The skin care category is one of the most interesting in cosmetics and it is also one of my great passions. According to the Researchandmarkets portal, the global market for anti-aging products had an estimated value of US$164 billion in 2020 and has a projection of US$236 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 5.3% in this period.

Within the category, anti-wrinkle products present an estimated CAGR of 5.7% in the same period with an estimated market value of US$19.1 billion by 2027. Depigmenting products have a projected CAGR of 4.1% for the next 7 years. The skin care market has always represented a great innovation opportunity for the cosmetics industry and if we talk about trends in the category, we could write many pages and columns about it.

For this reason, below, we are going to see some of the most interesting current trends in this field and in the coming months we will do more columns about it.

Robotic skin: In June we learned about this very interesting new. A team of researchers in Japan used human skin to encase a robot’s finger. The goal is for the robots to have an increasingly human appearance and thus improve the efficiency in the exchange of information and generate more sympathy. The findings were surprising.

The living skin fit the artificial limb perfectly, and like real wounds, it had the ability to bounce back from a cut. Last year it was reported that Sophia, the world’s most famous humanoid robot, auctioned off her first digital artwork as an NFT. “I hope that people like my work and that humans and I can collaborate in new and exciting ways forward,” Sophia said in her study with a flat voice and a silver-coloured dress.

Let’s just imagine when we will see the news that for the first time a robot designed a perfume or a cosmetic emulsion. In the near future, humanoids will be key to the development of skin care, they will help us discover and develop new sensory effects in formulations, they will also be very useful in predicting efficacy and developing new claims, such as robot- friendly, tested on robots, formulated by robots…

In marketing and positioning activities we will also see androids, cyborgs and robots in skin care. Just imagine R2-D2 developing products for Princess Leia. Bender, Astroboy, Terminator, Robocop, Johnny 5, Cylos, Data and Marvin, among others, will be great allies in brand positioning and advertising campaigns. Surely George Lucas will have a great ally in skin care in future films. Robotic beauty is the new black.

Healthy aging: In a recent article, the Colombian magazine Semana, indicated that with the aim of improving the quality of life of older adults and of the people who intervene in their environment, such as family members and caregivers, the Decade of Healthy Aging has been established, which began in 2021 and will continue until 2030. Aging is a natural process that the body goes through and that everyone lives in a different way, depending on their lifestyle, diet, particular health condition and the contexts in which persons have been throughout their life. Cosmetics is a great ally in well-being and that is why this year we are seeing so many related innovations.

From Benjamin Button to a new anti-aging theory: We were all moved by the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which tells the story of a man who would be born with the body of an 80-year-old person and who over time becomes younger. Well, in June of this year, very interesting news were published, as a group of scientists managed to reverse aging in mice. Researchers at the molecular laboratory at Harvard University have succeeded in converting an adult cell into a stem cell in rodents. The team’s goal is to do the same with humans. This project has been led by David Sinclair. In a 2020 publication it was shown how old mice with poor eyesight and damaged retinas were suddenly able to see again. For this reason, we will soon see new Benjamin Button-like biochemical mechanisms for skin care in scientific publications, magazines and congresses.

Lunar agriculture: “It’s a small pot of earth, but a big step for space agriculture.” This interesting finding was published in May in the journal Communications Biology. For the first time, scientists have grown plants in a few grams of lunar soil collected decades ago by astronauts in the Apollo program. The plant used was Arabidopsis thaliana, chosen because it grows easily and, above all, because its genetic code is already known. This finding fuels the hope that one day plants can be grown directly on the moon. The cosmetic industry will find a great opportunity for innovation in these new findings, since the composition of lunar soil can produce interesting adaptogenic conditions for the search and synthesis of new metabolites with great benefits for skin care.

130 years: In May 2022, the Spanish newspaper El País published an article in which Corina Amor, an immunologist, says: “Increasing the duration of human life to 130 years is reasonable.” She presented a revolutionary doctoral thesis that proposed an experimental therapy to eliminate the cells responsible for aging and cancer. In youth, the human body’s defences are capable of destroying these damaged cells, called senescent cells, but as life goes on, the immune system cannot cope and they accumulate. Amor’s team, led by American biologist Scott Lowe, devised a strategy to extract white blood cells, or T-lymphocytes, from the patient and reengineer them in the laboratory to destroy senescent cells. His proof of concept, in mice, was published two years ago in the journal Nature. In a few years, we will see new biochemical mechanisms in skin care products inspired by these findings.

Pre-ageing: The pandemic has taught us that prevention is the new norm and that is why many of the technological innovations that we are seeing in skin care are focused on the concept of preventing the signs of aging and the effects on the skin of new routines and customs we have in the post-pandemic world. Pre-aging (2021) comes after the pro-aging (2017) and anti-aging (80s) trends.

 Skinimalism: This trend has two nuances. In the first place, we are seeing how facial routines tend to be simpler and, on the other hand, we are also seeing how formulations are also beginning to have fewer and more effective ingredients.

Are you ready to imagine the future of skincare? Well, we invite you to give your comments on this exciting topic!

Enjoyed this article? Get more by subscribing to our newsletter!