Have you heard of something called a skin microbiome? It’s okay if you haven’t - however, for the researchers at Lancôme, it’s something that they’ve focused on for over 15 years. I know what you’re thinking - what is the microbiome in the first place? 

Just like the acid mantle, it’s an integral part of our skin. Keeping it healthy is important to keeping your skin looking amazing, and creating products that do exactly what was the goal of scientists at Lancôme. But first, let’s take a look at what makes healthy skin flora so important and how Lancôme has used their research to create skincare with a luxury difference.

Lancôme Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate | $305
A powerful serum that transforms skin with a combination of age-fighting and prebiotic skincare ingredients. 

Lancôme’s Research: The Importance of the Microbiome

Now, a lot of us know the importance of a healthy gut, right? Keeping the right balance of digestion-friendly bacteria ultimately leads to a healthier body - and when it comes to the skin microbiome, it’s the exact same concept.

It might come as a surprise to you, but our skin is home to thousands of different types of skin-friendly bacteria. They help keep our skin looking and feeling amazing - knowing this, the scientists at Lancôme conducted over 50 clinical trials examining over 10,000 skin microbiome samples in order to understand how skin flora health impacts skin overall. 

The researchers especially focused on the relationship between anti-aging and a healthy microbiome and found some very interesting results! They found that certain factors were able to influence the health of someone’s skin flora - for example, smoking, UV exposure, pollution, and age were all major factors that the researchers picked up on. 

However, they also noticed that some people had ‘older’ microbiomes than they should have had due to these factors. For example, a 30 year old person who smoked frequently had skin flora much more like someone in their 70s!

After getting a good understanding of what exactly affected skin flora, Lancôme scientists were able to isolate three main ways the microbiome affects the health and appearance of skin.

How Does a Microbiome Help Our Skin?

First of all, it’s able to protect skin from external pathogens - like the kind that can cause breakouts as well as pollution, which is starting to be linked to premature signs of ageing. Plus, studies have found that having healthy skin flora can have antioxidant benefits on your skin. 

Specifically, a fortified skin microbiome helps to fight off oxidative stress - the type of stress exerted on the skin from UV light or other free radical exposure. Oxidative stress is the number one cause of premature signs of ageing, so avoiding it as much as possible goes a long way towards keeping skin youthful and radiant!

A healthy microbiome also helps to regulate healthy skin, reducing inflammation. Studies have found that too much or too little of a certain kind of bacteria can trigger inflammation in the skin. The problem with inflammation is that it can lead to a whole host of other issues - redness, sensitivity, and further down the line, can even speed up the signs of ageing. 

The final crucial benefit of having healthy skin flora is that it boosts what’s called epidermis cohesion. The epidermis is the outermost layer of skin (the one that we see). Ensuring that the epidermis stays closely knitted boosts firmness and delays the signs of ageing from appearing.

So, now that the reasons why you’d want a robust microbiome were established by their researches, Lancôme set out to create a luxury skincare line that not only helped to ensure that your skin flora was healthy but also created a sensorial, luxuriant experience every time you use them. 

Lancôme Advanced Génifique Yeux Lash & Eye Serum | $107
Did you know eyes have a slightly different flora balance than the rest of the face? Nourish your undereyes with this 2-in-1 under eye and eyelash serum. 

The Creation of Lancôme Advanced Génifique

Now that the Lancôme product developers knew how crucial a healthy microbiome is, they started developing a luxurious skincare line to target that. Just as a healthy gut needs prebiotics and probiotics, your skin flora does too - and that comes in the form of fermented skincare ingredients. 

The Lancôme Advanced Génifique line is created with a total of SEVEN pre and probiotic skincare ingredients - however, the one that stands out is called Bifida Ferment Lysate. There’s a whopping 10% of it in the Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate, not to mention the other 6 prebiotic ingredients and Vitamin C. 

Lancôme claims that this fermented skincare ingredient alone improves these 10 key signs of ageing they’ve isolated in their research: texture, resiliency, elasticity, firmness, sagginess, fine lines, wrinkles, radiance, even skin tone, and clarity. 

It sounds like a lot, but Lancôme has the research to back it up! And using the Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate isn’t the only way to get the benefits of this unique ingredient - there’s a matching eye cream, eye serum, and night cream all infused with Bifida Ferment Lysate to support a healthy skin microbiome to delay any fine lines and wrinkles. 

Lancôme Advanced Génifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream | $107 
Smooth away under eye fine lines with Bifida Ferment Lysate and other skin-nourishing ingredients. 

Now that you know what makes the luxury difference with Lancôme’s Advanced Génifique line, will you add a touch of luxury to your skincare routine? 

If you're still trying to create the perfect luxury skincare routine for your skin type, try our skincare quiz - you'll get a completely customised skincare routine just for you and your individual skin concerns!