Dermocosmetics: On Skin Care’s Final Frontier

Dermocosmetics is forging the future of skin care, as topicals, aesthetic services and medicine converge like never before.

“That is the revolution happening within beauty,” said Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, president of L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty.

A confluence of factors is driving the rise of dermocosmetics, most notably the realization that beauty is more than skin deep — literally. “People are more aware of what it means to have good skin quality,” said Gerry Muhle, senior vice president and head of global product strategy at Galderma.

“Patients and consumers are expecting more and more from topical skin care these days, given their access to procedures, prescriptions, and derm-backed and -developed products,” agreed Art Pellegrino, chief scientific officer at RoC Skincare.

Dermocosmetics has registered exponential growth since the coronavirus pandemic’s start. The segment doubled its sales over the last six years, from about 14.3 billion euros in 2019 to approximately 28.2 billion euros in 2024, up 7.8 percent on-year — growth 2 percentage points faster than the overall beauty market, according to L’Oréal estimates.

In 2017, dermocosmetics made up 6.8 percent of the beauty business, and last year it represented 9.2 percent, the group’s beauty market sell-in estimates show. The potential remains huge, with 2.1 billion people worldwide suffering from a skin care pathology.

Consumers have swiftly taken note of the power of dermocosmetic products, once relegated to European pharmacy shelves but now globetrotting social media darlings. Of the top 10 skin care brands for 2024, two are in the segment — La Roche-Posay at number three and CeraVe at number eight, brand performances that helped cement the number-one ranking of parent company L’Oréal in this year’s Top 100 ranking of the world’s largest beauty companies.

A number of trends are propelling the segment, chief among them an increased interconnectivity between the worlds of medical aesthetics and topical beauty, and the widespread social acceptance of image-enhancing medical procedures, from GLP-1s to Botox. “There’s three macro-development areas that drive the trends, both from a beauty skin care as well as an aesthetics perspective,” said Muhle, who added those are around increasing accessibility and acceptability of the likes of prescription weight-loss medicine, injectable aesthetics and science-based skin care, thanks in part to social media.

“We’re more interconnected, so trends are driving faster,” he continued. “All of these areas are intersecting into an overall health and wellness beauty outlook.”

As they merge, the segments learn from each other. “You’re seeing skin care become even further science-focused,” said Muhle. 

Moreover, everything is speeding up. “We’ve seen the innovation pace picking up in the dermocosmetic market,” said Heike Fischer, global vice president marketing of Beiersdorf’s dermocosmetic business, including Eucerin and Aquaphor. That is true in all the key categories of antiaging, acne, dry skin and sun care.

Dermocosmetics’ rise echoes that of aesthetic procedures. Three years ago, there were 610 million people who intended to have one. Today, the number is 830 million. That compares to those who carry them out — 430 million currently, up 23 percent versus 2022, according to L’Oréal.

The total aesthetic market is expected to grow by more than 40 percent by 2028, the group’s estimates indicate. “The penetration of the doers is growing year-on-year, and that is changing the face of beauty,” said Cohen-Welgryn.

So, too, does the fact younger people are now open to aesthetic procedures. In research from 2023, Galderma found 53 percent of Millennials consider injectable aesthetics part of their overall health and beauty regime. The group noted a 75 percent increase over the past two years of under-30s visiting plastic surgeons.

“It’s not on the periphery,” said Muhle. “From that, you’re starting to see new consumer skin stories emerge.”

L’Oréal is an observer rather than key player when it comes to aesthetics today, but is trying to decide whether it wants to become a participant in the category.

“That’s why we have taken participations in clinics in China and North America, taken a 10 percent stake in Galderma and signed a scientific partnership with them,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal chief executive officer, in early February during a meeting with financial analysts and journalists, referencing some of the group’s 2024 deal-making.

The other end of the age spectrum — the world’s population getting older — is also fueling the strength of dermocosmetics, as the sector is increasingly addressing a number of issues like senile xerosis, which is disabling, itchy dry skin; psoriasis, and diabetes.

Galderma’s forecasting research identified six dermocosmetic trends, with three already seeping into the present, including proactive beauty. “For example, you’ve got people who are wanting to microdose some of the treatments in injectable aesthetics,” said Muhle, citing as examples niacinamide and regenerative biostimulators like Sculptra. “We’re also doing some science at Galderma on senescent cells and skin care.” The idea is to wake up such zombie cells that build up with age.

Another trend is mindful aesthetics, including consumers alongside their “no-makeup look” using more intense skin quality improvements, such as lasers and energy-based devices. There’s “canceling age,” as well.

“It’s not antiaging — that’s yesterday’s news,” said Muhle. “It’s like age-fluidity. People are smashing the boundaries of what you’re supposed to look at for any individual age group. The onset of prescription weight-loss medicines is helping that come to fruition.”

There has been an upsurge of integrative skin care. “It’s the new frontier of the medicalization of skin care, where you associate cosmetics with aesthetics to, in the end, increase the performance,” said Cohen-Welgryn.

With its dermocosmetics, L’Oréal creates a lot of adjunctive therapy, which compensates the negative impact of drugs taken for skin care issues. “Dermocosmetics take some gold standards of dermatology and makes them more cosmetic, more tolerant, and therefore, probably, we will increase big time the penetration of use of those products,” she said, citing as an example L’Oréal’s groundbreaking molecule Melasyl, used to prevent skin pigmentation development that can lead to age spots and post-acne marks. Melasyl has the same power as hydroquinone but with multiple times more tolerance. “Within dermocosmetics, there are new boundaries, new frontiers,” said Cohen-Welgryn. 

Longevity, for one, is becoming a key tenant. “Longevity is a big topic,” said Fischer. “All of us are at the beginning of understanding how skin shapes also our health.”

“The horizons are really vast,” said Marie-Laure Pons, international marketing director of Sisley, citing examples such as the microbiome and immunity. 

Out-of-the box thinking is key to remaining pioneering and competitive. L’Oréal, for one, looks at solutions beyond the traditional beauty market. One of them is supplements, a category that currently generates 15 billion euros and is growing two to three percentage points faster than the general beauty market.

L’Oréal entered the ingestibles space with the launch of Skinbetter Science BioRewind Skin Health Dietary Supplement, an anti-glycation billed to help reverse aging. “We believe in the augmented performance driven by the synergy between aesthetic procedures, cosmetics and ingestibles,” said Cohen-Welgryn.

Laboratoires Pierre Fabre’s Avène, another key player in dermocosmetics, might also make the jump. The brand has in-depth knowledge about the holistic virtues of thermal water — its lifespring — including digestive and skin care effects, which are linked. 

“We hear a lot today about the intestinal microbiota and to what extent it is the origin of many illnesses, sometimes stress, anxiety and depression,” said Anne-Laure Nguyen, CEO of Avène, which does not currently have ingestible supplements. “Intestinal microbiota seems linked to certain skin problems, too, so it is indeed a very interesting avenue of exploration.”

Face has been the largest dermocosmetic category, but that’s set to change in coming years. “You’re going to see an expansion within the body space,” said Muhle. “Some of the regenerative properties and great skin creams that you’re getting on the face in the dermocosmetic area are starting to move to the body.”

The question is how to transfer some of the active ingredients to the body. Muhle noted with injectables, for instance, regenerative bio-stimulators are being used increasingly. There’s been an uptick of demand for female intimate rejuvenation, among other categories.

Hair care is also underrepresented in dermocosmetics, making up just 5 percent to 6 percent of the category, versus 20 percent in beauty, even though hair issues are the second-largest reason people see a dermatologist.

L’Oréal’s Dercos brand from Vichy is the top-ranked in markets where it has been present over the past five years, while CeraVe launched the category last year. Pierre Fabre has brands such as Ducray, Klorane and René Furterer experiencing a boom.

“There will be continued growth of dermo coming from the catch-up of the hair care category,” said Cohen-Welgryn, who believes men constitute another segment that will help move dermocosmetics’ needle. “There’s only 25 percent penetration of men in cosmetics. They represent half of the population; they should be half of cosmetics.”

Numbers aside, men tend to have more dermatological issues than women, including oily skin and dandruff. “If there’s a category that should be able to attract them, it is [dermocosmetics],” she said.

The dermatological sun care segment is expected to keep expanding. “We see more and more consumers getting into that trend, enhanced by influencers on TikTok,” said Fischer, adding social media has helped spur consumer education. “Demographics are wider, and this is also why the market is still growing so nicely.”

New delivery systems are another focus. “Exosomes are on the forefront now,” said Pellegrino, referring to the extracellular vesicles that encapsulate and surround an active ingredient, and are essentially smart delivery systems allowing ingredients to penetrate the skin more effectively.

 

RoC uses osmolytes that teach skin where to send water to increase and boost hydration. Meanwhile, microneedling is a delivery system in Pierre Fabre’s scopes. 

All of this has led to some breakthrough products. L’Oréal’s Melasyl was first integrated into formulation for La Roche-Posay’s Mela B3 franchise.

“Pigmentation is a big issue in the world, becoming more important with climate change,” said Cohen-Welgryn. “We need to step change the way we treat pigmentation with cosmetics.” 

Beiersdorf’s Eucerin brand, which doubled its business worldwide between 2019 and 2023, just launched a new line called Radiant Tone, formulated with Thiamidol, to reduce dark spots within two weeks, as well as Hyaluron-Fill Epigenetic Serum with Epicelline. 

“We are able to read the biological age of skin, not the chronological one,” said Fischer, of the latter product, which integrates patented Age Clock technology developed with AI.

Avène has introduced sun protection aimed at preventing skin cancers, and to combat acne, the brand rolled out the intensive cream Cleanance Comedomed Peeling, inspired by aesthetic peeling techniques to have a rapid effect on complicated imperfections. This year, in the realm of drug protocols and to dig deeper into the “therapeutic dermocosmetics” arena, Avène is coming out with an acne product to be used with medical treatments to help their efficacy or avoid relapses.

The brand will have an antiaging range that can be associated with aesthetic procedures, too. “We try to get even closer to aesthetics acts,” said Nguyen, who explained dermocosmetics is increasingly becoming known for its ability to repair the skin barrier.

For its part, RoC Skincare recently carried out research in 35 aesthetic clinics in France and subsequently pulled together a protocol of new and existing products into what’s called the RoC 35 Protocol. That includes the Hydrate + Plump and Revive + Glow serums, Firm + Lift and Firm Serum Stick moisturizers, and Dual Eye Cream, all with the brand’s patented retinol technology, hyaluronic acid, THPE and vitamin C. 

“We reached almost 10 years of skin-age reduction with these patients,” said Pellegrino. “One of the goals of this project was to really align their emotional feelings about aging — the fact that they feel younger than they look — and provide them with that benefit of feeling as young as they look.”

Another aim is to provide performance benefits similar to procedures. In January, RoC launched Derm Correxion Lip Volumizer, which goes beyond giving a traditional immediate plumping effect that then disappears and instead claims to deliver deep, lasting hydration over time and to restore lips’ natural color. “Seventy-seven percent of women in our study would either delay or not consider lip injections after using this product,” said Pellegrino. 

Increasingly, prestige beauty players are looking to the pharmaceutical industry for new ingredients, moving them closer to dermocosmetics. 

The Estée Lauder Cos. in late February said that it had joined with Serpin Pharma for ingredient research. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical company has been studying anti-inflammatory technologies for 20 years. It discovered serine protease inhibitors, a class of proteins that quell inflammation, and Lauder is looking into the proteins’ applications in beauty, as well as other technologies, that then would be exclusive to the company. It is understood that Lauder is evaluating applications across its brand portfolio.

In China, Clinique introduced Clinique CX, an advanced post-procedure treatment franchise that also includes a device the company developed in less than 12 months. Additionally, the company announced a the opening of a new biotech hub in Belgium last December, and a collaboration in January with MIT.

Sisley, meanwhile, ventured into the sensitive arena in January with a new product called Sensitive Skin Soothing Care, which serves as the basis of a Dermatological Responses sub-range within the brand’s skin care line. It was created with active plant ingredients to soothe skin and enable users to apply other products for a more expansive routine.

“Our innovation for sensitive skin is the beginning of our new adventure into that field of [dermocosmetics],” said Pons, who added Sisley labs have been researching skin physiology, including trying to understand inflammation and skin out of balance. “There is so much to be done.”