Instead of scrubbing down in the shower each morning or after a sweaty bike ride, I spritzed myself with "live probiotic spray for the skin," a dose of bacteria that's supposed to feed on the ammonia in sweat and neutralize the smell. I got rid of my deodorant, too.

It was an interesting couple of weeks. I had some good hair days. I also smelled bad sometimes. At one point, I got puked on, and put this theory of cleanliness to its ultimate test.

If you ask people who work at Mother Dirt, the Boston-based company that manufactures live bacteria products for the skin, treatments like this are the future of skincare. David Whitlock, the chemist behind it, hasn't showered in 13 years.