It’s become increasingly likely that stem cell science will fuel the future of luxury skin care.
One signal is Angela Caglia Skincare’s recent success with its Cell Forté Serum, a product it launched in October of 2023 that’s driven 437% annual sales growth and retail expansion into Nordstrom. The serum represents 90% of the brand’s growth over the past 12 months, which founder Angela Caglia outlined on the Glossy Beauty Podcast.
The serum is powered by something called “human-derived adipose mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned media,” a technology Caglia discovered when researching treatment options for her mother’s ongoing treatment of dementia.
MSC-conditioned media is sourced from human fat, called adipose tissue, which is donated by young and healthy plastic surgery patients and then processed in a lab. The stem cells are removed from the tissue and placed in a human-like environment where they excrete growth factors, cytokines and proteins, which are then used in the serum. The stem cells, which hold the patient’s DNA, are removed before the broth goes into the serum.
“We’ll do $500,000 this month — $300,000 in direct-to-consumer [sales] and $200,000 in wholesale,” Caglia told Glossy. “It will be our biggest month in the history [of the company].”
The company’s new consumer base represents the 1%, she told Glossy, and consumers order multiples after going through their first bottle. After seven years in business, the brand is having its hockey stick moment with a 51% subscription rate among its DTC customers. Angela Caglia Skincare customers can “subscribe” to monthly shipments to receive 20% off on the 1-ounce serum, which sells for $395.
FactorFive has seen similar growth with its human-derived offering: a $195 Regenerative Serum, also sold in a 1-ounce bottle and full of similar growth factors.
John Aylworth, a California-based researcher turned CEO and founder of FactorFive, started his company in 2015. The intention was to bring regenerative solutions to diabetes patients unable to heal lower body sores. But he soon discovered the cosmetic efficacy and added topicals to his business model.
Today, he sells 90% of the brand’s products wholesale, to estheticians and doctor offices, and 10% direct to consumers online. He told Glossy that the opportunity overseas has been remarkable, with high consumer demand across the Middle East and South America. He mostly reaches these consumers through distributors. “Our brand exploded in the Dubai and the United Arab Emirates marketplace way better than we had anticipated,” he told Glossy.
Aylworth has a unique operation in California that’s vertically integrated: FactorFive is a product born from Xytogen Biotech, for which Aylworth is the founder and chairman. Similar to Angela Caglia Skincare, it sources its stem cells from plastic surgery patients through a network of doctors.
For Caglia’s part, she declined to reveal her facility but told Glossy that it is a leading stem cell research lab based in Texas. It is CGMP-certified and specializes mainly in stem cell banking and FDA-cleared clinical trials, she said.
These products, as well as those by a growing number of competitors, are some of the highest-priced skin-care offerings on the market today. But unlike the retinols, rare extracts and fermented ingredients that have been popular in luxury products over the past 30 years, consumers can get more bang for their buck with growth factors.
Caglia told Glossy that Cell Forté’s value proposition lies in its replacement of all other products. She recommends customers replace antioxidants like vitamin C, hydrators like hyaluronic acid and exfoliants like retinol with one growth factor serum.
“Once they understand [it replaces] retinols, vitamin C, peel pads, peptides, botox and laser treatment, they get it,” Caglia said.
It’s part of a growing trend in which consumers are rejecting products that can disrupt the skin barrier, also known as the microbiome, while simultaneously moving away from the complicated 12-step routines that dominated the 2010s.
According to Krupa Koestline, clean cosmetic chemist and founder of KKT Labs, today’s consumers are craving simplicity.
“The current trend in luxury skin care emphasizes multifunctionality and personalization,” she told Glossy. “Consumers are looking for products that, in one formulation, simultaneously address multiple skin concerns, [like] hydration, anti-aging and barrier repair.” She said she’s seen a large uptick in the use of growth factors, exosomes and stem cell-conditioned media, which she said are the most expensive ingredients used in beauty today.
According to Yarden Horwitz, co-founder of Spate market research company, consumers searching for information on growth factors in skin care is trending on TikTok and across Google search.
Google searches for the terms “skincare” and “growth factors” together averaged more than 32,000 per month over the past year, marking a year-over-year increase of 202.7%. Meanwhile, the same terms on TikTok receive more than 215,000 searches, on average, per week.
“[Growth factors] are a rising trend on search, with a notable surge in Google searches alongside ‘skincare.’ And TikTok content around growth factors in skin care, like platelet-rich fibrin treatments for under-eye hollows [performed in doctor offices], is sparking curiosity around personalized, cutting-edge skin-care solutions,” Spate’s Horwitz told Glossy.
Luckily, for consumers or brands squeamish about human-derived products, there’s also a growing opportunity across biomimetic, or bio-identical, ingredients. In short, these are synthetic copies of the stem cell excretions made in a lab.
For example, French skin-care company Biologique Recherche sells a serum with biomimetic placenta, which mimics the composition of human placenta, called Iso-Placenta Serum. Until recently, Biologique Recherche’s products were sold mostly through estheticians and spas, but earlier this month, the brand expanded to Bergdorf Goodman. The retail store sells 0.3 ounces of Iso-Placenta Serum for $76, as well as the rest of the line.
Another standout is a biomimetic stem cell-powered skin-care range from double-board-certified Beverly Hills facial surgeon Dr. Jason B. Diamond, MD. He launched his line, Dr Diamond’s Metacine, in May 2023 and has seen quick success with its two-step hero system, called the Instafacial Collection, which includes a serum and cream for $550. The duo lasts four weeks with daily use. The rapid success of the system has helped the brand launch into Moda Operandi, Goop, Blue Mercury, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Dermstore since its May 2023 launch.
Eighth Day is another luxury brand tapping into bio-identical growth factors. When launching his line, Dr. Antony Nakhla, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, dermatologic surgeon and clinical researcher in Southern California, weighed the pros and cons of using biomimetic and human-derived ingredients.
“The science behind human-derived ingredients is intriguing and promising; I even experimented with them early in my career as a dermatological surgeon,” he told Glossy. “[But] we formulate with synthetic bioidentical ingredients for their safety, efficacy, reliability and predictability, as far as results are concerned.”
That is, the growth factors found in one bottle of a human-derived product may differ from another based on the donor, he told Glossy. Bio-identical growth factors can also be distributed in one of his target markets: the European Union.
For context, human-derived ingredients can currently be sold in a majority of markets, but in the E.U., they are banned from sale and cannot be patented.
“From a commercial standpoint, we appreciate the reliable nature of synthetic actives that ensures our products deliver the highest level of efficacy to consumers around the globe,” Dr. Nakhla said.
For brands hoping to tap into the science fueling this sea change in skin care, regulatory compliance should be a top concern, said Michael H. Hinckle, esquire, managing partner at K&L Gates law firm where he specializes in FDA regulatory and pharmaceutical compliance.
He told Glossy that HCTP — legal jargon for human cell and tissue-based products — is regulated, in part, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and regulations are quite nuanced. But when used in cosmetics, the lines are blurry since the practice is fairly new.
“There’s a whole regulatory scheme around these cellular tissue type human products,” he said. “I would hope that the companies considering using something like this have looked at it [critically] and gotten documentation in place so they can demonstrate that they have confirmed the safety of including these types of ingredients in a cosmetic [product].” He recommended legal counsel to ensure sourcing, manufacturing and marketing are above board and all legal requirements and risks are weighed accordingly.
In terms of saturation across the market, human-derived products are still underrepresented, compared to lab-created copies.
“Bio-identical or biomimetic ingredients — those that mimic natural skin components — are especially trendy because they enhance compatibility with the skin,” said Koestline, clean cosmetic chemist.
As of now, both Angela Caglia Skincare and FactorFive are also working on biomimetic offerings to bring non-human-derived options to the market, with one goal being access to the European Union.
