Your Skin Is Not a Surface. It’s an Ecosystem.
Most skincare routines are built around a simplistic idea: strip the skin, then replace what was removed with a synthetic product. It sounds logical. The science of the skin microbiome…
Blog
Discover what’s at the forefront of microbiome skincare and other news from Esse.
The Vitamin D You Can’t Get From a Pill
Most people know that sun exposure produces vitamin D. Fewer people know that vitamin D is only part of what it produces, and that the supplement industry has built an…
The Uncomfortable Truth About ‘Probiotic’ Skincare
Most products labelled as probiotic skincare don’t contain live probiotics. They contain postbiotics, which are heat-killed bacteria or fermented extracts that lack the defining characteristic of a true probiotic: life.…
Your Skin Doesn’t Take Time Off
Holidays are supposed to be restorative. For you, perhaps. For your skin, the reality is more complicated. Different UV levels, a new climate, the drying effect of cabin air, and…
The 3 Root Causes of Accelerated Ageing
Of course, there are many lifestyle and environmental factors that cause accelerated skin ageing. UV damage, diet, air pollution, chronic stress, lack of sleep, and hormonal disruption are among the…
Beyond the Treatment: Why Aesthetic Procedures Need Microbiome Support
Aesthetic treatments work through controlled damage. Microneedling, chemical peels, and laser resurfacing all disrupt the skin to trigger repair and renewal. The results can be impressive, but what happens in…
The Truth About Anti-Ageing: Why Modern Life Accelerates Ageing
The skincare industry sells products on the promise that ageing can be stopped. It can’t. Cellular ageing is inevitable, and no product changes that. We’re okay with that. What…
The Skin Microbiome Crisis: We’ve Lost 73% of Our Microbial Defences to Modern Life
Your location determines your skin microbiome. And if you live in a city, you’ve lost most of it. The data Esse’s testing of over 1000 fully sequenced skin…
Conscious Gifting: Sustainable Gift Set for the Festive Season
The festive season tends to blur the line between generosity and consumption. Somewhere between the excessive packaging and products that promise miracles, the meaning gets lost. We wanted to…
Discover the Esse Mist range
The Esse Mist range is an incredible booster product that amplifies your skin routine and improves skincare results. Because our Esse cleansing range doesn’t strip the skin of its…
Live vs Non-Living: Why Live Probiotics Offer Better Skin Benefits
As one of the very first brands to deploy microbiome science in its formulations, Esse has witnessed the encouraging rise in awareness of probiotic skincare recently. As more people…
Shifting Your Skin’s Microbiome
Recent scientific advancements have illuminated the profound impact of the skin microbiome on overall skin health. Disruptions to this delicate ecosystem can lead to various skin conditions, including acne,…
Propionic Acid: The Skin’s Personal Gardener
Discover the benefits of Propionic Acid for skin health. Learn how Esse uses it to support the microbiome, boost hydration, reduce inflammation, and enhance your skin’s natural barrier function.…
Lesser-Known Facts About the Skin Microbiome No One’s Talking About!
Microbiome skincare is all the rage, but with clever marketing behind subpar products, the word “microbiome” risks becoming just another buzzword. In this post, we delve into the fascinating…
How Your Skin Ages: Understanding the Microbiome’s Role
To understand how your skin ages, imagine your skin’s beneficial microbes as soldiers on a battlefield. These tiny, hardworking defenders are your first line of protection, working to keep…
Problem Skin? It’s Time to Fix Your Microbiome
Your skin is the barrier between you and the outside world. It is the largest organ in your body, with its own microscopic ecosystem – called a microbiome —…
Esse Concealer vs. Esse Foundation
Esse Concealer’s matte finish makes it a perfect complement to the Esse Foundation, which lays down a dewy base for the Concealer to build on. Together, this pair enables…
Can a Concealer for Sensitive Skin Still Provide Flawless Coverage?
Today, over 70% of individuals report experiencing skin sensitivity to some degree. This concerning trend hints at the underlying issues in our modern lifestyles and skincare routines. New research…
Skin Anarchy Podcast featuring Trevor Steyn
Esse founder Trevor Steyn was recently interviewed by Dr Ekta Yadav, MD MBA MS (Skincare Anarchy). We encourage you to listen to the full version of this enlightening episode…
Nighttime Skincare Routine: Optimising Skin Health While You Sleep
For skin to be more youthful and resilient, it must first be sustainably healthy. We help you to achieve this by rebalancing the microbiome with products at the forefront…
Ageing Gracefully with the Sun: A Dilemma of Diminishing Returns
One of the major concerns many of us have with sun exposure is that we fear it will make our skin age faster. While there is good reason behind this…
Protect Oil: Clinically Proven to Protect and Repair
Choosing skincare products can be challenging in today’s world. In a marketplace full of claims (many of which lack credibility), how do you choose skincare that you can be…
What Does Vitamin D Do For My Skin?
Our skin is the natural factory for Vitamin D, and it needs healthy levels for some key functions. These include: Controlling cell division Vitamin D controls how cells…
Balance Sun Exposure for Healthy Skin
We’re all aware of the risks that come with getting too much sun exposure – increased cancer risks, premature ageing, and chances of hyperpigmentation. But an often-overlooked question is:…
Vitamin D: Supplement or Sunshine?
To understand what is healthy for you, it’s often worth asking yourself: “What is my body designed for?” Through the course of human history, our bodies have acquired Vitamin…
Protect Oil: Clinically Proven to Protect and Repair
Choosing skincare products can be challenging in today’s world. In a marketplace full of claims (many of which lack credibility), how do you choose skincare that you can be…
Esse and Our Approach to Sensitive Skin
Sensitive skin can have a variety of triggers, including environmental exposure, heat, friction, food, and medication. At Esse, we focus on creating the ideal environment for your skin’s microbiome…
Esse Bakuchiol Serum: Nature’s Retinol
Esse incorporates ‘nature’s retinol’ in its latest launch of Bakuchiol Serum When it comes to anti-ageing ingredients in skincare products, retinoids have been the gold standard for decades – despite…
Why Esse Uses Glass Packaging
Choosing which materials to use in packaging is not easy. There are many considerations. In several projects in our history we have weighed up our options and the result…
What Does My Microbiome Do For Me?
We know gut microbes aid in digestion and deliver nutrients. They also produce vitamins, maintain blood pressure, and affect your mood. Because we rely on so many partnerships, we…
Is it good to have high microbial diversity on skin?
Our adoption of a western lifestyle has resulted in a vast reduction of microbial species on skin. Research suggests that diversity is a good thing as opposed to the…
Sunshine vs Sun Protection: How to Get Vitamin D Safely
The dangers of overexposing skin to sunlight have been well documented over the last few years, prompting a rise in the use of sunscreens. And while sun protection is…
What Will Probiotics Do For My Skin?
Probiotics are immensely beneficial. They out-compete pathogenic microbes, improve barrier function, produce moisturising factors, maintain skin pH and reduce sensitivity and inflammation. All these factors reduce the rate of…
5 Things Probiotics Do For Your Skin
Probiotics are vital They protect you from pathogens (like armour for your face) They improve barrier function They maintain calm and reduce sensitivity They manufacture moisturising factors They maintain…
Probiotics Balance pH
Acid mantle integrity is key to effective barrier function It is not intuitive to think that something as seemingly inconsequential as pH could have a mighty impact on ageing but…
Probiotics Moisturise
Hydrate from within You may not know this but live Lactobacillus probiotics on (and in) skin can produce the coveted skincare ingredient Hyaluronic Acid. Right there in the stratum corneum of…
Probiotics and Skin Immunity
Your skin has an immune system that is vital because it protects you from pathogens Keratinocytes, the most common skin cells in the epidermis (the outer most layer of skin),…
Probiotics Strengthen Barrier Function
Remedy Sensitivity Probiotics strengthen barrier function and protect you from pathogens so they automatically guard your immune system from exposure to unnecessary triggers. Apart from acting as a shield…
Probiotics Protect
Boost your skin’s armour Probiotic microbes can help to safeguard your skin against pathogenic microbes. When prolific and healthy, your skin microbes construct a biofilm in the outer layer of…
Skin Detoxing: What you need to know
One of the most frequent questions we get at Esse is ‘What will happen to my skin when I switch over?’. As with any change, there is going to…
FAQ: All the questions you need answered by Esse!
For the past two decades, we have been producing industry-leading skincare products with significant anti-ageing benefits. With more people choosing brands that believe in sustainability and show real results,…
Drivers of Ageing
Ageing is a natural process of life, with the body undergoing significant changes as the years go by. And while we can’t avoid ageing, we can minimise the impact…
Esse vs. Ageing
Old age is not avoidable. We are all going to get old – the trick is to do it gracefully! Just to be very clear – we aren’t ageist.…
Experience Esse’s Treatments
Esse, offers a range of professional, customised skin rewilding treatments which incorporate advanced pre- and probiotics, as well as the application of live probiotics. The Esse Experience treatments –…
Experience the Anti-ageing Benefits of Probiotics
South African bio-clinical skincare brand, Esse, is celebrating a significant milestone in 2022 – 20 years of leveraging biotechnology to provide significant anti-ageing benefits through probiotics and other actives…
What Are The Skin Benefits Of A Good Foundation?
There’s much more to a quality foundation product than simple coverage. Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy by choosing the right foundation for your skin: 1. Sun…
Bakuchiol: Nature’s Retinol Alternative
Dubbed ‘nature’s retinol’, it’s worth investigating the properties of this acclaimed plant-based ingredient and how to incorporate it into your skincare routine. The Bakuchiol used in skincare is extracted…
What’s in a Drop?
The Esse probiotic skincare range includes a multitude of carefully selected natural ingredients that are proven to have a positive impact on improving skin barrier function, hydration and the…
Why does the skin detox when moving to organic products?
Why does the skin detox when moving to organic products? I’ve heard this question so many times over the last 12 years since I’ve switched to organic skincare. It’s…
Skincare Myths Debunked
Since the beginning of time, society has formed beliefs about their experiences and the world around them. A notorious belief and misconception that comes to mind is that the…
Nanoparticles – The Lowdown
Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small particles (smaller than 100 nanometers – about 40,000 times thinner than a hair). In skincare, nano ingredients come in two forms: nanoemulsions –…
A Guide to Sensitive Skin
Skin sensitivity is a leading skin concern throughout the modern world with more than half of women claiming to have sensitive skin.
Sleep and Skin Health
Six reasons a healthy sleeping pattern will give you great skin Skin health and sleep quality can be strongly linked. Lack of sleep elevates cortisol levels in the body, increasing…
Invest in Yourself: Skincare Routine
Why a good skincare routine need not be complicated Have you had enough of hearing how the latest skincare fad is the only thing that will rescue your skin? What…
Take the new you challenge in 7 steps
7 Steps to Great Skin in 2020 “A change is as good as a holiday,” and who would say no thank you to that? As 2020 gets underway, we’d like…
The value of using a microbiome-friendly foundation
Here’s what your basic skin care routine probably looks like: cleanser, toner, serum, moisturiser and, finally, foundation. Perhaps you even include products to promote a healthy skin microbiome leading…
What are Microbes and Probiotics?
All single-celled organisms are microbes, this includes viruses. A microbiome is the sum of all the single-celled organisms living in and on a body. All living things have a…
Microbes & Your Skin
TRILLIONS of microbes, from thousands of species, call your skin home. Normally, they get along just fine and they provide the building blocks that make your skin healthy and beautiful…
The Future of Skincare
In 2003 the Human Genome Project declared that the sequencing of the human genome was complete after 13 years of intense research. It cost $2,7 billion. Now you can…
4 Ways to deliver Probiotics in skincare
Probiotics are the latest trend in skincare but probiotics are live microbes that have a beneficial effect. How are probiotic ingredients used in skincare products when most skincare products…
Diversity in Skin Systems
Just as diversity is important in environmental ecosystems, so it is important in the mix of microbes found in the skin. A diverse microbiome equals a healthy skin. …
Learn to Love your Microbes
Your skin is an ecosystem and in the same way that your gut needs symbiotic microbes to function optimally, your skin needs microbes to maintain peak health. BIOME+ technology…
Your Skin Is Not a Surface. It’s an Ecosystem.
Most skincare routines are built around a simplistic idea: strip the skin, then replace what was removed with a synthetic product. It sounds logical. The science of the skin microbiome…
The Vitamin D You Can’t Get From a Pill
Most people know that sun exposure produces vitamin D. Fewer people know that vitamin D is only part of what it produces, and that the supplement industry has built an…
The Uncomfortable Truth About ‘Probiotic’ Skincare
Most products labelled as probiotic skincare don’t contain live probiotics. They contain postbiotics, which are heat-killed bacteria or fermented extracts that lack the defining characteristic of a true probiotic: life.…
Your Skin Doesn’t Take Time Off
Holidays are supposed to be restorative. For you, perhaps. For your skin, the reality is more complicated. Different UV levels, a new climate, the drying effect of cabin air, and…
The 3 Root Causes of Accelerated Ageing
Of course, there are many lifestyle and environmental factors that cause accelerated skin ageing. UV damage, diet, air pollution, chronic stress, lack of sleep, and hormonal disruption are among the…
Beyond the Treatment: Why Aesthetic Procedures Need Microbiome Support
Aesthetic treatments work through controlled damage. Microneedling, chemical peels, and laser resurfacing all disrupt the skin to trigger repair and renewal. The results can be impressive, but what happens in…
The Truth About Anti-Ageing: Why Modern Life Accelerates Ageing
The skincare industry sells products on the promise that ageing can be stopped. It can’t. Cellular ageing is inevitable, and no product changes that. We’re okay with that. What…
The Skin Microbiome Crisis: We’ve Lost 73% of Our Microbial Defences to Modern Life
Your location determines your skin microbiome. And if you live in a city, you’ve lost most of it. The data Esse’s testing of over 1000 fully sequenced skin…
Conscious Gifting: Sustainable Gift Set for the Festive Season
The festive season tends to blur the line between generosity and consumption. Somewhere between the excessive packaging and products that promise miracles, the meaning gets lost. We wanted to…
Discover the Esse Mist range
The Esse Mist range is an incredible booster product that amplifies your skin routine and improves skincare results. Because our Esse cleansing range doesn’t strip the skin of its…
Live vs Non-Living: Why Live Probiotics Offer Better Skin Benefits
As one of the very first brands to deploy microbiome science in its formulations, Esse has witnessed the encouraging rise in awareness of probiotic skincare recently. As more people…
Shifting Your Skin’s Microbiome
Recent scientific advancements have illuminated the profound impact of the skin microbiome on overall skin health. Disruptions to this delicate ecosystem can lead to various skin conditions, including acne,…
Propionic Acid: The Skin’s Personal Gardener
Discover the benefits of Propionic Acid for skin health. Learn how Esse uses it to support the microbiome, boost hydration, reduce inflammation, and enhance your skin’s natural barrier function.…
Lesser-Known Facts About the Skin Microbiome No One’s Talking About!
Microbiome skincare is all the rage, but with clever marketing behind subpar products, the word “microbiome” risks becoming just another buzzword. In this post, we delve into the fascinating…
How Your Skin Ages: Understanding the Microbiome’s Role
To understand how your skin ages, imagine your skin’s beneficial microbes as soldiers on a battlefield. These tiny, hardworking defenders are your first line of protection, working to keep…
Problem Skin? It’s Time to Fix Your Microbiome
Your skin is the barrier between you and the outside world. It is the largest organ in your body, with its own microscopic ecosystem – called a microbiome —…
Esse Concealer vs. Esse Foundation
Esse Concealer’s matte finish makes it a perfect complement to the Esse Foundation, which lays down a dewy base for the Concealer to build on. Together, this pair enables…
Can a Concealer for Sensitive Skin Still Provide Flawless Coverage?
Today, over 70% of individuals report experiencing skin sensitivity to some degree. This concerning trend hints at the underlying issues in our modern lifestyles and skincare routines. New research…
Skin Anarchy Podcast featuring Trevor Steyn
Esse founder Trevor Steyn was recently interviewed by Dr Ekta Yadav, MD MBA MS (Skincare Anarchy). We encourage you to listen to the full version of this enlightening episode…
Nighttime Skincare Routine: Optimising Skin Health While You Sleep
For skin to be more youthful and resilient, it must first be sustainably healthy. We help you to achieve this by rebalancing the microbiome with products at the forefront…
Ageing Gracefully with the Sun: A Dilemma of Diminishing Returns
One of the major concerns many of us have with sun exposure is that we fear it will make our skin age faster. While there is good reason behind this…
Protect Oil: Clinically Proven to Protect and Repair
Choosing skincare products can be challenging in today’s world. In a marketplace full of claims (many of which lack credibility), how do you choose skincare that you can be…
What Does Vitamin D Do For My Skin?
Our skin is the natural factory for Vitamin D, and it needs healthy levels for some key functions. These include: Controlling cell division Vitamin D controls how cells…
Balance Sun Exposure for Healthy Skin
We’re all aware of the risks that come with getting too much sun exposure – increased cancer risks, premature ageing, and chances of hyperpigmentation. But an often-overlooked question is:…
Vitamin D: Supplement or Sunshine?
To understand what is healthy for you, it’s often worth asking yourself: “What is my body designed for?” Through the course of human history, our bodies have acquired Vitamin…
Protect Oil: Clinically Proven to Protect and Repair
Choosing skincare products can be challenging in today’s world. In a marketplace full of claims (many of which lack credibility), how do you choose skincare that you can be…
Esse and Our Approach to Sensitive Skin
Sensitive skin can have a variety of triggers, including environmental exposure, heat, friction, food, and medication. At Esse, we focus on creating the ideal environment for your skin’s microbiome…
Esse Bakuchiol Serum: Nature’s Retinol
Esse incorporates ‘nature’s retinol’ in its latest launch of Bakuchiol Serum When it comes to anti-ageing ingredients in skincare products, retinoids have been the gold standard for decades – despite…
Why Esse Uses Glass Packaging
Choosing which materials to use in packaging is not easy. There are many considerations. In several projects in our history we have weighed up our options and the result…
What Does My Microbiome Do For Me?
We know gut microbes aid in digestion and deliver nutrients. They also produce vitamins, maintain blood pressure, and affect your mood. Because we rely on so many partnerships, we…
Is it good to have high microbial diversity on skin?
Our adoption of a western lifestyle has resulted in a vast reduction of microbial species on skin. Research suggests that diversity is a good thing as opposed to the…
Sunshine vs Sun Protection: How to Get Vitamin D Safely
The dangers of overexposing skin to sunlight have been well documented over the last few years, prompting a rise in the use of sunscreens. And while sun protection is…
What Will Probiotics Do For My Skin?
Probiotics are immensely beneficial. They out-compete pathogenic microbes, improve barrier function, produce moisturising factors, maintain skin pH and reduce sensitivity and inflammation. All these factors reduce the rate of…
5 Things Probiotics Do For Your Skin
Probiotics are vital They protect you from pathogens (like armour for your face) They improve barrier function They maintain calm and reduce sensitivity They manufacture moisturising factors They maintain…
Probiotics Balance pH
Acid mantle integrity is key to effective barrier function It is not intuitive to think that something as seemingly inconsequential as pH could have a mighty impact on ageing but…
Probiotics Moisturise
Hydrate from within You may not know this but live Lactobacillus probiotics on (and in) skin can produce the coveted skincare ingredient Hyaluronic Acid. Right there in the stratum corneum of…
Probiotics and Skin Immunity
Your skin has an immune system that is vital because it protects you from pathogens Keratinocytes, the most common skin cells in the epidermis (the outer most layer of skin),…
Probiotics Strengthen Barrier Function
Remedy Sensitivity Probiotics strengthen barrier function and protect you from pathogens so they automatically guard your immune system from exposure to unnecessary triggers. Apart from acting as a shield…
Probiotics Protect
Boost your skin’s armour Probiotic microbes can help to safeguard your skin against pathogenic microbes. When prolific and healthy, your skin microbes construct a biofilm in the outer layer of…
Skin Detoxing: What you need to know
One of the most frequent questions we get at Esse is ‘What will happen to my skin when I switch over?’. As with any change, there is going to…
FAQ: All the questions you need answered by Esse!
For the past two decades, we have been producing industry-leading skincare products with significant anti-ageing benefits. With more people choosing brands that believe in sustainability and show real results,…
Drivers of Ageing
Ageing is a natural process of life, with the body undergoing significant changes as the years go by. And while we can’t avoid ageing, we can minimise the impact…
Esse vs. Ageing
Old age is not avoidable. We are all going to get old – the trick is to do it gracefully! Just to be very clear – we aren’t ageist.…
Experience Esse’s Treatments
Esse, offers a range of professional, customised skin rewilding treatments which incorporate advanced pre- and probiotics, as well as the application of live probiotics. The Esse Experience treatments –…
Experience the Anti-ageing Benefits of Probiotics
South African bio-clinical skincare brand, Esse, is celebrating a significant milestone in 2022 – 20 years of leveraging biotechnology to provide significant anti-ageing benefits through probiotics and other actives…
What Are The Skin Benefits Of A Good Foundation?
There’s much more to a quality foundation product than simple coverage. Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy by choosing the right foundation for your skin: 1. Sun…
Bakuchiol: Nature’s Retinol Alternative
Dubbed ‘nature’s retinol’, it’s worth investigating the properties of this acclaimed plant-based ingredient and how to incorporate it into your skincare routine. The Bakuchiol used in skincare is extracted…
What’s in a Drop?
The Esse probiotic skincare range includes a multitude of carefully selected natural ingredients that are proven to have a positive impact on improving skin barrier function, hydration and the…
Why does the skin detox when moving to organic products?
Why does the skin detox when moving to organic products? I’ve heard this question so many times over the last 12 years since I’ve switched to organic skincare. It’s…
Skincare Myths Debunked
Since the beginning of time, society has formed beliefs about their experiences and the world around them. A notorious belief and misconception that comes to mind is that the…
Nanoparticles – The Lowdown
Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small particles (smaller than 100 nanometers – about 40,000 times thinner than a hair). In skincare, nano ingredients come in two forms: nanoemulsions –…
A Guide to Sensitive Skin
Skin sensitivity is a leading skin concern throughout the modern world with more than half of women claiming to have sensitive skin.
Sleep and Skin Health
Six reasons a healthy sleeping pattern will give you great skin Skin health and sleep quality can be strongly linked. Lack of sleep elevates cortisol levels in the body, increasing…
Invest in Yourself: Skincare Routine
Why a good skincare routine need not be complicated Have you had enough of hearing how the latest skincare fad is the only thing that will rescue your skin? What…
Take the new you challenge in 7 steps
7 Steps to Great Skin in 2020 “A change is as good as a holiday,” and who would say no thank you to that? As 2020 gets underway, we’d like…
The value of using a microbiome-friendly foundation
Here’s what your basic skin care routine probably looks like: cleanser, toner, serum, moisturiser and, finally, foundation. Perhaps you even include products to promote a healthy skin microbiome leading…
What are Microbes and Probiotics?
All single-celled organisms are microbes, this includes viruses. A microbiome is the sum of all the single-celled organisms living in and on a body. All living things have a…
Microbes & Your Skin
TRILLIONS of microbes, from thousands of species, call your skin home. Normally, they get along just fine and they provide the building blocks that make your skin healthy and beautiful…
The Future of Skincare
In 2003 the Human Genome Project declared that the sequencing of the human genome was complete after 13 years of intense research. It cost $2,7 billion. Now you can…
4 Ways to deliver Probiotics in skincare
Probiotics are the latest trend in skincare but probiotics are live microbes that have a beneficial effect. How are probiotic ingredients used in skincare products when most skincare products…
Diversity in Skin Systems
Just as diversity is important in environmental ecosystems, so it is important in the mix of microbes found in the skin. A diverse microbiome equals a healthy skin. …
Learn to Love your Microbes
Your skin is an ecosystem and in the same way that your gut needs symbiotic microbes to function optimally, your skin needs microbes to maintain peak health. BIOME+ technology…
