Peer Into Our Crystal Ball

And behold the future of your skin, hair, and body. The ELLE beauty team talked to experts to learn about the most exciting innovations ahead.

- KATHLEEN HOU, KATIE BEROHN

Better Skin Through...Salmon?

Think back to a moisturizer that you pinned your beauty hopes and dreams on. Now consider that the secret to actually achieving those aspirations may be to inject salmon DNA—in the form of polynucleotides—into your face.

Perhaps you've already seen a TikTok video about using salmon sperm for beauty. Harnessing DNA research dating from the 1980s, salmon polynucleotides, or DNA fragments, are purified and injected to help stimulate the production of collagen—the protein that gives skin its youthfulness. Injectable polynucleotides, including brands like Plinest, Ameela, and Rejuran, aren't yet FDA-approved (topical versions are permitted), but are available overseas, including in the UK and South Korea.

At the Soni Clinic in London, they're now the second most popular injectable treatment after Botox. "Americans [fly] over for these treatments. I see several a week now," says plastic surgeon Ashwin Soni, MBBS, founder and owner of the clinic. New York dermatologist David Kim, MD, who travels to South Korea to learn about new treatments, says that polynucleotides have multiple benefits: "They have a lot of anti-inflammatory, anti-aging effects—they help with collagen synthesis and tissue regeneration, and add hydration."

Because polynucleotides don't add volume like filler or freeze muscles like Botox, dermatologists say there isn't much danger of overdoing things. "The risk of you looking crazy is very little to none," Kim says. "You look glowier and radiant without changing the way you look." The results can last for up to six or seven months.

If you're wondering why salmon, in particular, may be the future of skincare, it's in the genes, Soni explains. "Wild salmon are constantly changing, and adapting to a changing environment in the ocean," he says. "When you look at the number of genes in the helix, [we are] really quite similar."