Discovering the microbiome for skincare as unique as you are
At Givaudan, innovation is in our DNA: we thrive on the challenge of constantly pushing boundaries to develop new ideas and enhance existing concepts.
Pioneering research project
In a bid to take our Active Beauty cosmetic ingredients to the next level, seven years ago we launched a pioneering research project into the relationship between the human microbiome and our health, beauty and well-being.
The project has since become the most in-depth study on this subject by any fragrance house, and our findings have led to a revolutionary new range of ingredients that deliver healthier, better protected, more radiant-looking skin – all backed by solid science.
Our expertise
In line with our aim to delight customers and consumers with an ever-evolving, state-of-the-art product offering, Givaudan Active Beauty is proud to lead the way in this exciting new area of scientific research. Our continued investments in our Centre of Excellence for Applied Microbiomics in Toulouse, France have resulted in a fully equipped centre ready to create innovative products based on our studies, our strong knowledge of consumers and the large internal database we have built up throughout this project.
“We’ve mastered the entire research process for microbiomics – from swabbing to DNA extraction and sequencing until the bioinformatics data analysis. We gathered almost 1 trillion DNA data from volunteers’ microbiote allowing us to explore all the different bacteria that we can have on our skin,” said microbiomics researchers, Cyrille and Patrick. “This research contributed to the development of several active ingredients making this is incredibly unique in our industry.”
Discovering the importance of the microbiome
The ecosystem of your skin
Billions of micro-organisms known as ‘microbiota’, live on the surface of our skin and help to protect its health and well-being. Just as each of us has our own set of genes (our genome), our personal community of microbiota, or ‘microbiome’, is unique too.
Understanding the microbiome is essential if we want better health and skin, as any imbalances can manifest in skin conditions such as eczema, allergies, dandruff or acne. And knowing that our microbiome is as unique and personal to us as our DNA leads to exciting possibilities in developing skincare that responds to our skin’s unique character.
Givaudan’s Active Beauty team is a leader in the study of the microbiome, a largely unexplored but rapidly emerging field. In fact, the discovery of the microbiome is one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the past ten years!
Whereas many in this field have been working on identifying which kinds of microbiota live in the microbiome (taxonomic analysis), Givaudan’s research goes one step further by exploring which ‘jobs’ the microbiota can do (functional microbiome analysis) and how they can help us. This forward-thinking approach marks a major milestone in skincare and a key direction for the future.
Experts in health and beauty will be interested to learn that we already have solutions to restore the natural balance of the skin flora, rather like in the gut.
Our solutions
With over 15 years’ experience in the field of microbiomics, our Active Beauty teams continue to develop active cosmetic ingredients, designed to activate, protect or balance the skin microbiota.
For example, we offer Revivyl™, which speeds up skin renewal while protecting the microbiota, Brightenyl™, which is activated by the microbiota to trigger skin brightening and skin tone optimisation, and Yogurtene Balance™ to balance the composition of the microbiota.
The microbiome is much more than a trend – it’s a key element of the future of skin care,” explains Romain, R&D Director Active Beauty. “Consumers already have a perfect understanding of the gut microbiome and how good bacteria can have positive effect on our health. Now they are ready to embrace the concept of the skin microbiome too.”
Thanks to Givaudan’s extensive research, the future of skincare is looking brighter than ever. And although it may be true that beauty comes from within, we now know that surface of our skin plays a very important role too!