Innovator: Alison Cutlan

SKIN IN THE GAME

A biologist creates a clean skincare line near an unlikely— and notorious—NYC spot.

by Noemi Florea

NEW YORK HAS ALWAYS SERVED as a breeding ground for innovation, spurred on by the challenges its imaginative residents face daily. So it’s not surprising that Alison Cutlan and Grace Fooden, a dream-team duo with experience in science, art, beauty, and business, would choose the City as the launching ground for Biophile, a skincare line merging sensitive, sustainable formulations with high standards in skin treatment and compatibility. Yet it’s Cutlan’s inspiration— the highly-polluted, much-maligned Gowanus Canal, a superfund site near the company’s lab — that makes their ethos special. As Cutlan describes, Gowanus, Brooklyn is “inspiring because it’s a reminder of the negative impact that industry has on our environment, on our communities. It’s all linked— these things have a cost, and you can see it.”

Biophile first launched in late 2019, following three years of product development on top of Cutlan’s twenty years of experience in the skincare industry. As her “vision for a new type of skincare,” Biophile is grounded in natural, clean, “science-forward” formulas stemming from research conducted on the human microbiome and its effects on skin barriers. The scientific understanding that emerged from such research represents “a huge paradigm shift in skincare and health in general,” Cutlan states, emphasizing the need “to create in synergy with our own nature, our own biology, in a cleaner way.” By synthesizing product formulations with a highly nuanced understanding of skin-level systems, Biophile’s mission is to “create a new generation of skincare using biology,” and in a way that stands to benefit humans and the environment.

Using a two-step process of fermentation and bioactivity, all Biophile products are produced sustainably, in ways that use little to no energy throughout production. Furthermore, creating skincare out of microbial fermentation is proven to enhance skin compatibility, penetration, and safety while incorporating enough micronutrients, vitamins, and enzymes to make their skincare products a “superfood for the skin,” as Cutlan calls it. “Fermentation can transform ingredients to speak the skin’s language,” she says, adding, “our fermentation broths have a nourishing and positive balancing effect on the microbiome, one that affects the health of the skin.” The Biophile line is also certified microbiome-friendly, with organic ingredients that are sourced responsibly. “We’ve really worked hard at creating a sustainable system even within the bottle,” Cutlan states. The Biophile team is proud to be deeply connected to the community where they are based. As a biologist who spends a lot of time in a neighborhood with a deep history of environmental injustice, Cutlan believes her capacity for positive impact will play a strong role in rejuvenating Gowanus Canal and restoring the locality to its livable strength. In fact, she sees microbes playing a fundamental role in pollution cleanup, with their powerful ability to convert hydrocarbon into more benign matter. Describing microbes as “an invisible force of nature that has been there from the beginning of time,” she connects their role to the Gowanus by calling them “the recyclers in nature: they turn things over, and they also remediate.” Moving forward, Biophile plans to invest heavily in their resident neighborhood and collaborate with local partners, while throughout the pandemic the company prioritized donating monthly to organizations like One Tree Planted and Girls in STEM. To support their work and learn more about the Biophile skincare line, visit biophileskin.com. DT