Welcombe, north Devon
The story behind Biotaderm
Or, what happens when a chemist can't quite leave a question alone.
I'm Richard Bence, and I make Biotaderm, all of it. I formulate the products, mix the batches, fill the bottles and answer the emails. It is a small operation in Welcombe, on the north Devon coast bordering Cornwall, and it began with a problem I couldn't stop turning over.
The question I couldn't put down
My son's skin reacted to ordinary high-street products when he was a baby, the kind most people never think twice about. I'm a chemist and biochemist by training, so rather than switching brands I started reading the labels. One question wouldn't leave me alone. How much of what goes into a typical skincare product is doing something for the skin, and how much is just along for the ride?
That is a dangerous question to put to a chemist. You don't stop at "I wonder". You start reading the research.
My own skin has never been the straightforward kind either. I've lived with rosacea, adult acne, a sensitivity to wool, and dermatographia, which brings me up in welts at the lightest scratch. Later, in middle age, came Type 2 diabetes after a bout of pancreatitis, and Raynaud's. Both affect circulation, and both made me take looking after my skin more seriously still. A moisturiser is not an answer to any of those, and I would never pretend otherwise. What living with all that teaches you is that good skincare is mostly about comfort, and that the gentle, unshowy version is usually the one that gets you through the day.
Six years in the literature
Label-reading turned into a standing habit and rolling eyes in the family. I spent well over six years reading the research on the human microbiome, the community of microbes that lives on us and in us. I started with the gut and worked my way to the skin, the more overlooked of the two.
The skin microbiome matters to skin health, and it is still being mapped. On the evidence so far, the best way to support it is gently: a product that is slightly acidic (pH 5 to 5.5), close to the pH of healthy skin, with nothing in it that strips, rather than the miracle compound of the month. Biotaderm is built on that.
What I made
Fifteen moisturisers, which sounds like a lot until you see the shape of it: three textures across five skin types. Flow is the lightest, for the face. Core is the most versatile, for anywhere on the body. Deep is the richest, for hands, elbows and feet. The difference between them is how much cold-pressed organic and plant oil each one carries.
Three principles determine the ingredients.
Nature, which means natural, organic and naturally derived ingredients. We only use synthetic ingredients when they are the same as their natural counterparts and it is more environmentally sensible to do so.
Science, which means ingredients chosen on published research. I read the published research on an ingredient before choosing it.
Ethics, which means recyclable aluminium bottles, a pump you keep, and B Corp certification I am working towards slowly and properly. Everything is vegan, and nothing is tested on animals, other than me.
Everything on the label
I publish the full formulation of every product. Every ingredient, and the amount, down to fractions of a percent. You can read the whole formulation before you buy and check it against whatever your skin doesn't get along with.
There is no synthetic fragrance in anything I make, and nothing hides behind "parfum" or "fragrance" on a label. The range has one essential oil, vetiver, at a tenth of a percent, named on every label like everything else.
How the evidence gets handled
I review published research. I don't run studies, so the copy on this site credits the researchers, and it makes no clinical claims.
Every ingredient has its own page, setting out what it does, how strong the evidence is, and the references behind it. My reasoning is there to be checked.
If you email, I read it and I reply.
The coast
Biotaderm is made in Welcombe, a small village right on the line where Devon meets Cornwall, with the Atlantic just below it. The coast shapes how the brand looks and feels, and it shows up in one ingredient.
Bladderwrack is the same Atlantic seaweed that grows on the rocks below the village. You will have stepped over it. Ours reaches us as a cold oil infusion of that same species, made in the UK without heat or solvents. So the link to the coast is the species itself.
Give anything you order two weeks. If it is not right, swap it or send it back within 60 days, and we pay the postage.
Our Opening Offer
Order before 15 November 2026 and you get 10% off that order and every order after it until the end of November 2027. It comes off at checkout, with no code needed.
Stay in touch
I'm writing a series of articles on skin and microbiome research, and what it means for everyday health. Join the email list to read them first.
Skincare shelves are full of products promising to fix you by Friday. I wasn't interested in making another one. I wanted to make something careful and good for skin and the microbiome it carries, and then to tell you exactly what's in it. Support, not control.
Care for your skin and microbiome, formed in nature, led by science, guided by ethics.
Richard