The forefront of scientific research over the last few years has been on examining thecorrelation between our skincare routines and the effects on our skin’smicrobiome. In an ever-changing beauty industry where fast beauty trends often oversee the science behind beauty claims, KIND TO BIOME offers the tools to understand the interaction of products and raw materials with our skin’smicrobiome. Through this process we substantiate microbiome friendly and microbiome gentle claims while also providing answers to the steady increase of skin conditions over the last two decades. KIND TO BIOME is proud to have joined the scientific community in this mission, by offering an accessible and scientifically validated study protocol, to drive product development and raw material selection towards a microbiome-friendly skincare future.
Our In Vitro + Ex Vivo protocol is the only such protocol on the market and differentiates itself from other protocols by including more species and studying not only strains grown in the lab but also live strains from human volunteers. We have chosen to adopt this 360° look into what constitutes a microbiome friendly product in order to provide results that instil confidence and certainty while being replicable and standardized. This approach allows usto offer an affordable testing protocol making its rapid and wide-scaleadoption by the cosmetic industry a matter of time and allowing us to speed upthe adoption of microbiome-friendly driven formulations.
In vitro studies are fast, replicable and sensitive.
— David Hjalmarsson, Business Developer
— Leo Salvi, Head of Science
The In Vitro + Ex Vivo microbiome-gentle protocol has been scientifically designed to include flora that represents the majority of the microorganisms that populate a specific body area. According to the mode of use and area of application of each cosmetic product a separate study protocol is implemented by choosing the appropriate panel of microorganisms and studying their interaction with the product.
We have 22 dedicated panels. Each panel has been designed to represent the 65-99% of the microbiota of the body site intended for use. This was accomplished by the study of available literature, microbiological analyses on volunteers and most importantly, from NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) studies on volunteers.
We offer protocols that cover different product types as shown below:
Similarly to when a challenge test is conducted, the product’s microbiological purity has to be verified before proceeding to testing. A microbiological test according to ISO 17516:2014 will be performed, including: Enumeration of Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC), Total Yeasts Molds Count
(TYMC), detection of the specified micro-organisms: Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Passing this phase means being able to proceed to the subsequent phases of testing.
In this second phase the product under testing is brought in contact with a panel of microorganisms representing the majority of the natural flora of the specific area of application. The product should not disrupt the composition and population of the natural flora and should maintain the healthy microbiome. This is tested against control samples.
During the third phase of testing the product is brought in contact with a panel of microorganisms representing the pathogenic flora possibly present in a specific area of application. This gives valuable informationabout the action of a product against pathogenic microflora.
The final phase of the protocol is also the most crucial one. Here we examine the product’s influence on the total microflora of the skin. The product is brought into contact with swabs from certified volunteers testing therefore the product’s influence on the actual relative populations of our microorganisms. This is tested against control samples.
Phase 4 is an x-Vivo approach which closely correlates the in vitro with in vivo studies. Our microbiome is something that grows in the years together with us, therefore assessing the product’s influence not only on ‘’lab-grown’’ bacteria but also on our actual microflora provides an extra step for ensuring the correlation of in vitro with in vivo studies.
Uniquely, our phase 4 allows us to examine the biodiversity. In the swabs from volunteers we have the most representative sample of the human microbiome, and importantly in their correct relative proportions. In this way we don’t only examine the 10-15 species present in phases 2 and 3 but 200-700 species which coexist on a healthy skin.
EXAMPLE: MICROBES ACCOUNTED FOR IN FACE PROTOCOL
PHASE 2:
Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC12228
Staphylococcus capitis ATCC 35661
Staphylococcus hominis ATCC 27847
Streptococcus mitis ATCC 49456
Micrococcus luteus ATCC 4698
Corynebacterium amycolatum NCIMB 13130
Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum ATCC 35692
Cutibacterium acnes ATCC 6919
PHASE3:
Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923
Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442
Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii ATCC 2858
Malassezia furfur ATCC 14521
PHASE 4:
Completing the analysis with an x-Vivo phase
When the in vitro microbiome-gentleness test has been completed successfully, companies will be awarded the KIND TO BIOME seal, which is synonymous with a product that is kind to the skin microbiome.
Supporting claims such as:
