During the session, “Seeing is believing: Skin health and aging,” researchers and industry leaders outlined how biological aging metrics, AI-driven modeling and evolving consumer expectations are shaping the next wave of innovation and examined how companies are redefining skin healthspan and where measurable proof points may emerge for beauty-wellness brands.
Caroline Delaunay, global head of evaluation intelligence at L’Oréal Groupe, and Dr. Sybille Buchwald-Werner, CEO of Newday, opened the session with two scientific briefings before a panel of four experts convened to discuss the future of longevity-driven skin care.
L’Oréal details biomarker-driven approach to ‘skin healthspan’
Delaunay outlined a framework that moves away from traditional anti-aging and toward biological indicators tied to healthspan during her presentation, “The science of longevity: A new path to extend skin healthspan.”
“For over 15 years, L’Oréal’s longevity research has profoundly reshaped our approach, moving beyond simply extending life to significantly enhancing skin healthspan—the period of life where skin is healthy and functional,” Delaunay told NutraIngredients, adding that the company now views skin as “a vital organ reflecting internal health.”
She said the team uses diagnostics such as Cell BioPrint, described as “a lab on a chip that provides a rapid and accurate analysis of the biological age of the skin.”
A central component of the company’s strategy is the Longevity AI Cloud.
“Our advanced integrative methods and AI-based biomarker analysis are exemplified by the Longevity AI Cloud,” Delaunay said.
She explained that the tool maps 267 biomarkers and can model ingredient effects on the hallmarks of aging, noting that the system helped identify an active targeting mitochondrial activity for use in a Lancôme formulation.
Looking ahead, L’Oréal expects longevity science to influence education, product design and partnerships.
“With longevity as a core R&D principle, we envision a transformative future,” Delaunay said, pointing to proactive consumer tools, targeted formulations based on the hallmarks of aging and closer collaboration between beauty and biotech.
Consumer views of ‘visible longevity’ shift across Europe
Shifting to a consumer focus, the “Understanding visible longevity: Seeing is believing? An AI-powered consumer insight study across key European markets” session explored how longevity cues are interpreted across five European markets.
Presenter Dr. Sybille Buchwald-Werner told NI that people instead associate visible longevity with “maintaining resilience, radiance and healthy skin function over time,” though trust markers differ between countries.
Messaging preferences are also changing.
“The language of ‘visible skin health’ is far more powerful today than traditional anti-aging claims,” Buchwald-Werner said, adding that consumers respond when brands link established actives with “measurable, real-world improvements.”
She noted that the main challenge is bridging biological age metrics with intuitive indicators and that “the real opportunity lies in translating biological aging metrics into simple cues people can see in the mirror.”
The research cited during her presentation was conducted by Newday in collaboration with Pharma Performance.
Panel weighs hallmarks of aging, ingredient targets and AI insights
The session closed with a panel discussion featuring Delaunay, Dr. Julien Laboureau, scientific director for skin and hair at Timeline, Dr. Andrew Franklyn-Miller, chief medical and innovation officer at Nuritas, and Dr. Rishabh Kala, director of advanced technologies at Estée Lauder Companies.
Kala emphasized that the hallmarks of aging are interconnected.
“If you look at the overall landscape of this longevity and hallmarks of aging, there are three categories of it: the primary hallmarks, the antagonistic hallmarks and the integrative hallmarks,” he said. He added that primary hallmarks form “the initial triggers” and gave the example of DNA damage leading to senescence and inflammatory changes downstream, noting that upstream mechanisms must be addressed.
“A lot of times, when we address the senescence question, we are missing out on the upstream component of what is causing that senescence,” he explained.
Delaunay noted that ingredient selection requires clarity on biological pathways.
“What I want to emphasize is that it’s so complex that we have to design a tool to ensure on which biological pathway you want to act,” she said. She added that the team is exploring actives such as PDRN and is focused on combinations intended to produce “a kind of coordinated action.”
Dr. Franklyn-Miller described how peptide discovery is accelerating through AI-guided modeling.
“The interesting thing about our whole engine is based around a combination of AI models and data,” he said, explaining that AI points researchers toward areas with evidence and helps identify receptors with high likelihood of interaction. The process allows Nuritas to bring oral ingredients from discovery to launch in about 18 months.
Dr. Franklyn-Miller further highlighted the limits of modeling when data are incomplete.
“How to treat missing data and how to then weight where we actually do real biological work is probably the most tricky and challenging area,” he said.
Laboureau discussed Timeline’s longstanding focus on mitochondrial mechanisms.
“We have been working on mitochondria for 15-plus years,” he said.
He explained that the team identified mitophagy as a key target, describing it as the process of clearing and recycling damaged mitochondria. Early work began in muscle health before mitochondrial signatures “showed up on top of the list” in skin studies.
“We looked at the trajectory of aging, and mitochondria were again ranking as the top hits,” Laboureau said, adding that the approach combines basic science with “unbiased data.”
