Why recovery skincare will be the next big thing

Customers today can shop for formulations rich in copper peptides and antioxidants that meet their skin's needs precisely

- Tanisha Saxena

When luxury skincare brand Viktor Michael launched its Recovery Care Collection earlier in 2023—backed by six years of R&D, world-renowned cosmetic chemist Susan Goldsberry, and a proprietary Injection Care Complex—the brand wasn't just introducing a product. It was quietly correcting an oversight in the aesthetics industry: the absence of intelligent, medically sound care for the skin after the procedure.

Post-injection flare-ups, bruising, and compromised skin barriers have long been accepted as inconvenient footnotes to cosmetic intervention. Most patients were sent home with little more than a petroleum jelly tube and vague instructions to "avoid the sun." But as minimally invasive procedures like Botox, dermal fillers, and lasers move into the mainstream—performed not only in dermatology offices but in medical spas, beauty bars, and sometimes living rooms—the lack of standardized recovery care has become more than a cosmetic gap. It's a clinical liability.

"Any aesthetic skin procedure, whether it's microneedling, lasers, chemical peels, or skin tightening, works by inducing a controlled injury to the skin," explains Dr Geetika Srivastava, dermatologist and founder of Influennz Clinic, Delhi. "This intentional damage stimulates the body's natural healing response, which leads to long-term skin improvement." Procedures such as fractional lasers or chemical peels initiate collagen production or epidermal turnover by creating controlled trauma to the skin. This trauma, however, disrupts the skin barrier making it susceptible to inflammation, pigmentation, dehydration, and infection.