Until recently, few marques cosmetics companies dared to talk about the microbiome and the benefits of prebiotics for skin care, but that was without taking into account Gallinée, a brand that has been proudly talking about the importance of caring for the skin's microbiota for the past 5 years. But nowadays, things have changed, and more and more marquess are incorporating prebiotics into their products. So is Gallinée often copied and never equalled? Let's find out.
Gallinée Facial Care: My Opinion
One of the first marquess to talk openly about the microbiome in cosmetics is Gallinée, and we'll see what I think of their cosmetics.
The brand's flagship ingredients include deactivated bacteria to support the skin's flora. They also contain post and prebiotics that nourish the microbiome and support the skin barrier.
Gallinée is a young French cosmetics brand, exported worldwide, with domestic 100 % manufacturing. Thanks to their skincare ranges designed specifically for the cutaneous microbiota, they are revolutionizing beauty routines for all skin types and opening up new avenues of research. What is the story behind Gallinée and its prebiotics? Why nourish the skin's bacteria, and with what active ingredients? Adopt a new way of treating wrinkles, redness, acne, skin sensitivity and reactivity with Gallinée products designed for your skin and your microbiome.
From skin to microbiome, from a concept to a cosmetics brand
Marie Drago began her professional career working for major marques beauty brands around the world (Russia, Singapore, Dublin, USA). This woman of science was then diagnosed with a rare disease called Pyoderma gangrenosum (inflammation of the skin linked to an auto-immune reaction). Left with no real solution, she turned her attention to the skin microbiome and succeeded in controlling her disease by adopting a diet rich in prebiotics and probiotics. From her fight against this pathology, she drew a new concept in the world of cosmetics: taking care of the skin's bacteria. She returned to university to develop this thesis and patent it.
She then formulated several cosmetic care products. In April 2016, the company launched with the first 5 Gallinée products for the skin and microbiome. This start-up is a great success with consumers, particularly with the vinegar face toner for sensitive to oily epidermis. With two patents, this lotion will sell over 100,000 units worldwide by 2021. The brand develops rapidly around several ranges:
face (the one we'll develop later);
body ;
hair ;
food supplement ;
mouth.
The microbiome: useful for improving skin condition?
Could taking care of your Microbiome be the solution to strengthening your skin barrier and fighting irritation caused by pollution, harsh cosmetics or simple age-related skin dehydration?
This is what a growing number of scientific studies suggest, demonstrating that the microbiome plays a key role in certain skin pathologies such as acne and eczema, but also in the condition of the skin in general.
To explain the microbiome, I think a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to show you two diagrams taken from a scientific article published in May 2021.
skin microbiome
We can see that the microbiota is made up of bacteria, fungi, viruses and mites, and what's interesting is that these organisms interact with our skin via the immune system and dendritic cells. And because nature is kind, our immune system regulates the bacterial flora and can even produce antibiotics that target staphylococcus aureus.
skin bacteria
In this second diagram, we can see that the microbiome can be influenced by extrinsic factors, such as antibiotic use, our lifestyle, our skincare routine and aggressive cleansing, but also by intrinsic factors such as skin PH, genetics and advancing age.
And several recent studies published in prestigious journals show that oral probiotics or probiotics used as serums or creams appear to be effective in the treatment of certain inflammatory skin diseases and show a promising role in wound healing.
Prebiotic, probiotic, postbiotic: Explanations
It's time to review the difference between probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics.
Probiotics: these are the bacteria we consider friendly. In cosmetics, this term is also used to refer to deactivated bacteria, even if this does not correspond to the exact definition.
Prebiotics: These are what we might call the food of bacteria, and are therefore essential to their functioning. They promote bacterial diversity and development, increasing the number of friendly bacteria at the expense of pathogenic microorganisms.
Prebiotics frequently used in cosmetics include glycerin and inulin.
Post biotics: This is a product created by bacteria such as lactic acid, and it is in this category that deactivated bacteria should be classified.
The microbiome and acne
In our skincare routine, the step that has the greatest impact on the microbiome is cleansing. It's true that when we're prone to acne, we tend to use powerful cleansers, but this isn't always a good idea. I have a scientific experiment to prove it, and in this photo you can see acne lesions after intensive skin cleansing on the left cheek versus gentle cleansing on the right cheek in an adult woman with mild acne. There are many explanations for this, but we now know that the severity of inflammatory acne is not linked to the proliferation of Cutibacterium acnes, but to the loss of diversity among the different strains of Cutibacterium Acnes. If we clean too frequently with powerful cleansers, or if we take antibiotics, we will eliminate the strains of Cutibacterium Acnes responsible for acne, but also the harmless strains, which can make acne worse. Another way of looking at it is to nourish the harmless strains so that they take over from the bacterial strains responsible for acne, thanks to prebiotics.
The microbiome and skin condition
But the microbiome isn't just about acne, it also has a role to play in anti-aging: if the skin has a balanced bacterial flora, it is more resistant to aggression, regenerates better and ages more slowly.
When we analyze damaged and irritated skin, we generally find an increase in skin PH, an increase in insensible water loss, resulting in skin dehydration and desquamation, but all these changes are also accompanied by a reduction in microbial diversity and increased colonization by pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus.
So one of the major benefits of using products containing prebiotics is to prevent these irritated skin conditions caused by the intensive use of retinol or exfoliating acids, by taking care of your microbiome.
Gallinée my opinion on the cosmetics brand
To sum up, the face care range is well designed, remaining true to the concept of taking care of your microbiome and skin barrier thanks to prebiotics and post-biotics. Does this mean we should stop using more traditional skin care products? Of course not. You can still use products with vitamin C, retinol or exfoliating acids, but you need to find the right balance to achieve beautiful skin. There's no point in having a very complex skincare routine if in the end you end up with irritated, sensitized skin, and I find that the skincare products proposed by Gallinée are very interesting for strengthening the skin barrier and better tolerating anti-aging active ingredients. So I encourage you to try some of them and see for yourself the results on your skin.
In just 6 years, Gallinée has revolutionized the world of skincare, opening the door to new natural cosmetic and dermatological skincare solutions. Expert Marie Drago also works on intestinal health, which is directly linked to skin condition. In addition to pampering the skin's flora, Gallinée Laboratories offer to nourish the bacteria in your intestines through a fiber-rich diet, as well as food supplements concentrated in probiotics. Here's a brand to watch, which promises to offer us yet more pretty recipes for cultivating the beauty of our complexion.
Gallinée: probiotics for facial care
Their skincare concept is based on taking care of the skin's microbiome. To achieve this, Marie Drago and her team incorporate specific ingredients into their formulas to nourish, protect and boost your skin's flora. In other words, they cultivate the bacteria in your epidermis to combat aging, hyperseborrhea, redness or even eczema. As a result, their cosmetics almost all contain a complex of :
probiotics (deactivated bacteria that help skin flora) ;
post and prebiotics (fiber and sugar to nourish the microbiome, support your skin's barrier, fight pathogenic microorganisms and oxidative stress).
Combined with these living ingredients, the pH of their cosmetics (essential for maintaining healthy skin flora, with bacteria in top form) is always stabilized via lactic acid, which is also an excellent moisturizer and softener for facial tissues.
Thanks to their probiotics, Gallinée products are suitable for all skin types, even the most sensitive. Their minimalist formulas are highly concentrated in active ingredients:
with a maximum of natural ingredients (between 92 and 100 %);
with mild surfactants ;
adapted to the skin's pH ;
fragrance-free ;
preservative-free ;
no added coloring ;
with ingredients recognized by scientific studies and in very high concentrations to ensure visible results.
Last but not least, their minimalist formulas, at the cutting edge of the latest scientific advances, undergo extensive testing. A pharmacist at heart, Marie Drago imposes a higher number of controls on each of her products than most marquess, to ensure their efficacy and safety. Their protocols are automatically supervised by a health professional whose specialty is related to the cosmetics sold (dermatologist, dentist...). What's more, in the interests of transparency, they provide you with a list of all the ingredients used in their skincare products, explaining their role and origin.
