27-05-2025
The pleasing whiff of good bugs - where microbiology and perfumes meet
For someone who has been battling bad bugs for his entire professional life, life has produced an interesting deviation for Abdul Ghafur, infectious diseases expert. He has now begun engaging with the good bugs too, in particular looking at the skin microbiome to see what perfume is right for you.
That's right. The perfume type has to be at ease with your skin microbiome, for it to actually work. Otherwise, multiple applications and overexposure to the chemicals in the perfumes might turn sour, at the least, and at the extreme, even turn harmful for humans.
Microbiome bugs and perfume chemistry
'We think of bugs as being all 'bad', but that is not true at all. About 99.999 % of bugs are either neutral or good for us. It's only 0.001 % of bugs that are 'bad', rather, disease causing,' Dr. Ghafur hastens to clarify. While his profession hitherto has set him up arms akimbo, against the disease-causing critters, his passion has more recently set him on the side of the good ones!
'I am a connoisseur of perfume. And I've always wondered why some perfumes work for some people, but not for others. No two people have the same skin microbiome, and that's why a perfume that smells divine on one person may not work the same on another. The secret lies not just in the perfume, but in how your skin's bacteria interact with its ingredients,' he explains. If a certain perfume does not work, 'people just keep changing their brands frequently, or they think they have to apply more, spray liberally, or use the perfume multiple times. All of which cannot be good, because these perfumes are essentially a cocktail of chemicals that can impact the skin, cardiac health and may also be carconigenic,' he adds.
That is what led him to studying what determines why perfumes work or not. 'It's skin chemistry, basically. The human skin is home to millions of bacteria that control the pH level, dryness, oil content etc. And we have plenty of data on these skin microbiome,' he explains. Sweat itself has no odour, it's just salt and water, it is the skin bacteria that lend the smell to sweat.
Key players in body odour
As far as body odour goes, there are three key groups of enabler bugs: Propionibacterium acnes that is found in areas with the lubricating sebaceous glands (face, back, chest, arm pit, groin), they contribute to a stronger body odour with a musky smell. The second is Micrococcus, which is found on various parts of the body, and its main role is to convert the sweat into ammonia and sulfur compounds, giving body odour a stronger and sharper scent. Finally, there is the Lactobacillus, which is found in the face, scalp, armpits, and groin. While it does not significantly contribute to body odour, instead does the opposite - helps prevent overgrowth of odour-producing bacteria.
The concentration of skin microbiome is influenced by food, the enviroment and weather changes, but the percentage composition of the main bacterial group remains the same for an individual for a long while. There are specifications on where certain types could be used, for instance, floral notes should be used on the wrist, which is a dru area, musky scents on the neck, which is comparitively moist.
Integrating skin microbiome analysis into fragrance science
There is a lot of information available about the skin microbiome from a health perspective, but literally none of that has been adopted by the fragrance industry. 'But we have information, so we need to extrapolate our insights and findings to understand the personalisation of perfumes for individuals,' Dr. Gafur says.
He has now taken up skin micobiome metagenomic testing for other connoisseurs of perfumes. 'We are not recommending testing for everyone. There is no viable business model for routine, expensive metagenomic testing before choosing a perfume. Our goal is to share valuable insights from microbiome and VOC ( Volatile Organic Compound) research and how they can be applied conceptually to fragrance use,' he says. Some people do spend lakhs on perfumes, and knowing what works for them will be helpful.
All they need is a gentle skin swab—rubbing a cotton bud softly on the skin, and this swab is then used for skin microbiome metagenomic analysis to identify the unique bacterial profile of your skin. Recent consumer surveys, he adds, have shown an increased interest in safe and microbiome-friendly products. 'Several deodorants are already microbiome friendly, but that kind of orientation for perfumes is missing. We must remember, if deodorants are a song, them perfume is like a symphony,' Dr. Ghafur says. Clearly, we need to take care of the symphony as well.
