The global anti-aging market is predicted to be worth $120 billion by 2030, at a GACR OF 7.5% year over year, showing that consumers still have a clear urge to look and feel younger. However, it can be argued that the typical approach to anti-aging―including cosmetic treatments and coverups―is becoming increasingly less sought after. Instead, alternatives such as an inside-out approach involving mental and physical wellness solutions that prevent stress and therefore the appearance-based impacts of aging, are becoming significantly more popular. As a result, companies are looking for the next steps for anti-aging as big beauty names like Dior pioneer research in the sector.
The House of Dior's first entry into skincare was in 1967, when the business, then known for its couture shows, decided that women's skin needed to be protected before and after applying makeup. In the '70s, Dior's skincare products and the dermatological world inspired the brand to begin Dior Science, where products were thought to be tested with the same rigor as drugs. After the company revealed its debut preventive care product, Resultant Wrinkle Cream, which is based around two popular ingredients in today's skincare industry―collagen and centella―a surge of interest in the anti-aging revolution followed.
During the following decades, Dior Science worked to develop solutions for preserving the youthfulness of cells and developing skincare technologies. In 2022, Dior entered research collaboration with Vadim N. Gladyshev, a Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, to “decipher the underlying biomolecular mechanisms responsible for the aging of cells.” Gladyshev was chosen because of his “sequenced and characterized research of the genomes, transciptomes, and metablomes of several expeptionally long-lived mammals.” The research program was considered the world's first dedicated to human skin rejuvenation under the category of age reversal. Currently, Dior Science is furthering its ventures in age reversal and pursuing additional research with a dedicated team of experts.
The House of Dior is set to invest in the field of reverse aging to "better understand the mechanism of skin rejuvenation with the ultimate goal of adding beauty to the years." The luxury house is doing this in collaboration with leading international experts, who will create the first International Reverse Aging Scientific Advisory Board (RASAB) dedicated to the research of skin and aging. The experts include Nancy Etcoff, PhD., Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School; David Furman, PhD., Associate Professor at Buck Institute; and Nicola Neretti, PhD., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University.
"Dior is making a bold entry into an unprecedented and defining scientific adventure. Guided by the ambition to leave beauty as our only legacy, we are convinced that the alliance of beauty and health is the key to a positive relationship with the passing of time. Dior has always been a House of Beauty, but today it is also a House of Science," comments Claudia Marcocci, Brand General Director of Parfums Christian Dior.
To strengthen their research, the RASAB will be working along with 600 members of the LVMH research team, who will contribute their knowledge and expertise to the study. Through both companies' knowledge about beauty and science, the collaboration hopes to "explore the intricacies of cells to better understand them" and how they contribute to aging.
All experts from both the RASAB and LVMH research are internationally recognized in their specified sciences. Across the team, a specialist for each of Dior's 12 hallmarks of aging will be present. The 12 hallmarks of aging were defined in 2000 by The House of Dior and have since become an essential reference across Dior Science research. The hallmarks consist of: dysbiosis, genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, disabled macroautophagy, deregulated nutrient-sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, altered intercellular communication, and chronic inflamation.
"Reverse aging is an incredible way of research that will allow us to live healthier lives longer by adding life to our years, rather than years to our lives. Dior Science has always been visionary about this positive relationship between beauty, health, and the passage of time," Virginie Couturaud, Scientific Communication Director at Dior, tells BeautyMatter.
"Today's advances in scientific and medical research on the 12 identified hallmarks responsible for aging allow us to believe that we have the possibility of reenergizing them or slowing down their dysfunctioning, but also of returning them to a younger level of functioning, which is the reality of reverse aging. It is finally the promise of having a better coherence between the real health of our skin in relation to what our appearance says about us and our chronological age."
Along with the board of experts in the scientific community, Dior has added Professor Nancy Etcoff―a specialist in the psychology of aging―to its board to ensure the social issues surrounding aging are taken into account. With the support of Harris Interactive andProfessor Etcoff, Dior conducted a major international study in France, the US, Korea, Japan, and Chinato understand the difference in the perception of aging and how people live with it.
Of the 5,000 18 to 80-year-olds surveyed, four out of five women said they accept their age but if they had the choice, would like to be younger. The desire to be younger is also accompanied by the desire to look younger, with 80% of respondents stating if they had the opportunity to appear more youthful, they would.
"Even if most of those surveyed have a positive feeling about aging, they fear getting older. Since being older doesn't have to mean feeling older, Dior Science relies on its history and advances in research to continue this trend and interact at the level of all cellular hallmarks to add beauty and health to our skin," adds Couturaud.
While the survey numbers show a clear interest in age-rewinding solutions, the "anti-anti-aging" movement is growing by the day, acknowledging that although the years can not be given back, older individuals can make their skin feel it's very best for the stage in life they're at. Dior believes that reverse aging research will contribute to this movement and push the wider beauty industry to improve mechanisms that slow down and reverse signs of aging. The brand also stated that numerous other scientific studies are currently being pursued, such as the exploration of the regenerative power of flowers to restore cell and tissue health. It poses the question: Does the future of aging look younger?
