Lactobacillus Ferment

A postbiotic, or non-living ingredient, that supports skin health. When you see the word ferment, that means it’s a postbiotic. Postbiotics can be made from living microbes in one of two ways: either you take the living bacterial cells and inactivate them through heat or ultrasound waves so that they are no longer living, or you grow up a batch of microbes and allow them to create, and synthesize substances that they secret into the environment, and you collect those bacterial metabolites.

The Lactobacillus Ferment we use in Dr. Whitney Bowe Beauty’s Outer Skincare uses a specific strain of Lactobacillus Plantarum that is gently inactivated using a low, controlled amount of heat, allowing the cell wall to remain completely intact. So although the bacteria itself is no longer living, the cell wall can interact with our own human cells in a very similar way as the original living strains. The particular ferment we use has been shown to support skin’s own defenses from external aggressors. It helps to strengthen the skin’s own natural defenses through upregulation of antimicrobial peptides, downregulates redness signals, and supports a healthy skin barrier by reducing TEWL (transepidermal water loss) in human subjects.

“We used to focus on living probiotics, but we are now realizing that non-living cell walls or bacterial metabolites (postbiotics, sometimes also called ferments) can have very beneficial impacts on human skin without the formulation issues associated with living microbes.”

- Dr. Whitney Bowe Beauty, Board-Certified Dermatologist, Scientist, Founder