Beauty and Longevity: An Exciting New Frontier

Longevity is more than a wellness buzzword. Our global preoccupation with the topic over recent years marks a shift towards proactive health that’s reshaping every element of how we live, eat, and rest. When it comes to beauty, it is the move away from corrective ‘anti-ageing’ techniques and products towards holistic preventative health practices that genuinely transform how we age inside.

This is the theme that underpinned an international summit in Paris hosted by international beauty brand L’Oréal Groupe this year. During the conference – which gathered key journalists, scientists and longevity experts from across the world – the brand announced a bold new strategy to position beauty as one of the fundamental pillars of longevity, placing skin at its centre.

As Barbara Lavernos, L’Oréal Groupe’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of research, innovation and technology, announced to the assembled audience: “While extending human lifespan is now within reach, thanks to scientific and medical advances, the challenge we will face is how to prolong our ‘health span’. Because what is the point of longer life without quality of life?” She went to paint a picture of a future in which “beauty and longevity are seamlessly intertwined”. A future in which, she reiterated, “beauty has no age”.

Key to this approach is reframing how the industry views skin concerns. “Skin is the silent witness of our personal history, and we believe the key to achieving beauty that is married with longevity,” Lavernos noted. “By decoding the skin’s complex language – the invisible mechanisms and root causes of its cellular ageing – we open a new era of better ageing, a scientific response to this major health challenge.”

We’re living longer now – by 2030, 1.4 billion people worldwide will be over 60, according to research from Euromonitor. The future of skincare means taking a proactive approach to preserve skin health through high-tech diagnostic tools that offer a more holistic look at what’s going on inside the body rather than reacting to the visible signs of ageing or damage with topical treatments.

It’s a shift that also signifies a move away from tapping into anxieties around ageing, which have historically been used as a catalyst for profit in beauty advertising, and embracing a more natural evolution that focuses on optimising skin health. “By breaking the antiquated link between beauty and youth, everyone can now find their place,” Lavernos said at the Paris summit; one that will allow beauty to find “new and unexpected expressions”.

Longevity expert Dr Andrea Maier of the National University of Singapore went on to explain to the audience that conventional science has tended to neglect focusing on skin due to the strong associations it has shared with beauty. “But we’ve now reached a point in longevity science, where skin is no longer the forgotten organ, and we take it very seriously.”

“It’s about moving away from beauty as something that is only about looking good, only about what is visible and moving towards a better understanding of what’s happening in the biology of your skin,” said Vania Lacascade. Lacascade was previously chief global innovation officer at L’Oréal Groupe, but has since become General Manager of the Lancôme brand. “In doing so we’re able to act at the root cause of ageing.”

TARGETED SKINCARE: AN UNDERRATED LONGEVITY TOO

So it seems that while immunity-boosting ice baths, the latest wearable tech and infrared saunas may dominate wellness feeds, a consistent skincare routine is one of the most valuable tools we have in how our skin ages. The skin is our body’s largest organ, an intelligent network that reacts not just to the environment but also to signals from within ­– and it is our first line of defence against pathogens, pollutants and oxidative stress.

“Because the skin is exposed to so many things, it has to react all the time to what we do; food influences our skin, as well as sun exposure,” Maier explains. “Knowing what's happening inside the skin is the secret to determining what we need.”

Lavernos goes further, referring to skin as “the ultimate health mirror” and admitting that we’re only beginning to understand this concept fully. New research from L’Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle (ICM) in Paris shows just how important skin is as a predictive marker of our health. It linked skin biomarkers to neurodegenerative diseases, supporting the ‘skin-brain axis’ theory. Maier confirms that skin analysis can additionally help us “see how the entire body is ageing”, and help predict “other age-related diseases”.

The summit was an opportunity for the brand to introduce L’Oréal Longevity Integrative Science – an innovation framework, which is the result of many years of work – that shifts away from quick-fix formulas for surface concerns like fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging skin to focus on the root cause of biological skin ageing through a deep dive into cellular activity. In practice, this means following in the footsteps of body biohacking with AI-led skin diagnoses, from which they can then go on to target the mitochondria, senescent cells (inactive, yet damaging ‘zombie’ cells), DNA damage and the epigenetic.

BIOLOGICAL SKIN AGE: THE FUTURE OF SKINCARE?

So what’s the key to cracking the longevity code in skincare? L’Oréal’s Longevity AI Cloud acts as a ‘map of skin health’, analysing over 260 skin longevity biomarkers (such as collagen density, oxidative stress markers and cellular metabolism indicators) to detect signs of ageing and gain a better understanding of how the skin will age.

Meanwhile, the in-store Cell BioPrint system (set to launch in the UK in spring 2026) translates these findings into a diagnostic tool that determines ‘biological skin age’ and recognises signs of ageing that may not be visible to the naked eye. For example, inflammation, a hidden enemy of skin health, which is often undetectable in its earliest stages.

We already know that personalised beauty is the future: Mintel’s predictions for the year ahead estimates 50% of shoppers globally will spend more on personalised products, particularly as AI tools enable deeper analysis of the skin. Meanwhile, the Boots Beauty Trends Report 2025 highlighted that 70% of UK shoppers are already calling on beauty brands to offer more customisation.

L’Oréal’s Cell BioPrint – co-developed by South Korean leading-edge biotechnology firm, NanoEntek – uses lab-on-a-chip technology to measure longevity biomarkers in under five minutes. The system builds on existing personalisation tools, such as Skin+Me’s online consultation format, to provide a much more detailed analysis. “The topical product is key; that’s our expertise,” Lacascade confirms. “But now we think that it needs to come as well with the diagnosis as the starting point to guide the consumer about which kind of product they need.”

Armed with these new insights, shoppers can choose targeted formulas that address individual concerns with biological skin age in mind – and formulation is another exciting area for L'Oréal.

The brand has partnered with the Chinese biotech company Veminsyn to discover and develop new bioactives and cosmetic ingredients through sustainable biohacking research. L’Oréal has also invested in Timeline, a Swiss biotech that has developed a proprietary form of Urolithin A under the brand name Mitopure, which recycles and rejuvenates ageing mitochondria.

These powerhouse cells are responsible for 90% of cellular energy, which suggests we can look forward to some exciting new formulations on the horizon. Lancôme's Absolute Longevity Soft Cream is already tapping into this theory, inspired by the groundbreaking skin booster technology of PDRN, a bio-stimulator at the forefront of regenerative aesthetics in South Korea.

THE WHEEL OF LONGEVITY

L’Oréal’s Wheel of Longevity for Beauty charts nine key markers of skin ageing. Understanding these interconnecting hallmarks – developed from the peer-reviewed study 12 Hallmarks of Ageing (López-Otín et al., Cell, 2013) – is the culmination of 15 years of advanced research and 43 studies, and has paved the way for the brand’s move from surface-level correction to truly decoding the skin. A move that positions L’Oréal as the company that’s turning anti-ageing from “illusion” into integrative science.

Teamed with L’Oréal's Longevity AI Cloud as a platform for storing data, the Wheel of Longevity offers a powerful tool to translate potential hallmarks into actionable steps and predict the impact of ingredients with the aim of intervening before skin ageing occurs. As an integrated system, the Cell BioPrint harnesses the Wheel of Longevity’s findings to identify which hallmarks are most active, thereby predicting how skin will age over time, offering preventive skincare tailored to each individual.

As tech advances continue to accelerate, the conversation turns to what’s next for beauty and longevity. According to Lacascade, “It’s not one unique solution, it’s going to be an ecosystem of solutions. Our commitment to lifelong beauty goes way beyond just making profit; it is a collaborative quest, uniting the brightest minds in science and technology within the dynamic longevity ecosystem.

“While understanding individual skin health is crucial, powerful new ingredients are the key to combating cellular damage,” she continued. “As we move forward, product lines will increase, so that we can be even more precise and tailor them to the individual accordingly… we believe in the transformative power of science and the unparalleled reach of our brands to shift societal perspectives and empower the evolving aspirations of every individual, everywhere.”

Ambitious plans. Welcome to the new frontier of targeted skincare.