The beauty industry has always been one of change and innovation, but the pandemic brought with it some shifts that will impact the industry for decades to come. The patients that come to us now arrive with greater knowledge, want more value for their dollar and have a hightened focus on certain target areas. Join me as I explore what I believe to be some of the top 10 trends in medical aesthetics in 2023—a beautiful mixture of ingredients, treatments, business practices and more.
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The beauty industry has always been one of change and innovation, but the pandemic brought with it some shifts that will impact the industry for decades to come. The patients that come to us now arrive with greater knowledge, want more value for their dollar and have a hightened focus on certain target areas. Join me as I explore what I believe to be some of the top 10 trends in medical aesthetics in 2023—a beautiful mixture of ingredients, treatments, business practices and more.
1. Skin Cycling
During the height of the pandemic, as clients and professionals alike were stuck at home navigating their personal care and beauty routines solo, dermatologist Whitney Bowe, M.D., had an epiphany. Upon switching up her workout routines to promote different effects and recover, she realized that the same thought process could be applied to skin care. She coined “skin cycling” as a four day method to rejuvenate the skin but also allow recovery. It is a way to simplify a client’s routine while keeping it effective. The first night is exfoliation, preferably with a chemical exfoliant, followed by a retinol on night two. The third and fourth nights are about healing and moisturization, and the process begins all over again on night five. If you have clients that want to see better results from their skin care routine but are overwhelmed by complicated regimens, this may be an easier way to help them (and move some retail sales in the process).
2. Micro-coring
If you have grown somewhat tired of the microneedling craze, there is a new micro technology on the block, and it too involves needles. The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Cytrellis’ micro-coring technology in summer 2021 for the treatment of moderate to severe wrinkles in the mid to lower face. Since that time, the technology has taken off, showing efficacious tightening results of the cheeks, jawline and chin comparable to a facelift but with no scarring. The micro-coring technology employs hollow needles to non-invasively remove micro-cores of the epidermal and dermal tissue, no more than 500 micrometers in width, which stimulates collagen for a tightening effect. The procedure has little downtime, but can take as much as three months to see results. While this treatment seems like a no-brainer, there are a few drawbacks. The availability of the device has been limited, based
on reports, and studies have not yet been done on darker Fitzpatricks.
3. Surgery Abroad
Patients are on the move…for cosmetic treatments. Patients continue to travel to other countries in increasing numbers for cosmetic treatments such as liposuction, the Brazilian butt lift, breast augmentation, rhinoplasty and other treatments not covered by insurance in the United States. Although many Americans are still going to Mexico, other hot spots for cosmetic surgery tourism are Turkey and India. One country emerging as a cosmetic tourism hotspot is India, where technology is advanced, but prices remain low. Oftentimes, patients are drawn to the all-inclusive prices, which offer travel, accommodations and post-op recovery treatments as a package. They are often drawn to alluring pictures that depict relaxation and beatification in one, but the reality can often be anything but. Verifying medical credentials is often difficult with international surgery, and lovely brochures often depict recovery as a glamous alternative to a painful reality. It is important to have some talking points prepared, should you have any patients interested in traveling for a procedure. You may just spare them unsighly results that cannot be undone.
4. Mamey Sapote
There are many familiar faces when it comes to important ingredients for 2023, according to a report by Trendalytics. Peptides, algae, L-glutamine, kojic acid and retinol are all marked to grow in the coming year. Winter cherry is also set to grow, but it's largely been in recent trend reports under its sexier name ashwagandha. One surprising ingredient predicted to emerge in the upcoming year is mamey sapote. Those with Latin American roots may be familiar with the health and skin benefits of this fruit, but it has been making waves recently in global skin care formulations. Although it carries with it a host of health benefits, its skin care benefits are largely due to its high concentration of vitamins and minerals. It serves as an antioxidant and moisturizer in skin care, and carries many of its benefits over to hair care as well. Expect to see it pop up in new formulations and perhaps treatments in 2023.
5. PRP Boosted
We all know the anti-aging benefits of PRP, but what if I told you that with a small modification, you can continue these anti-aging results into the future? Enter platelet-rich fibrin (PRF). While PRP encourages new stem cell growth in the skin, PRF releases more growth factors over time. This is because fibrin is what platelets bind to in the blood to release growth factors to heal the body. More fibrin = more growth factors. Both PRP and PRF are taken from a patient’s own blood. However, PRF is spun at a lower speed, and no-anti-coagulant is used. Without this anti-coagulant, PRF is thicker, making it absorb in the body slower but also allowing it to be more natural than its PRP alternative.
6. Out of the Box Acids
Gone are the days where the skin care professional had a limited arsenal of acids to rejuvenate the skin. As a matter of fact, many alternative acids are emerging that offer comparable results to tried and true acids with additional skin benefits. Think beyond glycolic, salicylic, hyaluronic, lactic, mandelic and malic acid, and consider acids such as polyglutamic, fermented jasmonic, lactobionic and tranexamic acid. Let’s discuss a few of these here. Polyglutamic acid, for example, is said to perform better than the skin care hydrator hyaluronic acid. It is reported to hold 4 times more water than hyaluronic acid and also bind better to skin. You may have been hearing more about polyhydroxy acids recently, and lactobionic acid is one such acid, offering exfoliating benefits to sensitive skin. It also serves as a humectant and antioxidant for additional benefit to sensitive and dry skin.
7. Next-Gen Cellulite
Long gone are the days where women and men lamented that there were not effective options for reducing the appearance of their cellulite. Of course, there are a number of body firming creams and massage tools, but these effects are often temporary. Patients can step up their game with lasers and radiofrequency, but these treatments require a number of visits, and those results fade after six months. Recent technological advancements take cellulite reduction to a new level by targeting the bands under the cellulite. Merz’s Cellfina device goes into the skin and cuts the bands that cause cellulite, allowing the skin to bounce back in as little as three days. There is little downtime, and the results are said to last up to three years. Cynosure’s Cellulaze takes band clipping one step further and inserts a laser under the skin to shrink fat cells, cut bands and stimulate the production of collagen and elastin. Endo Aesthetics’ Qwo became the first injectable treatment for cellulite, enzymatically targeting collagen types 1 and 3 to release the bands and improve the appearance of cellulite. In a few treatments, the injectable is said to last over a year.
8. Future Realities
We’ve been hearing a lot of futuristic terms recently such as omniverse and metaverse. If you’ve been trying to figure them out and remain a bit confused, you are not alone. It is difficult to navigate the world of virtual reality, let alone figure out how it will impact our industry. The virtual space has already impacted beauty, but the biggest virtual changes are yet to come, leaving you plenty of time to research and grasp the intangible. The metaverse has been a topic of late, referring to a universe equal to our physical one but in a virtual space. This started to pop up before the pandemic, with some spas offering clientele VR relaxation experiences and some beauty brands offering its buyers a virtual try-on. This stepped into the forefront even more with during the pandemic with virtual client consultations, meta-clinics and more. Metaverses connect us with the digital space, and there are many, with each virtual space offering its own metaverse. These metaverses combine in a shared space of all universes, or the omniverse. What is clear here is that virtual reality is here to stay, offering beauty consumers better access to experiences and advice than they have ever had before. It also offers practitioners a unique opportunity to have a broader reach, a new revenue stream and to share expertise without even leaving their business.
9. Fermented Ingredients
We in the Western hemisphere have fully embraced fermented foods in the past few years, as we have begun to realize the importance of probiotics in our gut. In that same vein, we have also recognized and begun to formulate fermented ingredients in our topical products. One of the main reasons that ingredients are fermented for skin care is to increase their concentration, thereby increasing their efficacy. However, the catalysts used to induce the fermentation process often have additional probiotic benefits to the skin, helping to support the skin barrier and reducing sensitive or irritated skin.
10. Transplanting Brows
There is a new brow trend afoot, and it is a radical departure from the brow lamination, brow tinting and microblading trends of recent. “Champagne brows” are the latest brow craze, and they have nothing to do with a bubbly beverage or a delightful shade of warm beige. Rather, this service lends its name to its creator, plastic surgeon Jason Champagne, M.D., who moves hair from a patient’s scalp to their eyebrows through follicular unit transfer (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE). The patient is then left with permanently fuller brows, though the cost and recovery is quite a bit more than the aforementioned brow enhancement trends. With celebrities touting the effects of this service, expect it to pick up in popularity, possibly becoming more accessible and affordable for a broader range of clientele.
Katie Anderson is the Editor In Chief of MedEsthetics.
