Every few years, a skin-care ingredient you’ve heard little to nothing about becomes the “It” ingredient, the one which suddenly seems indispensable in any skin-care routine because everyone has apparently had a collective epiphany about its advantages. In recent times, hyaluronic acid and niacinamide had major moments that started off as a vocabulary lesson, escalated to a phase of buzziness, and evolved to long-term-staple status in our drugs cabinet. The most recent to emerge from obscurity to importance is (drumroll, please) ectoin.

We couldn’t help but notice how much ectoin has been touted currently because the must-have lively ingredient in skin-care products. Even though it’s been floating around within the consciousness of the chemistry community for a long time, quite a few beauty brands have only recently launched formulas that proudly call out its presence of their marketing materials. So why the seemingly sudden proliferation of ectoin and what’s it?

We spoke to dermatologists and a cosmetic chemist to learn all we will about this trendy — and potentially game-changing — ingredient.

Meet the experts:

• Marisa GarshickMD, is a board-certified dermatologist in Latest York City.
• Aanand GeriaMD, is a board-certified dermatologist in Latest Jersey.
• Shereene IdrissMD, is a board-certified dermatologist in Latest York City.
• Krupa Koestline is a cosmetic chemist and founding father of KKT Consultants.

What’s ectoin?

Should you consider yourself to be ingredient-literate in the sweetness space, you’ve surely develop into acquainted with amino acids to some extent. Beloved peptides, for instance, are short chains of amino acids. Ectoin, discovered in 1985, falls into this category. It’s an amino acid found inside and derived from several forms of bacteria, but don’t be delay by the word “bacteria.” On this case, it’s actually a excellent thing.

Specifically, says board-certified dermatologist Shereene IdrissMD, “It’s an extremolyte, which is extracted from extremophilic microorganisms. Extremolytes help protect cellular integrity in extreme weather conditions.”

Those extreme conditions, in accordance with cosmetic chemist Krupa Koestlineinclude salinity, pH, drought, temperature, and irradiation. “Ectoin is a comparatively small molecule that readily binds to water molecules to create complexes,” Koestline says. “These complexes then surround cells, enzymes, proteins, and other biomolecules by forming protective, nourishing, and stabilizing hydration shells around them.”