by Angela Clifton, founder of Edenwild
Quick answer: Your skin is home to trillions of microorganisms that help keep it balanced, calm, and protected. Synthetic fragrance, harsh surfactants, antibacterial products, and over-cleansing can all throw that ecosystem off. The most microbiome-friendly routine is usually a simpler one: gentle cleansing, no synthetic fragrance, and barrier-supporting fats like grass-fed and finished tallow and jojoba oil.
You've probably heard about the gut microbiome: the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms living in your digestive tract. Learning about it has changed how a lot of people think about food and health.
Your skin has a microbiome too. It matters just as much, and modern habits disrupt it just as easily.
You don't need a biology degree to understand it. You do need to set aside a few assumptions the skincare industry has spent decades building: that bacteria on skin are bad, that sterile is better, and that stronger cleansing and more active ingredients always mean better results.
Those assumptions are costing a lot of people their skin barrier. Here's what's actually going on.
what is the skin microbiome?
Your skin isn't a sterile surface. It's home to an estimated trillion or more microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and microscopic mites, all living together in a complex ecosystem. That ecosystem is your skin microbiome.
Its makeup changes from one part of the body to another, and from person to person. Age, diet, environment, and the products you use all shape it. But a healthy skin microbiome tends to share a few traits: it's diverse, it's balanced, and it helps keep your skin protected.
One of the most studied residents is Staphylococcus epidermidis, a common, friendly bacterium. Research shows it produces compounds that help keep less friendly microbes, like Staphylococcus aureus, in check. Researchers have found that dry, irritated, compromised skin often has less of the friendly kind and more of the troublesome kind.
That isn't a coincidence. It's a relationship, and many modern skincare habits get in its way.
skincare rooted in transparency
Ancestral Formulas, Made for Modern Families
Every Edenwild formula starts with a question: would we put this on our daughters' skin? If the answer is no, it doesn't make the cut. Formulated near Yellowstone.
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how a balanced microbiome supports your skin
A balanced skin microbiome does several jobs at once.
- It crowds out troublemakers. Friendly microbes take up space and resources on the skin's surface, leaving less room for unwanted ones. When products strip away the friendly populations, others can move into the gap.
- It helps skin stay calm. Research suggests skin's natural defenses are in constant communication with its microbiome. A balanced microbiome is linked to skin that reacts less to everyday triggers, while a disrupted one is linked to skin that feels sensitive and reactive.
- It supports the barrier. A healthy microbiome and a healthy skin barrier tend to go together. When one is disrupted, the other often follows.
- It helps keep skin slightly acidic. Healthy skin sits at a slightly acidic pH, usually around 4.5 to 5.5. That acidity favors the microbes that help protect your skin. Many alkaline cleansers and high-pH products push skin away from that range.
what disrupts the skin microbiome
This is where many of the skincare industry's standard habits become a problem.
synthetic fragrance
Fragrance is one of the most common causes of skin sensitivity from cosmetics, and it shows up in a huge share of conventional products. Often it's listed only as "fragrance" or "parfum," with no way to know what's actually inside.
Edenwild formulates without synthetic fragrance in every product. It's the first item on our Never List.
antibacterial ingredients
Antibacterial compounds like triclosan were marketed for years as a hygiene upgrade. The problem is that they don't choose sides. They can reduce friendly bacteria along with unwanted ones, leaving the microbiome less diverse and less able to protect itself.
harsh surfactants
Strong surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) are very good at removing oil and grime. They can be just as good at stripping away the skin's natural oils and the microbes that live in them. That "squeaky clean" feeling many of us were taught to look for is often the feeling of a stripped barrier.
over-cleansing and over-exfoliating
A whole market has been built on the idea that skin needs to be scrubbed, stripped, and exfoliated constantly to look its best. For most people, the opposite is true. Cleansing too often and exfoliating too hard can wear down the barrier, unsettle the microbiome, and leave skin looking and feeling more irritated, not less.
preservative-heavy formulas
Water-based products need preservatives to stay safe, and that's a good thing. But research suggests some preservatives can also affect the skin's microbial balance. That's one reason waterless formulas have become popular with people whose skin runs sensitive.
Most Edenwild formulas are waterless. With no water, there's nothing for bacteria to grow in, so they don't need a traditional preservative system. Instead, non-GMO vitamin E and rosemary seed extract work together to keep the oils fresh. Where a formula does need a preservative, like our shampoo bars, we use fermented radish root. You can look up every ingredient we use in our ingredient glossary.
when skin is already reactive
The microbiome matters most for skin that's already struggling. Dry, reactive, or compromised skin tends to have a less diverse microbiome, and the relationship runs both ways. An unsettled microbiome makes skin more reactive, and irritated skin makes it harder for the microbiome to rebalance.
That's why, for reactive skin, what you leave out matters as much as what you put on. The first step is removing the things that disrupt the microbiome. The second is giving the barrier the fats it recognizes.
Grass-fed and finished tallow from suet has a fatty acid profile similar to the lipids skin makes on its own. That's a big part of why it has been used on skin across cultures for generations, and why it tends to sit so comfortably on skin that reacts to almost everything else.
Happy Baby Balm was made with exactly this kind of skin in mind. It's grass-fed and finished tallow from suet, jojoba oil slow-infused with calendula, chamomile, and marshmallow root, colloidal oatmeal, and non-GMO vitamin E. No synthetic fragrance, no preservatives, and no surfactants. Just ingredients chosen to support the barrier without disturbing what lives on it.
If your skin is persistently red, cracked, painful, or not improving, it's always worth checking in with a dermatologist.
what a microbiome-friendly routine looks like
Supporting your skin microbiome doesn't mean buying a new category of products. Mostly, it means removing the ones that get in its way.
- Cleanse more gently. A gentle, low-pH cleanser once a day, or oil cleansing, is enough for most skin. If your skin feels tight after washing, that's a sign it was stripped, not a sign it's clean.
- Drop synthetic fragrance. For many people, this is the single biggest change they can make. Choosing products with no synthetic fragrance removes one of the most common triggers for reactive skin.
- Simplify. Every extra product adds more ingredients and more chances for irritation. A shorter routine with shorter ingredient lists asks less of your skin.
- Support the barrier with familiar fats. Tallow, jojoba oil, and other skin-friendly fats help the barrier without bringing in ingredients that unsettle the microbiome. Our find your balm guide can help you choose the right Edenwild formula.
- Skip antibacterial products on your face. Unless a dermatologist has recommended one for a specific reason, antibacterial face washes and toners usually do your microbiome more harm than good.
the philosophy behind Edenwild
The skin microbiome is a big part of why our formulas are defined as much by what we leave out as by what we put in.
Synthetic fragrance, PEGs, parabens, harsh sulfates, and antibacterial agents aren't just unnecessary. For reactive skin, they work against everything we're trying to support: a barrier that functions well, a microbiome that stays balanced, and skin that doesn't have to fight its own routine. Every ingredient on our Never List is there for that reason.
That thinking runs through the whole line, from the short, simple ingredient list of Happy Baby Balm to the slow-infused botanicals in Golden Root Antioxidant Balm and Nectar Face Serum.
read more
- myrrh for skin - why we slow infuse the whole resin
- frankincense resin oil vs. essential oil: why the form matters
- the wyoming approach to wellness
- tallow skincare: the ancestral ingredient making a very deserved comeback
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