THE FUTURE OF SKINCARE IS ALL “MAPPED OUT.”
You’ve likely heard of genome mapping, but the latest buzz in the beauty world is skin mapping, which is based on the science of metabolomics. “It’s a word you’ll want to remember,” says Kirk Beebe, director of application science at Metabolon, one of the leaders in this new field of study. “For the past 20 years, we’ve been trying to understand diseases by looking at our genes. While genes are important, we need other pieces of information.” These other pieces are metabolites—like glucose and cholesterol—which Beebe describes as biochemicals. Estée Lauder partnered with Beebe to study metabolites in the skin and to measure the effectiveness of its iconic Advanced Night Repair. The research identified 300 metabolites related to skin—five of which are associated with skin repair and skin damage. “With treatment, we were able to recover a significant number of [these] metabolites,” explains Nadine Pernodet, vice-president of skin biology and bioactives at Estée Lauder. It also found that in women over 60, only 44 of 186 metabolites continued to follow the proper circadian rhythm. “It was the first in vivo study to show that metabolic rhythm is lost with age and that this loss leads to lower repair and accumulated damage,” she says.