See how fermentation technology “leaven” wake up the innovation of cosmetic ingredients

What is fermentation technology?

According to the information and literature, fermentation technology mainly refers to: the use of microbial physiological activities to make organic matter decomposition of biochemical reaction process, based on the appropriate environment and medium, through the growth and metabolism of microorganisms and the life of microbial activities to produce microbial organisms themselves, direct metabolites or secondary metabolites of the biochemical reaction.

With the support of modern bioengineering technology means, and then through large-scale production, fermentation technology has become the application direction and R&D hotspot in the field of cosmetics, which is applied to product terminals by more and more brands and enterprises, and continuously improves the safety and efficacy of cosmetics.
Application of fermentation technology

The first biochemical reaction that human beings came into contact with was fermentation. As early as 4,000 years ago, ancient people began to engage in fermentation production and accumulated a lot of experience in brewing food and beverages. Although people at that time didn’t understand the principles behind fermentation technology, they created the ancient fermentation process of making music, brewing wine, making sauce and vinegar through step-by-step exploration and practice.
With the advancement of science and technology, the ancient fermentation process has ushered in a technological revolution. Modern fermentation technology, with cross-disciplinary attributes, integrates molecular biology, cell biology and so on. Its principles have long been publicized by experts and scholars, and the application of the technology is no longer limited to food and beverages, but extends to the field of medicine, cosmetics and so on. Data show that as early as the 1980s, there are reports of plant fermentation products applied to the production of cosmetics, such as the use of comfrey cell culture to produce comfrey.

Nowadays, there are more and more new cosmetic raw materials developed using microbial fermentation technology that have attracted attention, such as the filtrate of galactose yeast-like fermentation products added to the early born bio-fermentation product SK-II Shinzen water, and the lysate of dictyostelium yeast fermentation products added to Lancôme’s Little Black Bottle and Estee Lauder’s Little Brown Bottle. Fermentation technology has even become one of the hot plant processes in the global spotlight by virtue of the advantages of low investment, quick results, low pollution, high efficiency and stability.
Currently, the application of fermentation technology in cosmetics is mainly categorized into: bacterial fermentation, native organism fermentation and fungal fermentation. Among them, fungal fermentation includes: yeast fermentation, medicinal fungal fermentation and marine fungal fermentation.