MyMicrobiome standard

A few weeks ago I published this post about the first certification for "microbiome friendly" personal care products. The post had a huge resonance and I received tens of mails asking for more information.

I chased the founders of this certification and asked for more details and information.

Dr. Kristin Neumann, the lovely cofounder of this program has consented to write a guest blog post and explain more about this program and the importance of considering skin microbiome in formulating modern skin care.

The importance of considering microbiome in formulating personal care

In the last decades we have done everything to wipe out the little fellows on our body: the bacteria, fungi and viruses (altogether microbes) that keep us and our skin healthy.

This is going to change now, very slowly, but the process is ongoing and it won´t stop. This is a paradigm shift which will completely change the western life style, it will take a while but it is already happening and I am very happy about it. The paradigm shift I am talking about is the way we are thinking about our health: it is a holistic approach, taking our whole body and soul into consideration and lately even these tiny companions that live with us.

Although hardly anyone I know has ever heard about the ‘microbiome’; the cosmetics industry is already working very hard on this topic. Numerous so called ‘biome/microbiome-friendly/gentle/minded…’ products flooded the cosmetics market, without any regulation behind it.

This is something I do not want to leave the consumer alone with. Therefore, I created a standard which rigorously tests cosmetic products for their influence on the skin’s microbiome.

Since every human has a very individual skin microbiome, which even has different microbial compositions at different skin sites (face, buttock, arms, back, …) it was very complicated to create a standardized test. But in the end, I decided to consider the 80-90% of microbes which are most abundant on every skin site and to test the influence of the product on these typical key players of every skin site. Dependent on where the product is applied, we are deciding together with the manufacturer, which skin type makes the most sense to test. For each skin type we have a distinct set of microbes we are testing on.

We have developed different standards:

The skin can be divided into 3 different areas: dry, moist and sebaceous.

The scalp has a very distinct, individual microbiome. We are also testing products for infant skin, the vaginal tract, foot and mouth. Each of these body areas and the infant skin has a typical and unique composition of microbes.

The products are undergoing different in vitro tests, in liquid culture and on plate, co-culture and single strains. As a prerequisite for the test we are testing the microbial quality of the product. The tests are conducted by ISO certified labs in Germany.

Each product will receive a grade from 1 to 3, where 1 means no influence on the respective key players, 2 means a very slight influence and 3 a significant influence on the tested microbes. The product passes the test up to a grade of 2.0.

The client will get a certificate, a test report with the data and a quality seal.

Until now we work together with big players of the cosmetics industry, organic cosmetic manufacturers, indie-brands and even ingredient suppliers.

If a manufacturer is interested to test his products, the first contact is made via Email: info@microbiome-friendly.com. We provide some additional information material and discuss the products to be tested. If agreed on a quote, we sign a contract and the tests will start. After no longer than 8 weeks, the certificate, test-report and seal will be provided by us.

About Dr. Neumann

Kristin Neumann, PhD, is a microbiologist with more than 12 years of experience in the field of microbiology research. Since 2012, she has been developing a new, selective, antibacterial technology platform together with a highly motivated team and has intensively dealt with the topic of microbiome. In 2018, together with Tanja Walbrunn, media designer and microbiome enthusiast, she founded the now leading microbiome education platform MyMicrobiome.info. The aim of this online platform is to make the topic microbiome understandably accessible to the non-scientist. On top of that, the two power women developed the world's first and only quality standard for microbiome friendly skin care products and cosmetics.

Further reading and links:

https://www.mymicrobiome.info/willkommen.html

https://www.mymicrobiome.info/mymicrobiome-standard-1810-testing-products-microbiome-friendly.html