If ELLE’s beauty editors had the ability to read tea leaves, we’d hope to see a few things—at the very least, a world in which everyone felt seen and heard, and for products to never leak in a suitcase. But to get a real idea of what’s to come, we talked to experts to learn about the innovations in skin, hair, and body care that we are most excited about.
Better Skin Through…Salmon?
Think back to a moisturizer that you pinned your beauty hopes and dreams on. Now consider that the secret to actually achieving those aspirations may be to inject salmon DNA—in the form of polynucleotides—into your face.
Perhaps you’ve already clicked on a TikTok headline about someone (most likely Kim Kardashian, one of the most intrepid beauty adventurers of our time), using salmon sperm for beauty. Harnessing DNA research dating from the 1980s, salmon polynucleotides, or DNA fragments, are purified and injected to help stimulate the production of collagen—the protein that gives skin its youthfulness. Injectable polynucleotides, including brands like Plinest, Ameela, and Rejuran, aren’t yet FDA- approved (topical versions are permitted), but are available overseas, including in the U.K. and South Korea.
At the Soni Clinic in London, they’re now the second most popular injectable treatment after Botox. “Americans [fly] over for these treatments. I see several a week now,” says plastic surgeon Ashwin Soni, MBBS, founder and owner of the clinic. Phoebe McDowell, the Beauty and Interiors Director at the Style magazine of The Sunday Times in London, confirms that polynucleotides are the new, buzzy thing in the U.K.: “If I could get one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this. It’s a graceful, sensible treatment to commit to and one that won’t cause me any regret later on in life.” New York dermatologist David Kim, MD, who travels to South Korea to learn about new treatments, says that polynucleotides have multiple benefits: “[They] have been shown to have a lot of anti-inflammatory, antiaging effects. It helps with collagen synthesis and tissue regeneration, and it adds hydration to your skin.”
Because polynucleotides don’t add volume like filler or freeze muscles like Botox, dermatologists say there isn’t much danger of overdoing things. “The risk of you looking crazy is very little to none,” Kim says. “You look glowier and radiant without changing the way you look.” The results can last up to six or seven months, too.
If you’re wondering why salmon in particular may be the future of skin care, it’s in the genes, Soni explains. “Wild salmon are constantly changing, and adapting to a changing environment in the ocean,” he says. “When you look at the number of genes in the helix, [we are] really quite similar.”
There are many collagen-stimulating beauty treatments that focus on the different kinds of collagen in your body. Sculptra, for instance, targets Type I collagen, which is the supportive and structural kind. Polynucleotides look extremely natural because they stimulate Type I as well as Type III, which sits in the superficial top layers. The under-eye area is notoriously hard to treat in aesthetics, but Sam Bunting, MBBS, a dermatologist based in London, loves how polynucleotides look there. “You can use [it] to tackle the early changes around the eyes in a way that looks entirely natural, with very little downtime. [It] was the missing link in our tool kit until now.” McDowell adds: “The results creep up on you, terrifically subtly. I often roll my eyes when beauty pieces roll out that classic line: ‘And people were just saying you look really well.’ But people were just saying that I looked really rested and healthy, like I had a holiday and swerved off booze. I looked more radiant and firm, fresh, and youthful looking.”
Some American doctors are holding out for stronger science, along with the FDA nod. Gabriel Chiu, DO, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, says, “I’m just wondering if it’s as efficacious as using another filler or product,” such as PRP (platelet-rich plasma); he’d love to see comparative studies. Although not focused on PRP, a small study done in South Korea and published in April 2020 in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment tested polynucleotides versus filler in a randomized, double-blind trial. Participants had one half of their eye area injected with standard hyaluronic acid filler, and the other with a polynucleotide filler. In the results, the polynucleotide-treated sections showed higher improvement rates in elasticity, pore size, and hydration, although there was no significant difference between the two in the “global aesthetic improvement scale,” the study reported. Lara Devgan, MD, a plastic surgeon in New York and a member of the ELLE Beauty Advisory Board, adds a further note of caution. “I’ve seen news reports of med spas ordering salmon-derived DNA products…and injecting them in people. This is interesting as a talking point, but don’t do this. It’s very early. You never want to have that experiment happen on your face or body.” It’s up to you if you want to fish for compliments.
The Dream of Regrowing Hair
Thick, luscious, shampoo-commercial-worthy hair is like talent: You’re either born with it or you’re not. But some doctors think they might have found their Miracle-Gro: exosomes. These vesicles are produced by cells and are chock-full of lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids that help your body run as efficiently as possible. In aesthetics, exosomes have been touted for everything from wound healing to skin rejuvenation, and they’re often derived from stem cells. Now exosomes might hold the key to something that’s always felt just out of reach: reversing hair loss.
Aside from a hair transplant, PRP (platelet- rich plasma) injections have been a go-to hair loss treatment for years. “PRP has growth factors and signaling proteins to stimulate hair growth. Exosomes are actually [even] more concentrated than PRP,” Chiu says. One of Chiu’s patients switched from PRP to exosome therapy and claimed to see nearly five to six times more improvement in both hair growth and density.
For hair growth, some dermatologists inject exosomes into the scalp or apply them after microneedling, which creates small channels that allow for more even distribution. (Note that exosomes aren’t yet FDA-approved, despite early enthusiasm from doctors. In July 2020, the FDA issued an alert notifying consumers that there were no exosome products approved to treat any disease or condition, and cautioning that some may be illegally marketed and not proven safe or effective.) According to Chiu, with this method, exosomes can reach the base of the hair follicle, which maximizes absorption.
Exosomes are even beginning to be whipped into topical products. Though Chiu cautions that these products aren’t nearly as efficacious as getting exosomes through your doctor, Andrea Hui Austin, MD, a dermatologist in San Francisco, has seen major improvements in her patients after trying Plated, a topical exosome hair serum. “I had a young 20-year-old girl who’d lost almost all her hair, and suddenly her hair is regrowing,” she says.
That kind of result has doctors thinking big about the future of hair loss. “We’ve done a really good job in the last 20 years or so at slowing down hair loss,” says New York plastic surgeon Nigar Ahmedli, MD. “What we haven’t been able to do is to reverse it. I think that would be the gold standard, right?”
A New Way to Tighten Your Body
One recent morning, beauty editors gathered around a peculiar sight: a piece of wrinkled, raw chicken skin. A demonstrator inserted a wand-like heating applicator under the skin. Instead of getting burned, the chicken skin rebounded like a rubber band. We were witnessing Renuvion, the first-of-its-kind, minimally invasive skin-tightening treatment to hit the market.
In a post-Ozempic world, loose skin is a hotter topic than ever. “Whenever you lose weight, there is a certain degree of loose skin,” says Andrew Ordon, MD, a plastic surgeon in California. Renuvion works by applying radio frequency (electromagnetic waves) and helium plasma (an energy source made from helium gas) under the skin. Helium fills the empty space where fat used to be, allowing it to precisely heat and contract skin in tandem with radio frequency. A benefit of using helium is that it heats and then cools quickly, protecting skin from potential heat damage.
Before Renuvion, plastic surgeons had been missing a major puzzle piece. Ordon explains that loose skin has always been challenging, since the main remedy was surgically cutting it off. The ideal candidate for Renuvion is an Ozempic patient who hasn’t lost enough weight to necessitate more invasive body-lift procedures. “Having some sort of noninvasive option for skin tightening is something that has always been a goal of the industry,” says Los Angeles plastic surgeon Catherine Chang, MD.
Though Renuvion is “one and done,” according to Ordon, it’s still technically an invasive procedure, because the probe goes under the skin. In cases where large parts of the body are being treated, patients may need anesthesia. Downtime depends on how much of your body you treat, but doctors agree that it’s fairly minimal—about a week, in comparison to loose skin surgery, which generally takes months to recover from. David Shafer, MD, a plastic surgeon in New York, says patients can expect a few days of soreness, and they may have a bit of swelling or bruising that will clear up within the first week or two. It’s important to go to a trusted plastic surgeon to avoid rare complications like burns. Patients see results immediately, but they continue to get better over the course of six to nine months, according to Chang.
This type of treatment could eventually become even more versatile. “The same technology could be used on smaller areas, like eventually maybe the eyelids or the face,” Shafer says. As long as the demand for skin-tightening procedures continues to skyrocket, medical technology will continue to innovate.
SickScience PowerCycle Scalp Treatment Serum
Plated Skin Science Hair Serum
A version of this story appears in the November 2024 issue of ELLE.
Kathleen Hou is ELLE’s Beauty Director. Previously, she held the same title at New York Magazine’s The Cut. She’s appeared in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Vogue India, Forbes, and Allure. She was also a co-founder of Donate Beauty, a grassroots beauty donation project started during the COVID-19 crisis, which donated over 500,000 products to over 30,000 healthcare workers across 500-plus hospitals.
Katie Berohn is ELLE’s beauty editor. Previously, she held the same title at Who What Wear, where she was promoted from associate beauty editor. She’s written for publications like The Cut, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Mashable. Her interests include fragrance, vintage shopping, hot yoga, food, travel, music, books, and attempting to make every NYT Cooking recipe. She’s on the endless hunt to find the perfect shade of red lipstick.