Natural Soap and Microbiota
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All our products are natural because they contain exclusively ingredients that nature offers us. However, natural is an overused word, too often bent to commercial needs. It's good to explain what makes the difference.
For us, a natural cosmetic is one that does not interfere with the resident microbiota of the skin but supports it. Our soaps do all this, they do not interfere negatively with the microbial flora, helping it to activate the barrier effect against pathogens.
The natural surfactants in our soaps, which are formed during saponification, are very delicate, because they are composed of fatty acid salts which cleanse the skin by affinity, without destroying the hydrolipidic layer which, on the contrary, is strengthened.In 2008 the NHI (National Institutes of Health) promoted the "Integrated Human Microbiome Project", i.e. the characterization of the microbial diversity that lives in five characteristic sites of the human body (intestine, skin, nose, oral cavity and vagina).
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The human microbiome – the genetic heritage of microorganisms that live throughout the human organism – is superior to the genetic heritage of the human body itself and our life is supported by the presence of the microorganisms that live in us.
More than a billion microorganisms populate one square centimeter of skin. Most of the microorganisms present are defined as residents: they are of relatively constant types, they renew and restore, more or less quickly, in their micro-habitats after any skin disturbance. They are considered commensals and live in mutualistic symbiosis, contributing to the well-being of the skin through the production of protective molecules or natural antibiotics.The other group of microorganisms, called transient, is present temporarily and randomly for a few hours or days: they are not pathogenic, unless the barrier functions of the skin and resident flora are missing.
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For decades we have known the vital importance of the intestinal flora and the professionals were well aware of the presence of the skin microbial flora, yet cosmetics has always treated the skin as a sterile organ and the microbiota is not considered a precious ally of the skin but a population negative to fight.
Not a week goes by without research being published throughout the world that attributes extraordinary powers to the skin microbiota.