What if the key to glowing, resilient, youthful skin wasn’t just in your skincare products, but in how you nurture the invisible ecosystem living on your skin?

Welcome to the new frontier in skin health: your skin microbiome - a complex, microscopic world of beneficial bacteria that plays a central role in keeping your skin balanced, strong, and radiant. And guess what your friendly microbes love to eat? Oil.

The Skin Microbiome: Your Skin’s Invisible Ally

Your skin is home to trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses, that form a protective community known as the skin microbiome. Far from being harmful, these microbes play a vital role in:

• Maintaining a healthy skin barrier
• Regulating inflammation and immune responses
• Protecting against environmental damage like pollution and UV rays
• Supporting skin hydration and preventing premature ageing

But like any community, your microbiome thrives in the right environment. And for many of the lipophilic (oil-loving) microbes that support healthy, youthful skin, that environment is rich in nourishing oils.

Why Dry Skin Can Disrupt the Microbiome

Here’s where it gets interesting. Research shows that moist, well-oiled skin supports a more stable, protective microbiome, while dry skin is far less hospitable to beneficial microbes. When the skin dries out, whether from environmental factors, ageing, or hormonal shifts like menopause, it becomes a less inviting home for these important allies.

Dry skin leads to:

• Reduced availability of sebum (skin’s natural oil)
• Increased microbial diversity that may reflect an imbalanced microflora
• Overgrowth of harmful bacteria, inflammation, and skin conditions like eczema, acne, and rosacea

In fact, a recent study comparing the skin microbiomes of pre- and post-menopausal women found that oil-loving microbes were significantly reduced in post-menopausal skin, likely due to the drop in sebaceous oil production that comes with lower hormone levels.

Plant Oils: Microbiome Medicine for Your Skin

So, how do we restore balance and create a nourishing environment for our skin’s beneficial microbes, especially as we age?

The answer is beautifully simple: feed them.

Plant oils, both consumed internally and applied topically, act as nutritional support for your microbiome and the skin barrier it helps maintain.

Topical Plant Oils:

Bestow’s Graces skincare oils - like the Soothing Oil and Nourishing Oil - contain healing blends of oils such as jojoba, avocado, raspberry seed, rosehip, and tamanu.

These:

• Provide essential fatty acids and antioxidants to calm and hydrate
• Help maintain optimal skin pH and oil balance
• Create a lipid-rich environment that supports the growth of healthy microbes
• Reduce skin sensitivity and inflammation - key to protecting against microbiome disruption

Internal Plant Oils:

The Bestow Beauty Plus Oil nourishes from within, delivering linoleic acid and omega-rich seed oils that help skin stay hydrated, elastic and less prone to inflammation. A healthy internal supply of fats helps your body produce sebum naturally, supporting both your skin barrier and microbiome balance.

The Menopause Connection: Why Oils Matter More Than Eve

As hormone levels drop during menopause, the skin’s sebaceous glands become less active. This leads to drier skin and a shift in the microbiome, increasing vulnerability to skin irritation and microbial imbalance.

Feeding the skin both internally and externally with plant oils is one of the most natural, supportive ways to counteract these changes. Not only does it improve hydration and texture, it also creates the ideal conditions for anti-ageing microbes to thrive.

Final Thoughts: Your Microbiome is Listening

The skincare conversation is evolving. It’s not just about what you want from your skin, but about what your skin’s microbial partners need from you.

When we nourish the skin with wholefood oils - internally through the Bestow Beauty Oils and externally through The Graces facial oils - we aren’t just moisturising. We’re feeding an intelligent, responsive ecosystem that plays a starring role in skin health, immunity, and visible ageing.

So the next time you apply your facial oil or blend your smoothie with a spoonful of Bestow Beauty Oil, remember: you’re feeding your skin’s future - from the inside out.