Regime Change

When it comes to cosmeceuticals, hyaluronic acid (HA) is a bit of an overachiever. You’ve spotted it in face creams, but it’s also been used to plump lips, treat burns and lubricate the joints of osteoporosis sufferers. Used topically, it binds water and draws hydration to the skin’s surface—smoothing, moisturizing, and improving skin’s radiance (and your odds of getting ID’ed at happy hour).

According to Carruthers and Humphrey Medical Director and dermatologist Shannon Humphrey, there are two new reasons hyaluronic acid is the ingredient to watch in 2017. HA is a big molecule, so it does most of its work on skin’s outer layer, but SkinMedica and SkinCeuticals, respectively, have now formulated ways to break it up into tinier fragments to penetrate the skin—making results more dramatic and long-lasting. ( SkinMedica’s HA5 Rejuvenating

Hydrator is already on the market, with SkinCeuticals’ entry coming later in 2017.)

More exciting still is a new type of HA filler formulated for the face, launching in Canada this year. “It’s not really a filler, it’s a texture improver for the skin,” says Humphrey of the new treatment, wherein minute droplets of HA are injected under the skin’s top layer. This puts tension on the cells and, in turn, produces new collagen naturally for clinically proven baby-faced radiance. Humphrey says this points to an exciting shift in the aesthetic medicine industry that’s moving away from Kylie Jenner duck lips etc., and toward treatments targeting skin and “natural-looking outcomes.” Ditto that.