Behind L’Oréal’s bet on longevity science to extend skin healthspan

At the Nutra Healthspan Summit in London in November, we spoke to Caroline Delaunay, global head of evaluation intelligence at the L’Oréal Group, to learn how the French beauty multinational is approaching skin aging and wellness. Delaunay said that the company is betting big on longevity science for the future, as the cosmetics industry continues to merge with wellness. “We are going through a longevity revolution, and it is changing the way we see age,” she explained. She noted how people now view age as a process to improve and maximize, focusing on the difference between their actual age and their biological age. Based on this, she said that L’Oréal has been focused on designing the best intervention experience to extend skin healthspan—from classic beauty solutions to a more proactive approach. One area of focus for the company is the skin exposome. According to Delaunay, it is important to study all factors impacting your skin throughout your life. “These can be external UV radiation, climate changes and other aggressors, as well as internal factors like phenotype, genetics and sometimes hormonal changes that can act differently during your life, plus diet, sleep and stress levels,” she said. She explained that L’Oréal’s aim is to analyze what these factors are doing to the skin—both the invisible and visible signs. For example, the skin microbiome or efficacy of epidermal renewal are invisible signs, while external signs are clinical signs of aging such as wrinkles. “This is super important as we are all aging differently,” Delaunay said. “We believe this new experience in longevity will be based around diagnostic and personalized beauty experiences including topicals, devices and very soon, supplements.” In January 2025, the company launched Cell Bioprint at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This is the first skin aging clock that can tell the user what is happening below their skin, and Delaunay revealed that this will also be able to answer which actives will be best to work with a person’s own longevity pathway. “This is the first step and then we will use specific topicals, devices and supplements,” she said. “To navigate this complexity, we designed an AI longevity cloud—a tool to help us go through the longevity wheel, the nine hallmarks and to connect all the hallmarks to the infinite variety of biological pathways that are happening during aging for skin and scalp.” Delaunay added that L’Oréal’s technology and science can master the connections between all those biological pathways but also all the biomarkers of this longevity journey. “Then we will design specific combinations to act in each biomarker in a coordinated action to really answer all of your needs in longevity,” she said. “Our dream one day is to have a very specific journey for everyone based on their biological age.” In terms of ingredients that L’Oréal is using in the skin healthspan longevity space, Delaunay said that the L’Oréal’s proprietary AI cloud is helping with the selection. “We have our new Mexoryl that is acting on deep cellular changes, PDRN acting on cell energy at a mitochondrial level,” she explained. “We are also looking for ways to stabilize vitamin C to act on the cellular interconnections.”

Behind L’Oréal’s bet on longevity science to extend skin healthspan

L’Oréal is pioneering longevity science with AI-driven diagnostics, personalized beauty solutions and advanced ingredients to extend skin healthspan.

Related Topics

Expensive longevity products: ‘There’s got to be a premium payoff for the consumer’

Spermidine-producing CRISPR probiotic may boost memory via gut-brain axis