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.

I recently experienced the 60-minute Katherine Daniels Skin Resurrection Treatment at Iris Avenue, and it was one of the most relaxing and hydrating  facials I’ve had in a long time.

SKINVITY moved into Selfridges' Smartech space last month, the latest beauty tech brand to graduate from selling direct online to a spot on the prestige retail floor, clinical claims and all and for salons, this means that another wellness tech company is cranking the dial up and putting professional-grade kit, LED, radiofrequency and pressotherapy, into the hands of the same clients who book your treatments.

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.

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.

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.

Personalisation has become a default promise in skincare marketing, yet many clinics still run into the same bottleneck once a patient’s skin stops improving. The difference between “tailored” retail routines and true personalisation is that one adjusts what is already on the shelf, while the other changes the formulation itself, including the vehicle, excipients, pH window and concentration, based on the patient’s presentation and tolerance.

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.

Vitamin C has moved from niche antioxidant to non-negotiable in many professional skincare menus. Yet for every client who swears by their brightening serum, there is another who reports stinging, flushing or rough texture after introducing it. For practitioners, understanding why vitamin C behaves beautifully in some skins and irritates others is essential for safe recommendations, realistic expectation-setting and troubleshooting when things go wrong.

Chitosan has spent decades in the quiet end of healthcare, tucked into dressings and gels in hospital wound wards. Now it is edging into beauty hall territory. The ingredient crossed over into mainstream beauty headlines in 2024 when Dyson unveiled its first Chitosan styling range, powered by chitosan derived from oyster mushrooms and engineered with its Triodetic technology for flexible, long lasting hold in hair styling products. For many consumers, that launch was the first time they had seen the word on shelf. For formulators and clinicians, it was a reminder that one of medicine’s most versatile wound polymers is finally being taken seriously for everyday barrier care.

When the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) announced that it had banned a series of LED face mask adverts over acne and rosacea claims, it sent a clear signal to the beauty sector. Four brands were found in breach of the CAP Code after social media and website ads claimed their masks could “treat acne”, “heal rosacea” and “kill acne causing bacteria”, often backed with before and after images. Both acne and rosacea are classified as medical conditions in UK law, which means any device claiming to treat them must be registered with the MHRA as a medical device and supported by robust clinical data.

A 5 News undercover investigation has found beauty clinics across the UK offering microneedling facials that use exosomes harvested from human tissue, despite UK rules that prohibit human-derived material in cosmetics. In the report, some clinics acknowledged using products sourced from umbilical cord blood or liposuction fat.