I’m not big into shower gels. I’ve never gotten their value and I’ve always preferred soaps to rub & scrub my body. And from soaps, I prefer non commercial soap, so back home I’m always looking for artisanal markets to stock up on soaps made with different ingredients, etc.
Still I bought a shower gel. I bought what seems to me to be, THE SHOWER GEL. The Sanex ‘Natural Prebiotic’ Shower Gel, promising 12 hours of hydration and effective for all skin types. OK then.
But why is it THE SHOWER GEL? Well because it has natural prebiotics! I’m still riding the microbiome train, looking for products promising to aid the microbiota of the skin, made with pre/pro/post and promising nourishment, regeneration with results. I was looking for articles on the subject and came across this one titled “Multi-omic approach to decipher the impact of skincare products with pre/postbiotics on skin microbiome and metabolome”. Interesting.
(Now, I want to preface that I’m not a scientist, I have great respect for scientists and have no science related background. I just read these articles because they interest me, and anything that I don’t fully get I search online or ask ChatGPT to get it in simpler concepts. I’m not going to Deep Dive these articles, but I share them and summarize some of the main points so I (and you!) can understand what they are about in relation to what I’m talking about.)
Anywho, I was interested and read further. The study, aimed to understand the benefit that prebiotic or post-biotic products have on human skin over a period of time, was carried out over 6 weeks on 53 females subjects of all ages. Their skin was classified from dry to extremely dry. They were divided into two groups where one had to use a shower gel and body lotion with pre/probiotics and the other the products without it. The prebiotic of choice is Inulin. I haven’t heard of it either.
Inulin is a type of prebiotic I was happy to find out it’s usually found in bananas, because it’s my favorite fruit!, and in yogurt and onions, because I tend to eat them frequently as well. So apparently when ingested, Inulin is not absorbed in the stomach, but sits there and aids in the growth of beneficial bacteria (I got this info from WebMD). Well, apparently, after years of R&D, this shower gel was produced, with the premise that it’s also capable of enriching the skin microbiome topically. In the shower gel Inulin appears as the sixth ingredient.
Inulin also has a slew of benefits, according to the review paper “Inulin: properties and health benefits” such as “regulating lipid metabolism, weight loss, lowering blood sugar, inhibiting the expression of inflammatory factors, reducing the risk of colon cancer, enhancing mineral absorption, improving constipation, and relieving depression” (Qin et al., 2023).
I didn’t get the body lotion they used in the study, just the shower gel. Frankly, I forgot about it and only focused on the shower gel, although I’d like to try the lotion sometime. The Shower Gel I found in a Franprix close to where I live. I put my soap on hold and began to use it.
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It’s been around two months since I started using this shower gel- cannot see any difference. But it’s understandable. I’ve never used shower products to clear up any blemishes or dryness. Do I even have enough dryness in my skin to see a visible change? I don’t think so, I constantly moisturize, but I don’t have any way to measure the hydration of my skin. The study did not say any particularities on applying the shower gel, so I just lathered what i should was a sufficient amount and scrubbed on my body.
On the more superficial aspects, the product is soothing, light to the touch and very enjoyable. I tend to use a silicon brush when I shower and using the Sanex shower gel with my brush definitely enhanced my showers. I feel I’m more efficiently spreading the gel throughout my body, and it even makes it last longer. I think. And it has a nice really pleasant smell, damn it. I’m usually very opposed to any product containing fragrance for ethical reasons and because I rarely like them, but this formulated fragrance is…good. Light and refreshing, soapy, but not too much.
I guess this gel must be working in some measure. The Sanex “Natural Prebiotic’ is part of a 17 line of shower gels, bath foam and deodorants, certified by the British Skin Foundation. These products are the result of a 5 year research funded by the Colgate-Palmolive which, important to note, also funded the study. The line was introduced first in several european countries, including the England, of course. To this date, it has not debuted in physical retailers in the United States. But it’s there online.
Would I buy again? Probably not. I still prefer using soaps as I’m just not the consumer for this type of product. And I’m not sure if it’s worth using it to hydrate my skin anymore than it already it. I wouldn’t dissuade people from buying it. It’s enjoyable, feels great to the touch and it may help anyone with very parched skin. I’d love to know if someone else has tried it and actually seen changes to their skin.
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