What Is Biotechnology in Skincare?

What Is Biotechnology In Skincare?

In simple terms, biotechnology in skincare is a way of creating ingredients using biological processes like fermentation, rather than only growing or extracting them.

Long before biotechnology became a topic of conversation in skincare, I found myself asking a different question.

If we understand more about skin than ever before, why do so many formulations still rely on the same ingredients and the same approaches?

The longer I worked with skin, the more I realised that innovation and newness are not always the same thing.

The skincare industry is remarkably good at finding new ways to talk about ingredients. I kept coming back to the same question: could we create genuinely different possibilities for skin rather than simply telling a new story about ingredients that already existed?

When I began developing ONOURE, biotechnology was not a term many consumers were talking about. Most people had never heard it mentioned in skincare and many still haven't.

Even today, I would not describe biotechnology as mainstream.

The beginning of a quiet shift

What I see instead is the beginning of a shift.

A small but growing group of scientists, ingredient developers and brands are exploring what becomes possible when we work with biology differently.^1-5

It is still early.

Most consumers are unlikely to encounter biotechnology every day when they shop for skincare.

Yet behind the scenes, there is growing interest in what these technologies may allow us to create in the future.

That is what captured my attention.

Not a trend, but the possibility.

Why Does Biotechnology Exist?

What interested me was biotechnology emerged because traditional approaches have limitations.

Nature is remarkable, but it can also be unpredictable.

Plants are influenced by climate, soil, water, geography and growing conditions. Harvests can vary. Supply can fluctuate. The compounds scientists are interested in may only exist in very small amounts. ^2,3

For many years, the skincare industry worked within those limitations because there were few alternatives.

Biotechnology introduced another possibility.

Instead of relying solely on what could be grown, harvested or extracted, scientists began exploring whether biological systems themselves could help create the compounds they were looking for.^1, 2

This often meant producing familiar ingredients in a different way. In others, it opened the door to ingredients that had previously been difficult to access or impossible to produce at meaningful scale.

That was the part that really caught my attention.

Not the ability to recreate ingredients we already knew, but the possibility of creating access to ingredients that may never have been available through traditional extraction alone.

In some cases, these were compounds that occur naturally but only in very small quantities. In others, they were entirely new ingredients developed with specific functions in mind.^2, 5

Expanding the pool, not just changing the process

For the first time, it felt as though biotechnology was expanding the pool of ingredients available to formulators rather than simply changing how existing ingredients were made.

After years of seeing many of the same ingredients appear repeatedly across different formulations, this felt genuinely different and exciting.

I want to be careful how I say that because many of those ingredients have earned their place in skincare. Ingredients such as niacinamide, vitamin C, glycerin and others continue to be supported by good science and remain valuable tools for formulators.

My curiosity was never about replacing them. It was about whether there were other possibilities we had not yet explored.

One of the things biotechnology offered was the opportunity to look beyond the ingredients that had dominated formulation for decades and ask a different question.

What else might be possible?

That was where biotechnology began to feel less like a manufacturing process and more like a genuine area of innovation.

The practical side: consistency and responsibility

There is also a practical side to this.

By working with biological systems under controlled conditions, it may be possible to reduce dependence on large-scale harvesting of certain natural resources, improve consistency and create ingredients with less variability from batch to batch. ³

That does not automatically make biotechnology the answer to every environmental challenge, nor does it mean every biotechnology-derived ingredient is inherently better.

What it does offer is another way of approaching ingredient development, one that may allow innovation and responsibility to sit alongside one another.

Ultimately, biotechnology is attracting attention because it is not simply changing how ingredients are made.

It is expanding what may be possible to create.

So, What Is Biotechnology?

At its simplest, biotechnology is a way of creating ingredients using biological processes.^1, 2

Rather than relying solely on farming, harvesting or extraction, scientists can work with microorganisms, enzymes and fermentation processes to produce specific compounds under carefully controlled conditions.^2, 4

At first glance, that can sound highly technical.

What attracted me to biotechnology, however, was not the technology itself.

It was the biology.

The idea that we could work with biological systems to create ingredients with greater consistency, purity and precision than was often possible through traditional methods alone.^1, 3, 5

Not synthetic, not simply natural

Biotechnology is often misunderstood. Some believe it means synthetic. Others assume it means natural. The reality is more nuanced than either description.

Biotechnology is simply another way of creating ingredients, one that uses biological systems as part of the process.

Many biotechnology-derived ingredients begin with microorganisms, fermentation or naturally occurring biological pathways.^2, 4 The goal is not necessarily to replace nature, but to better understand it and work with it in a more controlled way.

That distinction matters because biotechnology is not really defined by where an ingredient starts.

It is defined by how the ingredient is developed.

Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that biotechnology is not replacing everything that came before it.

Many traditional ingredients have a long history of successful use and continue to play an important role in skincare today.

Biotechnology simply offers another path.

One that may allow ingredients to be developed with greater consistency, improved purity and, in some cases, capabilities that were previously difficult to achieve through traditional methods alone.^1, ,3, 5 

As our understanding of biology continues to evolve, so too does our ability to work with it.

That is why biotechnology continues to attract attention.

Not simply because it changes how ingredients are made, but because it expands what becomes possible in the future. And that continues to absolutely fascinate me.

Three things biotechnology is often assumed to be, and what it actually is:

Why Should We Care How Ingredients Are Made?

Perhaps this is another reason biotechnology resonated with me.

Throughout my career, I have become increasingly interested in doing less but doing it better.

Not adding more ingredients simply because we can. Nor creating increasingly complicated routines simply because the market expects them.

But looking for ingredients that may allow a formulation to work harder without asking more from the person using it.

In many ways, biotechnology aligns with that way of thinking.

The goal is not necessarily more. The goal is better understanding.

Why the making matters to the wearing

For most people, the way an ingredient is developed probably feels far removed from everyday skincare. That is completely understandable.

Most of us are not thinking about manufacturing processes when we apply a serum or cleanser.

What we are thinking about is whether a product feels right on our skin and whether it supports what we are hoping to achieve.

Yet the way an ingredient is created can influence many of the qualities that sit behind that experience.

Consistency. Purity. Availability. And sometimes the ability to create ingredients that would not have existed otherwise.^1, 3, 5  This is one of the reasons biotechnology has become so interesting to scientists and formulators.

The goal is not technology for the sake of technology.

The goal is to better understand biology and use that understanding in ways that may create new opportunities for ingredient development.^1, 2, 5

For consumers, most of this happens quietly in the background.

The important question is rarely whether an ingredient was created through biotechnology.

The more useful question is whether that process allowed something valuable to be created in the first place.

Why I Waited

One of the questions I have been asked is why it took so long to develop ONOURE®.

The simple answer is that I was not looking for another version of what already existed.

I had already seen that for years.

I had worked with thousands of skins. I had watched ingredient trends come and go. I had watched products launch with great excitement only to be replaced by the next thing a few months later.

When I decided to create ONOURE®, I knew I wanted something different.

I wasn't looking for something different simply so I could claim it was different. I genuinely believed there were opportunities we had not yet explored.

Biotechnology was one of the first areas that made me feel I had found that possibility.

Not because every biotechnology-derived ingredient is extraordinary.

But because, for the first time, I felt I was looking beyond the same pool of ingredients that had dominated skincare for decades.

That was worth waiting for.

What Surprised Me Most

Over the years, some of the most important lessons skin taught me were not about ingredients at all.

They were about restraint.

The skin that appeared healthiest was rarely the skin receiving the greatest number of treatments, the longest routine or the most intervention.

More often, it was skin that was being supported consistently and allowed to function as it was designed to.

When I first started learning about biotechnology, I was surprised by how familiar that felt.

The same thinking, arrived at from a different direction

The science was different, but the thinking was not.

It began with understanding biology rather than trying to override it.

In a very different way, biotechnology seemed to begin from a similar place.

Rather than forcing biology to fit a predetermined outcome, it starts by observing biological systems and asking what they may be able to teach us.

That may sound like a subtle distinction. To me, it feels like a very important one.

Because some of the most meaningful advances in skin health have come not from doing more to skin, but from understanding it more deeply.

Looking Ahead

If there is one thing I have learned from skin, it is that biology rarely gives up all its answers at once.

The more we learn, the more we realise there is still left to understand.

I suspect biotechnology will follow a similar path.

Some of today's most interesting ingredients may eventually become commonplace. New ingredients will emerge. New technologies will emerge.

What excites me is not trying to predict exactly where that future leads.

It is knowing that we are still learning. Because every meaningful advance in skincare begins the same way.

Someone asks a better question.

And right now, biotechnology is helping scientists ask questions that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago.^1, 5

Returning to Skin

Writing this has reminded me that biotechnology is not really what interests me most.

Skin is.

Biotechnology simply happens to be one of the more interesting developments I have encountered during my career because it reflects something I have always believed.

The more we understand about biology, the more thoughtful we can become in the way we care for skin.

For all the discussion about technology, innovation and ingredient development, I keep returning to the same idea.

Skin is a living system.

The microbiome is a living system.

The skin barrier is a living system.

And biotechnology itself exists because scientists continue to learn from living systems. That connection feels important to me.

Another way of learning from biology

Not because biotechnology is replacing everything that came before it. Many traditional ingredients continue to play an important role in skincare and will do so for a very long time.

What biotechnology offers is another way of learning from biology and applying that knowledge in ways that were not previously possible.

The more we understand about living systems, whether that is the skin barrier, the microbiome or the biological processes that inspire biotechnology, the more thoughtful we can become in the way we care for skin.

Perhaps that is what excites me most.

Not the technology itself.

But what happens when innovation begins with understanding rather than intervention.

Because healthy skin has never been about doing more.

It has always been about understanding more.

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

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