Skin microbiome: current target for cosmeceuticals

Skin acts as a barrier to the external environment and perform various functions like maintaining internal homeostasis, sensations to touch based stimuli, vitamin D production and defence against foreign pathogens, prevent dehydration. Skin has its own diverse microbiota like bacteria, virus, fungi that is collectively called as skin microbiome. Skin microbiome balance is disturbed (condition called dysbiosis) by both internal and external factors which lead to skin problems like acne, psoriasis, dandruff. It is important to maintain the healthy skin ecosystem. Cosmeceuticals i.e., combination of cosmetic and pharmaceuticals, is a recent trend in the skin care industry where we add extract or bioactive compounds in the form of lotions, creams, mists to increase the supply of nutrition to the skin. Being hybrids of cosmetics and pharma-ceuticals, they are applied topically as cosmetics but also contain the ingredients that influence the biological functions of the skin. Prebiotics (to stimulate the growth of favourable bacteria), Probiotics (good bacteria to skin) and Postbiotics (adding by-products of bacteria) are added into the product to enhance the skin flora. Bioactive compounds like miner-als/vitamins (e.g., selenium, Vitamin E), phytochemicals (polyphenols) and microbial metabolites like hyaluronic acid) and peptides are used as an ingredient in cosmeceuticals. They act as antioxidants, anti-hyperpigmentation, anti-inflam-matory, anti-ageing, anti-wrinkles, and UV protection. Developing product that can improve the healthy eco-system of skin is a new trend in dermatological products which are the future generation skin care products.