For years, there has been a common perception in Malaysia that local skincare brands cannot quite compete with international names. Imported products are often seen as the safer choice, while homegrown brands have had to work harder to earn their place on the same shelf.
Our founder, Julius Lim, decided to take on that challenge.
Today, B&B Labs has made its way onto the derma skincare shelf, a space that once felt difficult for a Malaysian skincare brand to enter. For us, the achievement is less about proving anyone wrong and more about showing what a local brand can do when it puts research, formulation and product quality first.
It is also a reminder that innovation does not have to come from somewhere else.
From Familiar Malaysian Fruits to Skincare
When people hear durian and mangosteen, skincare probably is not the first thing that comes to mind. They are fruits we know from our own tables, pasar malam visits and childhood memories. At B&B Labs, we started looking at them from another angle: what could these familiar Malaysian fruits contribute to skincare?
That question led us to explore their extracts as part of our formulations.
Durian and mangosteen are rich in naturally occurring compounds, including antioxidants. We wanted to bring these familiar ingredients into a modern skincare formula rather than simply use them because they are recognisably Malaysian.
This is where E-Cology Plus+™ comes in.
The complex combines natural prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics with ingredients including durian, mangosteen, aloe vera and hyaluronic acid. The idea is to bring together microbiome-focused care with ingredients that support hydration and overall skin comfort.
And if you are wondering about the durian smell, there is no need to worry. The finished skincare does not smell like the durian you would find at a fruit stall.
What Is E-Cology Plus+™?
The skin is home to its own microbiome, a community of microorganisms that naturally lives on its surface. Keeping this ecosystem balanced is an important part of maintaining healthy-looking skin.
Prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics are commonly discussed in relation to the microbiome, and each has a different role. Rather than treating the skin as something that simply needs to be stripped clean, a microbiome-focused approach considers the relationship between the skin and the microorganisms that naturally live on it.
E-Cology Plus+™ was developed around this idea. Alongside its microbiome-focused ingredients, the complex is fortified with durian, mangosteen, aloe vera and hyaluronic acid to provide additional botanical and hydrating benefits.
The complex has also been tested and verified by Qima Life Sciences in France, providing independent verification of the formulation and its testing standards.
For B&B Labs, the work is not simply about putting local fruit into a skincare bottle. It is about understanding the ingredients, finding where they fit within a formulation and developing products that can stand on their own.
A Malaysian Story in Modern Skincare
Merdeka is a time to look at what makes Malaysia, Malaysia. Our food, culture and familiar ingredients are all part of that story.
For B&B Labs, durian and mangosteen offer a different way to tell it.
They are ingredients that Malaysians already know, but their potential does not have to stop at the dining table. Through formulation science, they can become part of a skincare product designed around a very different purpose.
That is what E-Cology Plus+™ represents to us: a meeting point between familiar Malaysian ingredients and modern skincare development.
Being a Malaysian brand does not mean choosing local ingredients simply for the sake of being local. It means asking what these ingredients can actually bring to a formula, researching how they can be used and creating products that people can judge by their formulation and performance.
Our journey onto the derma skincare shelf is one small part of that story.
From Malaysia, with care. 🇲🇾