Collagen has become the beauty industry's shorthand for youthful skin. But as clinics and clients chase firmness and volume, a type of structural protein is getting far less attention than it warrants: elastin. For years the skin longevity conversation has belonged to collagen. It is the language of supplements, injectables, radiofrequency, microneedling, exosomes, LED and lasers, and of almost every professional treatment that promises firmer, smoother skin. Collagen gives skin much of its strength and structure, and its decline is central to how ageing shows up on the face. But skin does more than hold itself up. It moves. It creases, stretches and settles back again thousands of times a day, and it has to return to where it started.

As we pass the midpoint of the year, the treatment landscape is showing no signs of slowing. Our team has been exploring and discovering the latest launches across clinics, spas and aesthetic destinations, from regenerative collagen programmes and skin-boosting injectables to advanced IPL, scalp health protocols, body rituals and Ayurvedic therapies. What stands out is a clear move towards more intelligent, multi-layered results, with treatments combining science, technology, touch and wellbeing to meet a more discerning client demand. Whether focused on radiance, firmness, skin quality, hair health or emotional balance, these are the new treatments to know now.

For the best part of a decade, the interesting conversations in British skincare came out of Seoul. Sheet masks, ten-step routines, glass skin, essences nobody had heard of until everyone wanted three of them. K-beauty taught the UK market to experiment, and it changed what people expected a skincare shelf to look like. The next geographic wave is arriving from somewhere colder and stranger. Icelandic skincare speaks of provenance rather than novelty. Geothermal seawater, marine bioactives, mineral-rich waters, a national reputation for clean energy.

First there were ‘Sephora Kids”, now there’s a new word that has started circulating in dermatology journals; Cosmeticorexia. Cosmeticorexia describes a culturally reinforced, compulsive pursuit of flawless skin through excessive use of active ingredients, cosmetic products, tweakments and procedures. An open-access editorial published this year in Dermatology and Therapy frames it as a preoccupation with perfect skin that can lead to excessive, age-inappropriate or compulsive product use, and it draws a direct line to cosmeceuticals, social media routine culture, influencer marketing and the steady medicalisation of beauty.

It’s important to remember that skin treatments are never one-size-fits-all. Dr Tego Kirnon-Jackman has created SKINMENU around a far more thoughtful approach, where every treatment is tailored to the individual, with protocols designed to adapt to your skin rather than forcing it into a standardised plan.

With Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon Mr Paul Tulley, we explore how the operation shifts between younger and older candidates, and what that means for the choice of technique and the longevity of the result.

The phrase "facelift slipping" has moved from niche surgical forums into mainstream feeds. After Kris Jenner's reportedly $300,000 facelift became the subject of tabloid claims that her results were already fading and that she was unhappy and looking at a revision, the conversation cracked open across TikTok, Instagram and the gossip press. Search behaviour picked up the change the press release pack flagged this month. People have stopped asking whether a celebrity has had work done. They want to know why the work looks different a few months later.

Our editor spoke with Janna Ronert, founder of IMAGE Skincare, licensed esthetician and chairwoman of the board, whose brand says it is used by more than 60,000 licensed estheticians across over 60 countries. Together we explored what has really changed in clinic demand, why sensitive skin is still so often misread, how professional skincare should work alongside in-clinic procedures, and what clinics need to focus on now to keep their skincare offering strong going into 2026.

As advanced aesthetics places greater emphasis on recovery, clinicians are looking more closely at the technologies that can support tissue repair, regulate inflammation and improve patient comfort after treatment. LED phototherapy has long been used within acne and skin rejuvenation protocols, but its role is now widening. In clinic settings, it is increasingly being considered as part of a broader treatment plan that sits around a procedure, rather than as a standalone skin treatment.

The rise of non-surgical cosmetic treatments has brought with it a new phrase, and one that says a great deal about where the sector now finds itself. In the UK, “tweakment hotels” is increasingly being used to describe temporary or hot-desk treatment spaces, often in prestigious locations, where practitioners can rent rooms by the hour and benefit from the credibility of the postcode without necessarily offering the standards patients may assume come with it.

As regenerative aesthetics continues to move beyond correction alone, more attention is turning to what underpins long-term skin quality at a biological level, from amino acid availability to the role of substrate depletion within the extracellular matrix. Against that backdrop, biorestoration is emerging as a more technically nuanced area of aesthetic medicine, focused on supporting the skin’s ability to repair, renew and function more effectively over time. We sat down with aesthetic doctor and DermaFocus speaker Dr Catherine Fairris to discuss substrate depletion, the importance of amino acids in skin health, and where biorestoration, including Celora Vita, fits within the wider evolution of injectable treatment strategies.

For years, injectable conversations were dominated by the upper face. Forehead lines, frown lines and crow’s feet were the familiar entry points, while the neck was often treated as a separate problem, something to be addressed later, or surgically. Platysma Botox is moving into the mainstream of aesthetic practice as patients increasingly focus on the neck as a visible marker of ageing and seek treatment options that can soften early changes without surgery and changing the market. The treatment itself is not new, but its profile is rising as awareness grows, clinical protocols become more refined and the industry’s attention shifts towards lower-face and neck rejuvenation.

Women’s health conditions have long been shaped by delay: delayed recognition, delayed diagnosis and, in many cases, delayed research. Lipoedema is increasingly being discussed in that context, with studies suggesting it may affect around 6 to 11 per cent of women, yet it remains widely misunderstood and frequently mistaken for obesity or simple weight gain. Lipoedema is a chronic condition that affects the way fat is distributed in the body, most commonly in the legs, hips and buttocks, and sometimes the arms. It usually affects women, and is marked by a symmetrical build-up of fat that can be painful, tender and prone to bruising. The feet and hands are often unaffected, which can leave a distinct cuffing effect at the ankles or wrists. Despite this, the condition is still regularly mistaken for obesity, lymphoedema or simple weight gain.

Pores remain one of the most misunderstood features in skincare. They are routinely blamed for uneven texture, shine, congestion and the failure to achieve the smooth, refined finish that has become shorthand for healthy skin. In reality, pores are not cosmetic accidents. They are functional openings within the skin, closely tied to oil production, thermoregulation and the skin’s wider protective system. The problem is not that pores exist, but that they continue to be discussed in language that is anatomically inaccurate and commercially over-simplified.

Aesthetic medicine still has a lazy shorthand problem. Patients say “laser” when they mean anything from pigment correction to dermal tightening to deep-plane lifting, and plenty of clinics let the catch-all stand because it is convenient. Dr John Quinn, founder of Quinn Clinics, argues that this is where outcomes start to drift, because the decisive variable is rarely the brand name on the console. It is depth.

Neuroaesthetics is the scientific study of how the nervous system produces aesthetic experience: how we perceive, evaluate and feel pleasure (or aversion) when we look at faces, bodies, products, interiors, images and art. In the academic literature, it sits inside cognitive neuroscience and empirical aesthetics, with a consistent finding that there is no single “beauty centre”. Instead, aesthetic judgement emerges from a distributed network that integrates what the eyes and skin register, what reward and emotion circuits assign as value, and what memory and meaning systems contribute from culture and personal identity.

In the past few years, polynucleotides have lived where regenerative claims are allowed to be explicit: in the hands of clinicians. Mention PDRN, salmon DNA, or the viral “salmon sperm facial”, and the mental image is rarely a bathroom shelf. It is an injectable protocol, a post procedure recovery plan, a “skin booster” appointment, and a patient who expects their skin to behave differently in weeks, not months.

The latest new treatment launches read like a very clear signal from the market: clinics are being asked to deliver visible results, faster, with less downtime, while treating the client’s nervous system and lifestyle as part of the skin story. This month’s line up spans menopause care rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, stress focused Ayurvedic ritual work, upgraded professional peeling that prioritises barrier safe hydration, and a strong showing from energy based devices that promise “collagen banking” and deep remodelling without the social downtime clients increasingly refuse. Taken together, the trend is towards treatments that sit in the sweet spot between performance and reassurance, where the transformation is real but the delivery feels restorative, not aggressive.

Post inflammatory hyperpigmentation is one of the most visible complications you can trigger in skin of colour, yet it is also one of the most preventable. For Black, Asian, Middle Eastern and many mixed-heritage clients, a single bout of inflammation, a too-strong peel or an over-zealous laser pass can leave a mark that lingers for months, even years. PIH is not only a clinical issue, it is also an emotional and reputational one for salons, clinics and aesthetic practitioners.