Why the beauty biz needs to do better.
A few months ago, I asked: Is longevity a breakthrough, a buzzword or a bit of both.
These days, “longevity” is being tossed around like confetti. Many skincare (and wellness) companies are clinging to their same old models. With a fresh coat of paint. Peptides. Exosomes. Ectoin. PDRN (a.k.a. salmon sperm). Oura Rings. If it’s wrinkle-adjacent, somebody has slapped “longevity” on it & called it revolutionary.
Substantive innovation is scarce. Meaningful clinical claims unverified. Consumer insights unconsidered. Bold breakthroughs? Not so much.
Lipstick on a pig. Harsh? Perhaps. But it’s up to us in the beauty biz to do better.
A new generation of consumers wants – & expects – results. Plus, clinical proof. Not some souped-up version of last year’s anti-aging serum. With a fancy new label.
That’s why I found the Tech Powered Future of Longevity panel at Perfect Corp’s 2026 Global Beauty & Fashion Tech Forum so refreshing.
The panelists called out plenty of facepalm-worthy industry habits. One called it like it is.
In case you missed it, here are my big takeaways.
Big AHA #1: Aging is predictable. So why is skincare still so reactive?
Physician & founder Dr. Lanna Cheuck opened with a statement so obvious, it was radical:
“Aging is a predictable process. It happens in layers.”
If aging is predictable, it’s planable. Yet most skincare is built to react. See a line, sell a fix.
Then, there’s the inconvenient truth: “We’re all aging faster than ever,” she said. GLP-1s. Perimenopause. Stress. No sleep. Our cells carry every bit of those transgressions.
The silver lining? Science is outrunning the clock. “We can actually reprogram our cells to act young again.” Fibroblasts we’d written off as “dead and senescent and zombie cells” can be coaxed back to work.” Good to know.
For Dr. Lanna, skin longevity is “a philosophy.” Which exposes the contradiction the industry hasn’t reckoned with. Yet.
Her call-out: The category is still running on a trend treadmill. (Remember Clean Beauty?) This year’s hero ingredient will likely be next year’s footnote. You can’t sell a lifelong philosophy on a six-month hype cycle. A longevity brand chasing trends is an oxymoron.
Big AHA #2: Proof is the new promise.
Then Med Spa Matchmaker Gina Graziano brought some heat.
“In the US, I think we’ve always been chasing what’s wrong, and we’ve been through a phase of over-filling, over-correcting, and, honestly, borderline unnatural augmentation.”
The future, she argued, belongs to products that “teach our cells how to behave, so we’re not just artificially propping up our skin.”
Prop up vs. teach. Intriguing.
That’s not an ingredient trend. It’s a worldview. One says you’re broken & we’ll patch you up. The other says you’re capable & we’ll help you do what you already know how to do.
And today, we can actually see which approach is working. Imaging now answers the question we really care about: “Is my skin quality where it should be for somebody my age?”
When customers can see what’s happening at a cellular level & that treatment is changing it, they commit. That’s where loyalty lives. It’s also where pseudo-claims have nowhere to hide. Any brand built on smoke & mirrors should be a little nervous right now.
Big AHA #3: Beauty is starting to think like medicine.
Christian Franz, a nurse & creator: “Longevity is not about just looking like I’m in my 20s forever, but about how I can maintain and strengthen my skin barrier.”
His point: medicine teaches us to think beyond the immediate outcome. Prevention + Maintenance = Long-term health & beauty.
Big AHA #4: We’re living in a beauty bubble.
Ian Michael Crumm of Boys in Beauty™ called out the misinformation flooding social, from “random content creators that just make something up.” He put the onus on doctors & key opinion leaders to fight the deception. Give me the facts. And men in particular are looking for trusted voices: “There’s such an education gap for so many men, but they now want to participate.”
Big AHA #5: Same jar. New name.
Finally, PIMS CEO David Silbergleit didn’t mince words.
Anti-aging → age-defying → pro-aging → longevity. “It’s not just a difference in the marketing terms,” he emphasized.
It shouldn’t be. But for many brands, it is. The vocabulary has evolved for twenty years. The product behind it hasn’t.
David’s definition is simple. Longevity is a regimen. A process. A relationship that, done right, earns fierce loyalty.
A quick fix can get away with a pretty promise. A regimen can’t. Every month, every refill, every unboxing comes down to one question, & David put it perfectly: “Do they feel like it’s truthful?”
Final point: Longevity is a marathon, not a sprint.
Brands love to promise that “in seven days, XYZ is going to happen,” as Ian put it. Slam, bam, thank you ma’am.
But as Gina noted, many skin treatments “take two or three months to kick in because our body produces collagen, for example, over time.” That makes compliance the real battleground. Tracking keeps consumer & provider accountable long enough to deliver results.
So, here’s my provocation.
If your longevity product promises results in seven days, it isn’t longevity. It’s anti-aging with a new name tag.
Longevity doesn’t come in a pretty pink jar. It isn’t a word slapped on a label. It’s a philosophy that must be lived. In the science, the regimen, the delivery & every scan that proves it’s working. Or doesn’t.
Teach, don’t patch. Prove, don’t promise. Plan don’t react.
The brands that win won’t be the ones that shout longevity from the rooftops. They’ll be the ones that can still say it with a straight face five years from now.
Every brand wants to sell longevity. How many will have any?
Not sure whether you’ve got a philosophy or a fresh coat of paint? Let’s talk. That’s exactly the kind of question Insurgents was built to answer.
Best, Robin