Peak Performance

A new wave of treatments and products improves your complexion today – and how it behaves in the future.

- Genevieve Monsma

When your skin is at its prime – cells turning over like clockwork, fibroblasts churning out collagen – your complexion is smooth, bright, and youthful. As you know, that beautiful operation slows down with age. But there’s a way to hack the machine, spurring it to regain its peak performance. Coined regenerative dermatology, these antiaging strategies help boost or reignite some of the skin’s own natural processes, like collagen production, so your skin acts as it used to – and looks more like it too.

“For years, the goal of cosmetic dermatology was to fix signs of aging, like Botox to smooth fine lines or fillers to lift sagging skin,” says Marnie Nussbaum, a New York City dermatologist. “As we did those treatments, we discovered a positive side e‹ ect: long-term skin improvement.” Injecting filler into the skin was found to stimulate the skin’s own collagen production, making youthful results last longer. Certain nonablative laser treatments (like Fraxel), which were used to improve texture and tone, also increased collagen.

If your desire is to look good for your age, this movement is great news. “We’ve always known the body has the power to heal itself, and these new treatments harness that power,” says Gary Goldenberg, a dermatologist in New York. Topical skin care can also encourage your skin to work better. Keep reading for more on these promising treatments and products, with one caveat: Some of these newer treatments don’t have the data to prove their claims. “In theory, these regenerative strategies make sense, but the evidence of their efficacy is still primarily anecdotal,” says Neal Schultz, a dermatologist in New York.

Microneedling