You might be well briefed on the benefits of prebiotics in your diet but is your knowledge up to date with the advantages of using prebiotics in your skincare?

Prebiotics are able to help with many skin problems, from acne and environmental damage to dry and sensitive skin. Here are five things we think you need about the world living on your skin, and how to keep it happy.

Not wanting to make you feel sick, but you’re covered in bacteria; in fact, there are more bacteria on your body than human cells. But don’t worry, as they’re not all bad. There lots of good bacteria living on your body too and they are working hard to fight off the bad bacteria. The only slight issue is that they aren’t very good at staying alive. Which is why we have prebiotics. Prebiotics are essentially food for the good bacteria, so they have enough energy to fight bad bacteria and prevent acne, redness and eczema.

So here goes the science bit….

There are two types of ‘biotic’: PREbiotics, the food strain and PRObiotics, the live bacteria. Both of them are equally good at calming the skin and helping to prevent bad bacteria from taking over.

You might think that the best idea would be to give the skin more probiotics to help win the battle against the bad bacteria? But you’d be wrong. Probiotics are known for being fragile and unstable, especially in skincare, whereas prebiotics work as an energy source for the good bacteria already on your skin, fuelling them to fight the bad bacteria.

Your skin has a natural pH balance of 5,5, which makes it quite acidic (water has a neutral pH of 7). The acidity of your skin is to help prevent harmful bacteria from setting up camp and to help fight off free radicals which can cause our skin to age. But maintaining this pH acidity and fighting potential aggressors is by no means an easy feat.

Your skin’s natural pH can be affected by a multitude of things, from air pollution and weather changes, to cosmetics and washing your face too often. Once a pH imbalance occurs, the bad bacteria can grow and may cause acne, irritation and sensitivity. So, prebiotics in skincare are required to make sure that our good bacteria have enough fuel in case our pH falls out of balance.

There are lots of difference strains of prebiotic based on the food they’re derived from. Our Be range features a powerful prebiotic called Alpha-Glucan Oligosaccharide, which is known to help support the skin’s natural good bacteria.

But what makes Alpha-Glucan Oligosaccharide even better is its ability to bind water and prevent the skin from losing moisture it really needs. It also has a great reputation as a non-irritating prebiotic, making it perfect for sensitive skin.