Her grandmother used kombucha as a face toner. This US-based fermenter does the same today
Inspired by her grandmother, a US-based brewer, chef and culinary instructor has just released a line of kombucha-infused skincare products
While you may be familiar with kombucha’s benefits for your gut, one US-based brewer is determined to show that the drink and its by-products can also make for excellent skincare.
Pennsylvania-based Olga Sorzano, 49, the owner and brewer behind decade-old Baba’s Brew as well as a chef and culinary instructor, has an expansive, multifaceted career – but all her varied interests are united by one thing: fermentation.
“As a chef, I want to feed you, and I have a chef’s approach to the skin as well. My great-grandmother and grandmother didn’t have all these [store-bought] solutions. They had lard, and they would put it on their elbows. And kombucha vinegar on their skin. If they had berries left over from making jam, they’d mix them with yogurt for a face mask.”
Sorzano’s kombucha company generates large amounts of scoby, or the mother culture used as a kombucha starter. “It’s loaded with all these enzymes, and I was thinking, how awesome to use some surplus scoby and turn it into face masks.”