When my youngest daughter was three, she was given antibiotics for what appeared to be an ear infection — but wasn’t.
Instead of improving, an aggressive rash spread across the side of her face, down her neck, and across her chest. She was prescribed more antibiotics. Then stronger ones.
Months passed in a blur of skin specialists, worry, and fear about what was happening to her.
One morning I woke with a simple thought: We had been trying to purge and almost sterilize her skin. But what if the answer was to add something instead?
That shift in perspective would eventually become the beginning of Lapoem.
I opened a probiotic capsule, mixed it with water, and gently patted it onto her skin. Almost immediately, some of the redness and inflammation began to recede. It was the first real progress we had seen in months, so we kept going. And this was the beginning step in her skin healing.
It turned out she never had an ear infection at all — perhaps only a small scrape or cut. But the antibiotics had disrupted the natural balance of her skin, allowing a fungal overgrowth to take hold.
In the years since, science has learned much more about the living systems on our skin and the role they play. We now understand that skin is an ecosystem, and each of us is an entire world to the unseen life that lives upon its surface. When this delicate balance is supported, skin stays hydrated, vibrant, resilient, and healthy.
But when we overwash, or disrupt the balance, we jeopardize those benefits.
That squeaky-clean feeling is often a sign that protective oils have been stripped away. Even gentle foaming cleansers can raise the skin’s pH and weaken the lipid barrier, leading to dehydration and, over time, loss of firmness. Harsh scrubs create tiny tears in the surface of the skin, opening pathways for irritation and infection.
The good news is that we can get it all back.
Lapoem was born from the decision to leave behind the old myths of astringency, scrubbing, and purging, and the strange zero-sum game in which we damage our skin in order to control it.
Instead, we choose to work with the intelligence already present.
Your skin has what it needs.
This is simply an invitation to trust it again — with the support of science, patience, and care.
May all beings be happy. Including the smallest of all.
Linda Woods
Whitefish, Montana