Biohacking may sound like something only Silicon Valley entrepreneurs would indulge in, with its obsession for mitochondrial health and NAD+ levels, but many beauty brands are already taking steps toward biohacking through tracking sleep and optimizing recovery with products like vitamin C or senolytics.
Red light therapy is a popular beauty hack that promotes autophagy in cells to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, making them part of an anti-aging skincare regime that includes growth factors that help stimulate collagen production for increased skin elasticity and vitality.
1. Antioxidants
Antioxidants have emerged as one of the key players in skincare today, providing powerful support for toning, stimulating regeneration and visibly diminishing expression lines. Biohacking serums often include vitamins to amplify existing ingredients like vitamin C or help reset skin’s circadian rhythms. Some serums also feature superfood-derived antioxidants such as Stamets7 Mushroom Blend, an effective combination of seven mushroom species that provides benefits such as immune and cognitive support, anti-aging treatments and DNA repair. Other formulas contain non-standard functional enhancers like nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), which supports healthy energy metabolism in cells. Still others use exosomes to deliver cell-to-cell communication molecules and accelerate results.
Beauty biohackers tend to embrace an eclectic selection of non-standard ingredients and look for diagnostic integrations for deeper personalization. These can range from blood tests for nutrients or mineral levels in your body scan at home – taking these insights into account, products can be tailored specifically to address individual needs while supporting how your body operates.
CoolSculpting, an advanced fat-burning procedure, employs controlled cooling to break down stubborn pockets of fat without harming surrounding tissues, leading to a leaner physique. Meanwhile, Exilis Ultra utilizes radiofrequency and ultrasound waves to heat deeper layers of skin while tightening and stimulating collagen for tighter and more defined shapes.
Beauty biohacking aims to optimize the body as a system, employing strategies such as habits, self-care practices and high-tech treatments in order to optimize performance and enhance how one looks, feels and ages.
As these new approaches to beauty become more mainstream, they’re being implemented across everything from skincare and food products to tech and in-office treatments. From nutrient-packed hydration treatments to wrinkle-reversing light therapies, here is a look at dermatologist-recommended trends that are helping us look, feel and live our best lives.
2. Anti-Inflammatory
If you want to reduce inflammation, the best place to start is with an anti-inflammatory serum. Ingredients such as licorice root extract, turmeric or ginger root can help regulate the skin’s natural production of inflammatory hormones while increasing energy supplies to cells for protection against free radical damage and oxidative stress.
Search out ingredients that strengthen the skin’s barrier function, such as shea butter, glycerin and hyaluronic acid – they all increase penetration of other skincare ingredients to further boost their efficacy while simultaneously providing essential nutrition to improve texture and tone.
Vitamin C is an excellent example of this, helping reduce free radical damage, improve circulation and supporting collagen formation. Another way to support skin lipid barrier integrity is through use of serums that contain anti-inflammatories like pycnogenol or resveratrol – both proven anti-inflammatory agents.
As part of your efforts to enhance cell repair and rejuvenation, consider an antioxidant-rich serum containing high levels of peptides, retinoids, or other potent actives like vitamin E. Retinoids stimulate collagen production while smoothing wrinkles out, evening skin tone out, accelerating cell turnover for a refreshed and younger appearance, while keeping oxidative stress, free radicals, glycation under control to make the skin more resistant.
If you’re serious about biohacking, make sure that you add in a diet rich in nutrients and regular exercise into your regimen. Not only will this keep your skin radiantly looking but it will also ensure that the production of hormones by your body remains balanced and working at its peak potential.
As the lines between beauty, wellness and bio-performance continue to blur, beauty must adopt biohacker mentalities in order to remain competitive in this ever-evolving industry. From tracking your REM sleep levels and selecting skincare regimens with pH balance balances for skin to taking supplements that enhance mitochondrial function – the biological systems governing aging and inflammation all play into this equation in similar ways – be they tracked on Substack by biohackers or read about autophagy by beauty customers – the principles are similar.
3. Skin Toning
Biohackers employ advanced treatments and techniques that stimulate natural cellular regeneration and renewal processes within the body, such as Peptide-infused serums that visibly firm skin over time and stimulate collagen production; or growth factor products with growth receptor activators which boost cell turnover to help achieve healthier complexions and more radiant-looking complexions.
Biohacking serums often target energy metabolism to stimulate gene expression and rejuvenation from within. Light-based therapies like Forever Young BBL and HERO utilize targeted wavelengths of light deep within skin tissue, stimulating its “youth gene”. This noninvasive approach to cell activation helps reduce redness, wrinkles, sun damage and hyperpigmentation while smoothing fine lines and increasing elasticity and firmness – great benefits when trying biohacking serums to achieve biohacking!
Emsculpt Neo is another innovative device, using high-intensity electromagnetic waves to contract muscles beyond what could be achieved through voluntary exercise, effectively sculpting your body while improving physical performance and body composition. Beauty biohackers can take advantage of light-based technologies such as the Intuitive Luminosity Laser for even and vibrant complexion that’s brighter without downtime or invasive treatments.
There is a wide variety of beauty hacking serums to choose from, but the most effective ones should contain clean ingredients free of potential toxins such as parabens, 1,4-dioxane (an emulsifier byproduct known to interfere with endocrine function) or phthalates that could potentially harm health.
Finally, be sure to patch test all new skincare before applying it more widely on your face, and always apply a barrier-restoring serum after using biohacking serums; in addition to protecting with broad spectrum sunscreen as some biohacking serums may increase photosensitivity.
As we further refine our beauty regimens, more people are turning to biohacking techniques in order to feel energized and confident. The next wave of innovation in skincare, wellness and health will combine biological performance with lifestyle systems–from sleep optimization to nutrient-dense diets–in order to help unlock our extraordinary.
4. Firming
biohackers prioritize skin tone as a top skincare goal in their routines, looking for high-performance products that work at the cellular level to increase collagen and elastin synthesis, visibly firming skin over time. Multi-peptide serums like The Ordinary Buffett + Copper Peptides 1% contain multiple complexes of peptides designed to firm and tighten, as well as Dermalogica Pro Collagen Banking Serum with carnosine dipeptide, a biomimetic peptide which increases resilience.
Hydration is key for penetrating and delivering the benefits of these ingredients, so biohacking serums typically include actives to promote its absorption into skin like squalane and glycerin to restore natural lipids needed for healthy barrier function. Hyaluronic acid and other low molecular weight hydration ingredients such as Hyaluronan acid can also assist other skincare ingredients like antioxidants and peptides penetrate more effectively into skin layers.
Biohacking beauty involves both preventing and treating concerns as they appear. Biohackers employ various strategies for this goal, including targeted skincare products, supplements, and lifestyle habits. For example, to combat wrinkles and other signs of aging, beauty biohackers usually apply sunscreen every day as this prevents oxidation caused by sun’s UVA/UVB rays; additionally it’s an effective way of decreasing pigmentation issues such as brown spots, melasma or hyperpigmentation.
Other lifestyle tactics to reduce functional biological age of skin may include prioritizing sleep, managing stress and eating an optimal diet; supplements as well as wellness practices like meditation or yoga may also support skin health.
The beauty biohacking movement is built upon the idea that your body’s cells are the foundation of health and beauty. Future skincare will focus on optimizing performance and longevity through understanding biology that drives skin aging processes and using tools (not only treatments) to manage them. For brands to succeed in this new landscape, they must adopt an integrative strategy combining topical skincare + wearables + behavioral guidance into one routine approach.
