Why the Skin Microbiome Matters — and How Modern Skincare Is Disrupting It
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By Angela Clifton | Founder of Edenwild
You've probably heard about the gut microbiome — the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms that live in your digestive tract and influence everything from immune function to mood. The conversation around the gut microbiome has fundamentally changed how we think about nutrition, medicine, and chronic disease.
The skin has its own microbiome. And it's equally important — and equally disrupted by modern habits.
Understanding the skin microbiome doesn't require a biology degree. But it does require setting aside some assumptions the skincare industry has spent decades building: that bacteria on skin are bad, that sterile is better, and that more aggressive cleansing and more active ingredients always produce better results.
Those assumptions are costing a lot of people their skin barrier. Here's what the science actually says.
What Is the Skin Microbiome?
Your skin is not a sterile surface. It's home to an estimated one trillion microorganisms — bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mites — living in a complex, interdependent ecosystem. This ecosystem is your skin microbiome.
The composition varies by location on the body, by individual, and by age, diet, environment, and the products you apply. But across all of those variables, a healthy skin microbiome shares certain characteristics: it's diverse, it's balanced, and it actively protects the skin from pathogenic invasion, inflammation, and barrier disruption.
The most well-studied resident is Staphylococcus epidermidis — a bacterium that produces antimicrobial peptides that suppress the growth of harmful pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, which is strongly implicated in eczema flares. Healthy skin microbiomes tend to have robust S. epidermidis populations. Eczema-prone skin tends to have depleted ones.
This isn't a coincidence. It's a relationship — and modern skincare is disrupting it.
How the Skin Microbiome Protects You
A balanced skin microbiome does several things simultaneously:
Competes with pathogens for space and resources. Beneficial microorganisms occupy the skin surface and produce compounds that suppress harmful bacteria and fungi. When beneficial populations are depleted — by antibacterial products, harsh surfactants, or over-cleansing — pathogens fill the vacuum.
Trains and modulates the skin's immune response. The skin's immune cells are in constant communication with the microbiome. Beneficial bacteria help calibrate the immune response — distinguishing between harmless environmental exposures and genuine threats. A disrupted microbiome can lead to an immune system that overreacts to ordinary triggers, which is one mechanism behind chronic sensitivity and reactive skin.
Supports barrier function. Certain microorganisms produce compounds that directly support the integrity of the skin barrier — including short-chain fatty acids that strengthen the tight junctions between skin cells. A healthy microbiome contributes to a healthy barrier; a disrupted microbiome contributes to a leaky one.
Maintains skin pH. Healthy skin has a slightly acidic pH — typically between 4.5 and 5.5. This acidic environment is inhospitable to many pathogens and supports the microbial populations that protect the skin. Many modern skincare products — particularly alkaline cleansers and high-pH toners — disrupt this pH balance, creating conditions less favorable to beneficial bacteria.
What Disrupts the Skin Microbiome
This is where the modern skincare industry's standard practices become a problem.
Synthetic Fragrance
Synthetic fragrance is the single most common sensitizer in skincare products. It's also one of the most disruptive ingredients for the skin microbiome — affecting microbial populations in ways that compound the direct sensitization effect. And it's in approximately 75% of conventional skincare products, often listed simply as "fragrance" or "parfum" with no further disclosure.
Edenwild formulates without synthetic fragrance. Every product. Always. It's the first item on our Never List.
Antibacterial Ingredients
Triclosan and similar antibacterial compounds — marketed as hygiene benefits — are indiscriminate. They suppress beneficial bacterial populations as effectively as harmful ones, depleting the microbiome's diversity and leaving the skin more vulnerable to pathogenic colonization.
Harsh Surfactants
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and similar surfactants are effective at removing oil and debris from skin — and equally effective at stripping the lipid barrier and disrupting the microbial populations that live within it. The squeaky-clean feeling many people associate with effective cleansing is actually the sensation of a compromised barrier.
Over-Cleansing and Over-Exfoliation
The modern skincare industry has built a significant market around the idea that skin needs to be intensively cleansed and regularly exfoliated to perform well. For most people, this is the opposite of what their skin needs. Chronic over-cleansing and aggressive exfoliation strip the skin barrier, disrupt the microbiome, and trigger the inflammatory responses they're supposedly treating.
Preservative Cocktails
Many synthetic preservatives — while necessary in water-based formulas to prevent microbial contamination — have measurable effects on the skin microbiome. This is one of the reasons anhydrous (water-free) formulas, which don't require synthetic preservatives, are increasingly preferred for microbiome-sensitive skin.
Most Edenwild formulas are anhydrous — no water means no synthetic preservatives needed, and oxidation is managed naturally with tocopherol (non-GMO vitamin E) and rosemary seed extract working as a team. Where water is part of the formula, like our shampoo bars, we use Leucidal Liquid Complete, a fermented radish root preservative — never a synthetic one. You can verify every ingredient we use in our Ingredients Glossary.
The Eczema Connection
Eczema is perhaps the clearest example of microbiome disruption made visible on skin.
Research has consistently found that eczema-prone skin has a significantly disrupted microbiome — specifically, reduced diversity and a disproportionate colonization by Staphylococcus aureus, a pathogen that triggers the immune response responsible for eczema flares.
What's particularly striking is the bidirectional relationship: a disrupted microbiome worsens eczema, and eczema-related inflammation further disrupts the microbiome. Many conventional eczema treatments — including topical steroids and antibacterial washes — provide short-term symptom relief while potentially deepening the underlying microbiome disruption over time.
Supporting the microbiome for eczema-prone skin means removing the ingredients that disrupt it and providing the lipids the compromised barrier needs to repair itself. This is why tallow — a single, biocompatible ingredient that delivers the exact fatty acids the skin barrier uses — is so consistently effective for eczema-prone skin when conventional products continue to fail.
Happy Baby Balm was formulated specifically for this skin type — grass-fed and finished tallow paired with colloidal oatmeal, which has its own documented anti-inflammatory and barrier-supporting properties. No synthetic fragrance, no preservatives, no surfactants. Just ingredients that support the barrier and don't disrupt what's living on it.
What a Microbiome-Supportive Skincare Routine Actually Looks Like
Supporting your skin microbiome doesn't require buying a new category of products. It requires removing the ones that are disrupting it.
Cleanse less aggressively. A gentle, low-pH cleanser used once daily — or oil cleansing, which removes impurities without stripping — is sufficient for most skin types. If your skin feels tight after cleansing, that's a disruption signal, not a cleanliness signal.
Eliminate synthetic fragrance. This is the single highest-impact change most people can make. Switching to fragrance-free products removes the most common sensitizer and one of the most disruptive ingredients for microbial balance. Check our Never List to see what else we've eliminated from every Edenwild formula.
Simplify your routine. Every additional product introduces additional ingredients — more potential disruption, more potential sensitizers. A shorter ingredient list means less cumulative load on the microbiome and the barrier.
Support the barrier with biocompatible lipids. Tallow, jojoba, and other oils with biomimetic fatty acid profiles support the skin barrier without disrupting the microbial environment. They provide what the skin needs without introducing ingredients that compete with beneficial bacteria. Find Your Balm to see which Edenwild formula fits your skin concern.
Avoid antibacterial products on your face. Unless directed by a dermatologist for a specific condition, antibacterial face washes and toners are almost always doing more harm than good for your microbiome's diversity.
The Ingredient Philosophy Behind Edenwild
The skin microbiome is one of the reasons Edenwild's formulation philosophy is built around what we leave out as much as what we put in.
Synthetic fragrance, PEGs, parabens, synthetic preservatives, sulfates, antibacterial agents — these aren't just unnecessary. For microbiome-sensitive skin, they're actively counterproductive. Every ingredient on our Never List is there because it conflicts with what we're trying to support: a skin barrier that functions well, a microbiome that stays balanced, and skin that doesn't have to fight its own routine.
That philosophy informs every formula in the Edenwild line — from Everything Balm with its minimal, whole-body approach to the layered botanical intelligence of Nectar Face Serum and Golden Root Antioxidant Balm.
You can read more about our philosophy and explore the full Ingredients Glossary to understand exactly what goes into every formula — and why.
Skincare Rooted in Transparency
Formulated near Yellowstone, where the standards are as clean as the air. Every Edenwild formula starts with a question: would we trust this ingredient on our daughters' skin? If the answer is no, it doesn't make the cut.
If our philosophy resonates with you, you'll want to join the Collective where we dive deep into ingredients and offer exclusive surprises and discounts.
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- What to Expect When Switching to Natural Haircare