The latest wave of skincare is focused on helping skin function better for longer. Beauty journalist Madeleine Spencer speaks to longevity physician Dr Tamsin Lewis about the science behind these pioneering products.
My skin recently went a bit mad as a result of dust from home renovations. The rash that coated it was pretty nasty, angry, itchy and prone to flaring whenever I was stressed or came into contact with the dust again. It would periodically calm down, then come back with a vengeance.
The rash itself wasn't remarkable, it was simply a reaction to an irritant, but what was interesting was the speed with which my skin recovered. Several experts I saw commented on how quickly it seemed to return to equilibrium. They asked about my skincare routine, my diet, my sleep and my lifestyle and, while I've certainly had my fair share of skin battles over the years, primarily in the form of acne, one thing became clear: my skin is resilient.
Lancôme's new Absolue Longevity MD range is one of the latest launches to draw on longevity science, with a focus on mitochondrial health and a key ingredient called Mitopure. The products are rolling out in Canada this season, giving shoppers here early access to a category that has been building momentum in dermatology circles. To understand what that actually means, and whether I should be paying attention to it or not, I spoke to longevity physician Dr Tamsin Lewis.
Preserving function, not chasing youth
"Longevity medicine isn't about chasing youth," Lewis tells me. "It's about preserving function, the capacity to repair, adapt and respond to stress without falling apart." When applied to skin, that means thinking beyond wrinkles and pigmentation, firefighting or chasing a quick fix: "the question shifts from 'How do I look younger?' to 'How does my skin maintain its biological intelligence over time?'"
Dr Tamsin Lewis believes longevity science represents a broader shift in the way we think about skincare. It's a subtle distinction, but an important one: traditional anti-ageing skincare has largely focused on visible signs of ageing once they appear. Longevity science, by contrast, looks, as the name suggests, at the long-term picture. "The visible stuff, the lines, the laxity, the uneven tone, is downstream," says Lewis. "It's the consequence of years of upstream biological shifts that we simply haven't been looking at until recently."
Those shifts include declining DNA repair, increased inflammation, slower collagen production and a reduction in mitochondrial function, with mitochondria becoming one of the most talked-about areas in ageing research because they influence far more than energy production alone. "Mitochondria don't just produce energy," Lewis explains. "They also regulate cell death, inflammation and the stress response. As their function declines, you see ripple effects across multiple tissues simultaneously."
In skin, that can mean slower recovery after UV exposure, reduced repair capacity and a diminished ability to maintain the processes that keep skin healthy and resilient, and this is where Mitopure enters the conversation.
The ingredient behind the launch
Developed by longevity company Timeline, Mitopure is a highly purified form of Urolithin A, a compound linked to a process called mitophagy, which is the body's way of identifying and removing damaged mitochondria.
"What makes Urolithin A interesting from a scientific standpoint is its proposed ability to support mitophagy," says Lewis. "Mitophagy is one of those processes that declines with age and whose decline appears to contribute to broader cellular deterioration."
In theory, helping cells maintain healthier mitochondrial populations could support the repair and regeneration processes that underpin healthy skin. That's what has attracted interest from researchers and beauty brands alike.
However, Lewis is careful not to overstate the science: "There is published human clinical data relating to mitochondrial function and muscle health in supplemental form," she says. "The topical application is a newer frontier, and I think it's reasonable to be both interested and appropriately measured about what we can claim for the skin-specific evidence at this stage."
That caution is refreshing in an industry not always known for it, and in fact, when I ask what gives her confidence in the ingredient, she agrees that scepticism is often warranted in the beauty industry. "I am professionally obligated to be sceptical, but what shifted my position on this formulation specifically was visiting Lancôme's research facility in Paris," she says. "What I saw was not a marketing operation dressed up as science. This is a serious R&D programme."
That distinction matters because even promising ingredients can fail if they cannot penetrate the skin effectively enough to reach their target. "The skin is designed to be a barrier," Lewis explains. "Many promising actives fail not because the mechanism is wrong but because the formulation can't solve the penetration problem."
Lewis believes longevity science represents a broader shift in the way we think about skincare. Rather than simply correcting damage after it appears, the goal is to support the biological systems that help skin remain resilient in the first place.
For consumers, that doesn't necessarily mean dramatic transformations overnight. "Resilience is the word I'd use," she says. "Not perfection, not the reversal of time, but skin that functions better, recovers more robustly, tolerates stress more capably and maintains its structural integrity more gracefully over time."
That feels like a more realistic, and perhaps more appealing, promise than many beauty campaigns of the past. After all, longevity isn't about stopping ageing or achieving the impossible, but rather it's about supporting the systems that help us age well, the result of which is skin that works and, yes, looks better, both daily and over time.