbiota and Maintenance of Skin Barrier Function. Science. 2022;376(6596):940-945.
5. Dreno B, Araviiskaia E, Berardesca E, et al. Microbiome in Healthy Skin, Update for Dermatologists. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. 2016;30(12):2038-2047.
6. Skowron K, Bauza-Kaszewska J, Kraszewska Z, et al. Human Skin Microbiome: Impact on Health and Disease. Cells. 2021;10(11):3132.
7. Kind to Biome®. Scientific Testing Methodology and Certification Framework.