Introducing The Coolest New Body Care Technology On The Market: mindbodygreen's postbiotic hand cream

Think about all that your hands and skin do: They work for you; help you connect to the world around you; act as a living, dynamic shield—keeping the good stuff in and bad stuff out. Because of this, they also experience significant wear. Add in hand-washing, sanitizing, and arid weather, and you might find your skin could use a bit more care of late. Certainly, I know my hands were in serious need of help. 

That is, until we landed on the final formula of mindbodygreen's new postbiotic hand cream. It was born from the fact that we wanted something that was going to nurture our skin microbiomes, strengthen our barrier function with lipids, feed our epidermis-protecting antioxidants, and deliver a sensorial experience like no other on the market. 

Its creation took careful consideration, diligent testing, and feedback from those in our community. And now we're looking forward to sharing it with you—along with some exciting endeavors in the future, which we will fill you in on soon enough. 

It is the next generation of advanced biotic skin care. Our hand cream delivers a blend of thoughtful, sophisticated ingredients that work to bolster every element of your skin barrier. 

To start, the pre- and postbiotics support your skin's microbiome, or the flora living on your skin that plays several roles in your overall health. (I encourage you to read up on it in our skin microbiome guide if you aren't already familiar.) I think that the skin microbiome is one of the most fascinating and exciting areas of research—and as we learn more, we understand just how important it is to your overall health and just how poorly modern lifestyle habits affect it. 

We wanted to do something about that: Postbiotics are some of the newest areas of development in microbiome-supporting personal care products. It all started when researchers were able to identify key outputs from the good organisms living on the skin, such as enzymes, certain fatty acids, humectants, biosurfactants, and peptides. So they took these findings and recreated those beneficial offerings, which we infused into our formula. Our special strain of postbiotics provides skin with very specific fatty acids and peptides that have been shown to soothe inflammation, help protect skin against environmental stressors, regulate microcirculation, and activate the skin's immune system. 

For added support, we also included prebiotics to make sure that the living flora already present on the skin was being taken care of, too. There are several kinds of prebiotics to use, and we selected one made from microgreen algae that has been shown to have a soothing effect on the skin as it prevents inflammation triggered by an unbalanced microbiome. 

We also knew how important it was to enhance the lipid layer. The creamy base contains several botanicals to moisturize and soothe the skin: shea butter, moringa seed oil, aloe vera, and oat oil. Each of these individually is a powerful natural ingredient, but together they're far more robust in their efficacy. 

This cream is a decadent, rich butter that feels as if hydration is bursting onto the skin, and then is soaked up quickly—meaning your hands don't feel sticky, oily, or goopy after application.

We know that sensorial preferences are personal. In my career as a beauty editor, I have come across several bestselling, cult-favorite products that I didn't care for because I didn't enjoy the thickness, scent, application, and so on. On the flip side, I have recommended countless products, only to get feedback that the user wasn't a fan of some small aspect. 

We're all different with unique wants and needs—it's important to remember that.

We believe in using only the highest-quality ingredients. If you've shopped our supplements, you likely know this to be true: Every bioactive and phytonutrient that goes into those formulas is curated with intention and exactness. We don't mess around with our efficacy or responsibility. So when we started looking into topical formulations, we knew we had a high bar. 

While there is no regulated definition of "clean," we believe it has become a useful term for consumers to identify formulas that align with their wants. Every brand, retailer, and organization has its own set of standards of their version of clean—and we have always encouraged people to look for brands that match up with their own. 

We excluded many of the common ingredients buzzed about currently, including parabens, phthalates, mineral oils, petrochemicals, common allergens, formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers, silicones, BHA, BHT, and over 1,000 other ingredients regulated by the European Union. We also use an eco-cert-verified natural preservative system that has been tested to keep it free from microbial contamination—as pathogenic bacteria are just as harmful as any "toxic" ingredient.

But in the formulation process, we actually didn't start by outlining what we didn't want. To us, creating a clean product with integrity was the baseline. So instead, we started by outlining the ingredients we did want. We wanted natural botanicals, naturally derived actives, and responsible synthetics. We wanted ingredients that were shown to be well tolerated by most people. We wanted high-tech, innovative actives that would nurture the skin microbiome and barrier. We wanted nutrient-dense botanicals that gave your skin antioxidants, lipids, and fatty acids. 

I'm a firm believer that we should treat the skin with the same respect we do our other organs. And that means finding high-quality ingredients, smart formulations, and brands with an ethos you can trust. We have much more to come at mindbodygreen—which we'll start sharing with you soon.