Longevity is fast becoming a beauty industry buzzword as the health and wellness sector evolves to address our longer lifespans.
Now Estée Lauder has reaffirmed its investment into ‘curing’ ageing by partnering with the Stanford Center on Longevity.
Estée Lauder Companies’ flagship brand announced an initial three-year commitment to the centre’s new Program on Aesthetics & Culture.
This, it said, would help fund a wide range of research activities, including ‘New Map of Life’ post-doctoral fellowships and other work to advance the understanding of perceptions on longevity and vitality.
“Extended life expectancy offers us the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding about how people subjectively experience vitality and communicate this experience to others,” said Laura Carstensen, Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, of Estée Lauder’s support.
“We believe that skin, as the largest organ, plays a sizeable role in conveying this vitality.”
Estée Lauder will also mark the new year by establishing its Longevity Collective, a curated group of influential experts and global pioneers in longevity science and lifestyle.
From January 2024, the Estée Lauder Longevity Collective will serve as a brand advisory board, bringing new insights, research findings and resources to inform the brand’s ongoing approach to skin longevity research.
Collective members include Dr Nadine Pernodet, the brand’s Senior Vice President, Bioscience, Global R&D; long-term Estée Lauder partner Dr Danica Chen, Professor of Metabolic Biology, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology at the University of California Berkeley; and Serena Liang Jing, a ‘New Map of Life’ Fellow at the Stanford Center on Longevity.
Experts from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the Center of Aging Research & Clinical Care at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Stanford University School of Medicine will also be involved.
Next month will further see Estée Lauder launch Re-Nutriv Ultimate Diamond Transformative Brilliance Soft Crème.
The new sku is made with the brand’s patented Sirtivity-LP technology, which reveals visible age reversal starting at 14 days of use.
It is said to be the result of two decades of Estée Lauder’s study into the role of sirtuins – commonly known as ‘longevity proteins’ – in skin.
“The Estée Lauder brand has always been at the forefront of skin science,” said Justin Boxford, Global Brand President, Estée Lauder.
“Longevity is one of the fastest growing movements in the beauty and wellness industries, with multi-generational consumer interest in biohacking and age-reversal practices at an all-time high.”
He added: “Estée Lauder has been pioneering skin longevity research for more than 15 years, and we already have the proven technology to reveal visible age reversal.
“We see this as a truly pivotal moment for the brand to disrupt the industry, changing what we know about skin ageing and reimagining skin care for the future.”
‘Optimising’ life
Estée Lauder is far from the only beauty company exploring longevity and age reversal.
Clarins, for one, has partnered with the Scientific Center in Monaco for research into the longevity of the coral species Stylophora pistillata, while Beiersdorf is putting its faith in epigenetics as the key to turning back the biological age of the body.
But much of the conversation around longevity – in beauty and beyond – is rooted in the quality of long life, not solely on its extension.
Judith Campisi, Professor of Biogerontology at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, told Cosmetics Business that senolytics (drugs that selectively kill senescent cells) and senomorphics (which suppress senescent cells’ damaging secretions) “hold the promise for extending what has now been termed ‘health span’, as opposed to lifespan”.
Meanwhile, Olivia Houghton, The Future Laboratory’s Lead Beauty Analyst on its ‘Longevity Lifestyles’ macro report, said: “Longevity proposes that ageing should no longer be seen as or treated with managed decline.
“Longevity isn’t merely an innovation that delays death, but one that optimises life.”
