There's a question I come back to a lot in my work: where does skincare actually begin?
After years of treating skin from the outside: the right actives, the right protocols, the right layering, I've become increasingly convinced that the most lasting results come from what we do at a deeper level. Not instead of topical care, but alongside it. The gut, the circulation, the mineral balance, the cell's own repair mechanisms, these are the foundations that our serums and treatments build on.
That's why I've curated a new category for theFaceFace: Inner Care. And the brand I'm starting with is Plamine.
About Plamine
Plamine is a Tokyo-based brand launched in 2018 by Hanbrer Co., Ltd. - the same company behind the Clione professional devices used in beauty clinics across Japan. The name is a compression of PLAnts + MINErals, which gives you an immediate sense of the brand's philosophy: gentle but not weak, botanical and mineral in origin, balanced for long-term daily use.
What drew me to Plamine isn't just the ingredient science (though I'll get into that) it's the underlying idea that skincare needs to adapt to the body's changing environment, not stay static. Skin in summer isn't the same skin as in winter. A body under stress behaves differently from a rested one. Good inner care responds to that variability in a way topical products simply can't reach.
The Core Care line consists of three ingestible supplements. They work well individually and even better together. Here's what each one does.
MINAMOTO Mineral Recharge
Watermelon vinegar flavour · Liquid sachets · 1–2 per day, best taken after dinner
MINAMOTO ("source of a river or stream") is a daily mineral supplement built around one very unusual ingredient: MCM, or Marine Crystal Mineral.
MCM is a crystalline extract of seawater, developed over decades of research by Professor Takeshi Ogura - a process that involved sourcing water from the mineral-rich coastal waters off Hitachinaka, Japan, and refining it through ionisation and chelation to remove salt, toxins and heavy metals while preserving over 100 naturally occurring minerals. The resulting crystal has a mineral profile that closely mirrors human blood and amniotic fluid, and because of its ionised, chelated form, it dissolves and absorbs at a rate dramatically faster than standard mineral supplements.
The second key ingredient is Kalahari watermelon juice - a wild variety from the African Kalahari desert, known for its exceptional citrulline content and antioxidant stability (it remains active for up to three years after harvest). Citrulline supports healthy blood vessel dilation and circulation, which in turn means the minerals in MINAMOTO reach cells more effectively.
What it supports:
- Replenishment of over 100 essential minerals
- Post-exercise recovery and reduced sensitivity to cold
- Better sleep quality and stress resilience
- Liver, kidney and immune function
- Skin health via improved cellular circulation
It has a pleasant, slightly tart watermelon vinegar taste. I take it mixed into still or sparkling water after dinner.
IKIIKI Gut Health & Daily Vitality
Yogurt flavour · Powder sachets · 1–2 per day, best taken after dinner
IKIIKI ("lively, full of life") is the most technically sophisticated formula in the Core Care line and one of the most thoughtfully constructed gut supplements I've come across.
Most gut products focus on either probiotics (beneficial bacteria, as in yogurt) or prebiotics (the fibre and oligosaccharides that feed them). The challenge: standard probiotic strains are often destroyed by stomach acid before reaching the intestine, and prebiotics alone can't directly increase beneficial bacteria populations.
IKIIKI combines all three elements in a single formula:
Probiotics: 21 strains of beneficial bacteria (16 lactic acid bacteria + 5 bifidobacteria), approximately 5 billion bacteria per sachet.
Prebiotics: dietary fibre and oligosaccharides derived from certified organic Japanese soy (triple-certified: JONA, USDA Organic, EU Organic standard).
Postbiotics / Biogenics: short-chain fatty acids and other bacterial metabolites, which can act directly on the intestinal environment without needing to survive digestion first.
The three are combined through a patented multi-stage fermentation process called BG-21: the 21 bacterial strains are first cultivated individually, then progressively combined in a soy milk medium, with temperature and pH carefully controlled at each stage. The result is over 517 documented nutritional components: amino acids, vitamins, polyphenols, peptides, nucleic acids within a single sachet.
The gut-skin connection is well established: a balanced intestinal microbiome supports skin clarity, barrier function, and inflammation regulation. It also supports sleep quality, mental clarity, and immune resilience. For best results, 3–6 months of consistent use is recommended.
It has a mild, gentle yogurt flavour. My preferred way to take it: stirred into Greek yogurt after dinner.
TSUYA & SARA Skin Radiance & Hair Vitality
Bitter cocoa flavour · Powder sachets · 1–2 per day, best taken after dinner
TSUYA & SARA (Japanese for "lustrous and smooth") is the formula I recommend most often to clients who are noticing changes in both their skin and their hair, because it addresses a root cause that's often overlooked: glycation.
Glycation happens when excess sugar in the body binds to proteins like collagen, forming compounds called AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products). Over time, AGEs accumulate in skin tissue and hair follicles, stiffening collagen fibres, dulling skin tone, reducing elasticity, and weakening hair structure. It's a quiet, gradual process and one that no topical formula can fully address from the outside.
TSUYA & SARA works through two patented active ingredients:
Mangosteen Aqua: a water-soluble extract of mangosteen fruit, with two separate patents covering its anti-glycation action and its stimulation of fibroblast proliferation. Fibroblasts are the cells responsible for producing collagen and hyaluronic acid in the dermis. In clinical studies, Mangosteen Aqua was shown to measurably reduce AGE accumulation in skin while improving elasticity and moisture levels over 8 weeks of use.
HGP (Hair Growth Peptide): derived from egg yolk protein through a peptide engineering process. HGP stimulates VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) production, which supports the formation of healthy blood vessels around hair follicles, improving nutrient delivery to the root. In a 24-week clinical study of 70 women with thinning hair, 57% of those taking HGP showed measurable improvement in hair density versus 14% in the placebo group.
For skin, it supports:
- Protection of collagen from glycation damage
- More even, luminous skin tone
- Improved elasticity and moisture retention
- Stronger skin barrier function
For hair, it supports:
- Healthy hair growth cycle
- Stronger, thicker strands
- Healthier scalp environment
- Reduced hair thinning over time
The bitter cocoa flavour pairs well with vanilla ice cream or dissolved in warm water. A small pleasure that also happens to be addressing glycation which feels right.
How to Take Them Together
All three supplements are designed to work synergistically, and can be taken together after dinner. Evening is the recommended window because it's when the intestine is most receptive (15–19 hours after waking), and night is when both gut repair and skin regeneration are most active.
A practical starting sequence:
Month 1-2: Begin with IKIIKI to establish gut health as a foundation. A balanced gut improves the absorption and effectiveness of everything else.
Month 2-3: Add MINAMOTO to support mineral balance, circulation, and the cellular environment that other supplements work within.
Month 3 onwards: Introduce TSUYA & SARA for sustained skin and hair results, which build steadily over 3-6 months.
All three are manufactured under GMP certification (Japan's Good Manufacturing Practice standard) with full Certificate of Analysis documentation for each batch.
A Note on Expectations
Inner care doesn't work like a serum. There's no instant feedback. The results are cumulative, quieter, more structural, the kind you notice after three months when your skin holds moisture differently, or your hair feels less like it's thinning at the temples.
This is exactly why I believe in it. The most meaningful changes in skin I've seen in clients and in myself haven't come from the most dramatic treatments. They've come from consistency with the fundamentals, maintained over time.
These supplements fit that philosophy completely.
As always, if you'd like guidance on which formula is right for where you are right now, I'm available for consultations in person in Berlin or online. Just reach out.
Tatiana
