Better and faster: Asia’s ageing skin care evolving with instant gratification, ‘preventive protection’ trends

The desire to maintain a youthful appearance is not a new phenomenon but there is a persistent demand for cosmetic companies to minimise the effects of ageing and help consumers age gracefully.

In Asia, the demand for ageing skin care products is being fuelled by two polarising factors: a large ageing population and a large young population.

“As you know, in many Asian countries like Japan, Korea, even China, there are big ageing populations. At the same time, you have countries like Indonesia and Thailand with young populations that have high awareness of anti-ageing,” ​said Yusuke Saito, DSM regional director, personal care and aroma ingredients, APAC.

This is driving consumers across the age spectrum to constantly seek out the latest trends and breakthroughs in skin ageing care. In turn, it is pushing cosmetic companies to satisfy their ever-increasing demands.

Previously on the Beauty 4.0 podcast by CosmeticsDesign-Asia,​ director of the Institute of Personal Care Science, Belinda Carli, highlighted the increasing importance of fast and visible results​.

“Some anti-ageing actives need at least 14 days or 28 days… you need that cell turnover to get the best results. Because actives take time to work, you’ve got to give [consumers] something instant to make them feel like the product is working, so they can keep using it long enough to really see the big benefits.”​

This is fuelled by the rise of social media applications like TikTok, which are shaping the culture of instant gratification, Carli added.

‘Protective prevention’

At the same time, social media and the Internet are accelerating the awareness of skin ageing among younger consumers.

“A trend that is quite important in Asia is called protective prevention. This is among younger consumers, in their 20s and 30s. It’s common for them to go for aesthetic surgery for little wrinkles. Similar to older consumers, they will look for anti-ageing products to help them stay young,” ​said Nicolas Lasbistes, DSM regional marketing head, personal care 

This is driving demand for peptides in skin care, which are “known for being the gold standard for anti-ageing,”​ said Lasbistes.

This year, DSM highlighted two ingredients to address these consumer demands at in-cosmetics Global, an ingredients trade show held from March 28 to 30 in Barcelona, Spain.

The first is Pepha-Tight CB, a naturally derived biotech ingredient that forms a film on the skin to give that instantly perceptible tightening effect. In the long term, the company claims that helps to stimulate collagen while acting as a protective shield against oxidative stress.

The next was SYN-UP, a synthetic peptide which aids in boosting collagen production while increasing the skin resilience of sensitive skin by inhibiting plasmin activities.

Lasbistes elaborated that these external aggressors can activate the production of plasmin, which triggers skin damage which eventually leads to visible signs of ageing on the skin. As such, it is important for anti-ageing products to protect the integrity of the skin barrier.

“When sensitive and dry skin is exposed and bombarded by external aggressors like pollution and sun rays your skin gets inflammation. When exposed too much, your skin won’t be able to repair itself as quickly as possible.”​