The science behind L’Oréal’s new skincare products

Las Vegas is incredibly dry. The dry winter air caused me to wake up on the third day of CES 2025 with a bloody nose, chapped lips, and ashen legs. Even though I applied two pumps of fermented soy essence, eye cream, moisturizer, and lip mask generously. I look at my face reflected in the hotel mirror and wonder if any of those products are doing what they were supposed to do. If so, I think you should try another product.

This is why I was curious to try L’Oréal’s Cell BioPrint.

For anyone concerned about their skin color, Cell BioPrint feels like the holy grail. This device is a mini laboratory setup that analyzes skin samples to generate a report on the current condition of your skin. It also grades your skin based on oiliness, wrinkles, skin barrier function, pore size, and uneven skin tone. Based on the proteins in your skin, you can also determine whether you may be more susceptible to these problems in the future, even if they are not a problem now. This test also checks whether you react to retinol, a popular and well-researched skincare ingredient but one that causes a lot of confusion online.

Using Cell BioPrint was simple in my demo. Mainly because I didn’t have to do anything. L’Oréal hopes to one day make Cell BioPrint a home device, but it will first target retail stores, dermatologists and skincare clinics. Likewise, actual testing is performed by experts to ensure accuracy. A L’Oreal employee took samples from both my cheeks using a special type of sticker. I watched him dissolve it in buffer, put the resulting solution into a cartridge, and feed the cartridge into the machine. I also had my cheeks and forehead scanned with an imaging wand before answering two questions about my age and demographic data.

After a few minutes, I saw the results. Apparently, I must be doing something right because the report said my chronological age and biological age matched. However, it is said that although the skin barrier function is good now, biological problems are more likely to occur as one ages. My report also states that you don’t have to worry about your pore size, now or in the future, and that it is highly reactive to retinol, so your skin can tolerate it well.

There were a few other insights that I won’t bore you with, but after reviewing the results I had a better idea of ​​what to focus on. For example, you should continue to use moisturizers containing ceramides, strengthen your sun care habits in addition to sunscreen, add vitamin C to help tone your skin, and add retinol. I know what I am too don’t I need it or I can remove it from my routine. For example, there is no need to buy products that focus on shrinking pores.

Most of this wasn’t surprising. My results were consistent with the concerns I had noticed and where I tend to focus my skincare routine. For example, I’ve tried retinol a few times and never had a hint of the sensitivity that others experience.

Of course, these kinds of personalized recommendations are only as good as the science behind them. After all, many health and beauty tech companies promise the moon but are deliberately coy when it comes to explaining why you should trust them. Aside from regulatory certifications (which aren’t typically required for wellness and beauty technology), it’s up to the individual to discern whether their description passes the smell test.

With this in mind, I asked L’Oréal to delve deeper into the science, and Guive Balooch, Global Vice President of the L’Oréal Technology Incubator, graciously agreed.

Balooch said the company studied 800 biologists and published a clinical study to discover whether skin cells expressed certain proteins that could determine risk factors for certain skin conditions. The problem is that the body produces a lot of protein. Finding a few of the thousands that can provide actionable skincare insight is like finding a few needles in a giant haystack. L’Oréal researchers sequenced all of them and then Find relevant biomarkers.

Balooch refers to this particular field of study as proteomics, or the study of how proteins are expressed in the body. “It’s about understanding that our cells are making proteins every day. We make more or less of these proteins depending on our lifestyle, geography, and genes. It changes over time, and your habits can change.”

Balooch said L’Oréal tested 4,000 people over 10 years across the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia and discovered five proteins associated with skin health, two of which influence how well a person’s skin responds to retinol. They announced that they had discovered a protein related to blood clotting. Cell BioPrint is currently only able to analyze reactivity to retinol, but other ingredients such as niacinamide and hyaluronic acid are also being analyzed.

To be cynical, devices like this could be seen as a pseudoscientific way to sell more products to people who already have an easy time making money. But Balooch insists Cell BioPrint is not intended to encourage people to buy more.

“In a way, it’s about letting people know something. ~ no “I want to buy it,” he said. “Of course we want to sell more products, but not overspend. It’s actually not good for your skin. “It’s about helping people find the right products based on science.”

To this end, Balooch’s argument makes sense. The current skincare market is filled with misinformation and influencers pushing expensive 10-step routines that sometimes do more harm than good. I know better, but I’m just as guilty as the next skincare nerd. (I’m still obsessed with that bottle of snail slime that claimed it would solve all my problems. Instead, it broke me.) Even now, I know I’ll probably be affected again. The difference is that at least I can choose to get affected by a retinol cream or vitamin C serum (which are more likely to help me) rather than wasting my money.