The Plant Paradox

The future of skincare may be growing in upstate New York.

- Jamie Rosen

Dr. Macrene Alexiades is sure. She is sure that the white flowering plant Galium aparine, which is currently encircling her lush 14-acre property in Milan, New York, will make a fantastic remedy for burns. She is sure that the plants she is growing there, in a petite medicinal garden planted next to a newly painted charcoal-gray log cabin, will change the way we age. And she is sure that, though she has built her Manhattan dermatology practice on the power of lasers and injectables to slow down the aging process, she won’t have much use for them in a few years’ time.

“I believe I’ve made procedures obsolete,” she says, speaking at a confident clip. “I believe I’ve replaced them with active ingredients. I’m proof. Look at me. This is crazy. I don’t do any injectables; I don’t do any lasers. I think this is all from active ingredients.”

Lest you think the 52-year-old has genetics to thank for her strong jaw and smooth skin, she is quick to correct you. “I’ve had my genetic analysis done,” she says. “I’m supposed to look four years older than I am, based on my telomerase activity.”

It’s uncommon to hear any doctor—let alone one who is writing a textbook called Cosmetic Dermatologic Surgery—speak so boldly about botanicals. But the Park Avenue derm was working on bugs and plants long before she started tending to the complexions of queens (and princesses and supermodels).