SKIN PROBIOTICS GROW SOMETHING ON YOU

Supermarket food shelves overflow with probiotic this & that, all with bacteria supposed to end into your gut and thrive there.  Less than a dozen species worldwide.

Meanwhile scientists are busy studying the "human biome" - i.e. the combination of us proper + all the critters living in/on us, not just in our guts.

We now know that our skin harbors 200-500 species of bacteria and yeasts, and that having none is bad, as pathogens we encounter in the environment are not kept at bay by the harmless bugs.

Literally HUNDREDS of skin-applied products claim they'll favor, balance, optimize, feed, or, heal your skin microbial flora.  This will supposedly give you a shiny, smooth, healthy skin.

However, unlike yogurt-like gut-optimizers, all such skin product claims carefully dance around the issue that, at skin level, you have no clue as to who is  actually populating you, and with some very hard to find exception, no skin product tries to deploy good microbes onto your skin.

Look for products containing bacteria, with claims related to skin health, and you'll find the ingestible kind, complete with propaganda for gut colonialism.

 <Insert reasonable qualifications on healthy pH ranges and optimum lipid coverage etc. >, but to me this approach is like tending a poultry farm with bulk & functional foods, additives, cleansers & whatnot, all while studiously not checking if you are actually raising chickens or rats.

Expect developments in that space within 5 years.

And, no, just like in the gutspace these are not only 1st world problems.