Bisabolol in Skincare: A Chamomile Compound That May Calm Skin

When researchers took a second look at a study of people with eczema, they found that a cream with just bisabolol added left skin with less redness and fewer scratch marks than the same cream without it.⁶ Bisabolol is a compound from German chamomile, one of several active compounds in the oil from its flowers, and skincare uses it for its soothing potential.^{1, 2}

Calming irritated skin is bisabolol's main promise, with that eczema result in people and supporting work in mice and lab cells. A small study suggests it may also lighten darker patches, and early work in older mice hints that it could help skin lose less water.

How bisabolol may calm skin

If your skin flares up red and itchy, bisabolol may help settle it. The clearest sign in people comes from the eczema study, which tested a cream pairing bisabolol with another active ingredient. The pair eased itching and other eczema symptoms more than either ingredient alone or the plain cream.³ When researchers went back over the results, bisabolol on its own also shrank the area of inflamed skin more than the plain cream did. It didn't clearly change the other symptoms measured.⁶

The redness and itch come from inflammation, which some immune cells keep going by releasing signals such as histamine. Think of the signals as an alarm the cells keep ringing. In immune cells from mice, bisabolol cut the release of histamine and another inflammation signal, and it slowed some of the steps inside the cells that switch the response on.² In other words, it turned the alarm down.

The same researchers then put bisabolol on the skin of mice with an eczema-like rash. The rash was milder and the skin less thickened, and fewer of the immune cells gathered there and switched on, though one allergy-linked antibody they measured didn't drop.²

How bisabolol may even out skin tone

Bisabolol may also help fade darker patches, the excess pigment that makes some areas of skin darker than others. In a small study, a bisabolol cream lightened skin by measurement in most of the people who used it, compared with the same cream without bisabolol.⁵ If your skin tone is uneven, that's an encouraging start for an ingredient whose main promise is calming.

Bisabolol in a soothing blend

Bisabolol may also work well alongside other soothing ingredients. In a lab study, researchers tested it in a blend with three others on human skin cells exposed to UVB, a type of ultraviolet light. Cells treated with the blend released fewer inflammation signals, and less superoxide, a reactive form of oxygen, built up inside them.⁴

The blend also neutralized more free radicals, unstable molecules that can damage cells, than its four ingredients did when each was tested alone and the results were added up.⁴ Here the old line about the whole being more than the sum of its parts was literally measured.

Bisabolol and older skin

Bisabolol may help older skin hold on to water. In older mice, a weaker bisabolol gel reduced the water lost through the skin, improved a measure of the skin's barrier and left the outer layer thicker. A stronger gel didn't change water loss, but it raised the amount of collagen in the skin.⁷ So the amount changed which benefit showed up.

Why bisabolol is worth a look

In people, bisabolol has eased redness and scratch marks in eczema, and in a small study it lightened skin by measurement for most of the people who used it. In lab cells and mice, it turned down the signals that keep inflammation going, joined a blend that did better than its parts, and helped older skin lose less water. That's a lot of promise for one compound from a chamomile flower, even if much of it is still early.

Bisabolol in Omnia

Omnia pairs bisabolol with bakuchiol and oil-soluble vitamin C, which were chosen with smoother-looking, more even-looking skin in mind, and bisabolol is there as their calming partner. It's added on its own, so its amount could be chosen directly, with skin comfort as the goal. Squalane and jojoba esters soften and smooth the skin's surface, and the lipid base is designed to help skin hold moisture.

Related reading: How lipid moisturizers help skin hold moisture.

Sources

1. Johnson W, et al. Amended Safety Assessment of Chamomilla recutita-Derived Ingredients as Used in Cosmetics. International Journal of Toxicology, 2018.
2. Li G, et al. (-)-α-Bisabolol Alleviates Atopic Dermatitis by Inhibiting MAPK and NF-κB Signaling in Mast Cell. Molecules, 2022.
3. Arenberger P, et al. Effect of topical heparin and levomenol on atopic dermatitis: a randomized four-arm, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical study. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 2011.
4. Tan C, et al. The combination of allantoin, bisabolol, D-panthenol and dipotassium glycyrrhizinate mitigates UVB-induced PGE2 synthesis by keratinocytes. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2024.
5. Lee J, et al. Whitening effect of α-bisabolol in Asian women subjects. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2010.
6. Hladíková M, Schmidt M. Combination of Topical Heparin and Levomenol in the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis: A SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) Analysis. Dermato, 2024.
7. He M, et al. (-)-α-Bisabolol inhibits D-Gal-induced HSF cellular senescence in vitro and prevents skin aging in vivo by reducing SASP. Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, 2024.