Exosomes in Skin Care | The Strategist

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Often, when I hear lofty claims of “life-changing” ingredients, I wait 18 months to see if they keep coming up. This has been the case with exosomes, an ingredient that promises everything from skin repair to speeding up cellular regeneration to fading hyperpigmentation. If it lives up to the marketing claims, exosomes could functionally replace every step of our skin-care routines, from retinol to vitamin C to chemical exfoliants. I first heard about exosomes 18 months ago over breakfast at Casa Cipriani. I was there for a launch event for aesthetician Angela Caglia’s first product — Cell Forté serum. She pitched the serum as an all-in-one, four-in-one that can replace vitamin C, retinol, peptides, and hyaluronic acid in your routine. This was possible because of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue (a.k.a. body fat), which contains growth factors, exosomes, peptides, and cytokines. That was the first time I heard the word exosomes, but it kept cropping up over the next year — in pitches from brands and in conversations with dermatologists and cosmetic chemists like Julian Sass, who says clients have been coming to him about exosomes for the past three years. “At first it was a lot of the aestheticians, a lot of the professional brands that were the first adopters of exosomes,” says Sass. “But now that Skinfix launched an exosome product at Sephora, I think we’re going to see a flood now that other brands don’t have to be the first. Then, in five years, ten years, L’Oréal is going to do it, and it’s going to cost ten bucks at the drugstore.”

Exosomes are protein-covered messenger cells that trigger all kinds of processes in the body — from wound healing to inflammation. Think of exosomes as a sort of internal post office, sending letters in the form of proteins, lipids, and growth factors, carrying information over short and long distances. Every cell makes exosomes.

A variety of sources, but currently, the most effective stuff is coming from humans, harvested from stem cells and platelets along with tissue like fat cells. Sourcing is the most important factor here for a variety of reasons. As I mentioned earlier, exosomes carry information between cells, but that information isn’t fully understood. Some scientists believe that in addition to lipids, protein, and growth factors, they also contain DNA and mRNA, which raises the concern of transmission of genetic information or diseases between donor and client. “It’s a tricky area,” says dermatologist Dr. Melanie Palm, the founder of Art of Skin. “The source is really important because some of these are human derived. You really have to do your research and make sure it’s a clean source,” meaning DNA free. While you can’t really verify this independently, it’s still a good rule of thumb, to ensure you aren’t unknowingly rubbing someone else’s genetic information into your skin. The risks of this aren’t fully understood — there isn’t a lot of testing — but the concern is that there could be an adverse reaction like inflammation or the potential for disease transmission. With that said, there haven’t been reports of exosome-related complications as a result of using a cream — however that doesn’t mean that the risk level is zero.

One of the biggest concerns about exosome sourcing is that there aren’t clear rules and standards for harvesting or lots of safety and efficacy data. It’s also noteworthy that while exosomes are regulated by the FDA, there are currently no products with FDA approval. In 2020, the FDA actually issued a warning against products containing stem cells and exosomes, emphasizing that there are limited-use cases and they shouldn’t be treated as a cure-all. The FDA’s notice focused on regenerative medicine and stem-cell treatments. Brands making exosome products and skin-care clinics offering exosome treatments get around this by framing exosomes as cosmetics, which aren’t subject to the same regulations. Cosmetics can’t claim to “treat” or fundamentally alter anything. With that in mind, you’ll want to be cautious about any exosome treatment and avoid anything being injected into your skin.

Exosomes can also be extracted from non-human sources like animals and plants or synthesized in a lab. Fans of plant-based exosomes argue that it’s safer because there isn’t a potential for disease transmission. The main argument against plant-based exosomes is that they’re ineffective because humans aren’t plants. There also isn’t much data supporting that plant-based exosomes work. Despite the limited data, plant-based exosomes are quickly becoming more popular, especially in the “masstige” skin-care space. Skinfix recently brought the first exosome skin-care moisturizer to market, a “vegan growth factor” peptide moisturizer that’s being marketed as an alternative to retinol. While the brand is the first to introduce the ingredient to a mass-market retailer like Sephora, it definitely won’t be the last.

There are two separate buckets for exosomes: in-office treatments applied by an aesthetician and topicals you can apply at home. In-office exosomes are typically applied after a treatment like microneedling to help speed up healing. “They are really unparalleled when it comes to healing,” says aesthetician Elizabeth Hand, the founder of Ställe Studios. She recently did a microneedling treatment on herself and a facialist to compare healing times and said her redness was gone within a day, while it took three to four days for her co-worker to see non-irritated skin. These in-office treatments use human-derived exosomes and are both potent and expensive and require refrigeration to stay fresh. These serums are also not available for sale. Facialist Sarah Akram says she’s less enthusiastic about the treatment. “I’ve used it on myself and didn’t see much difference,” she notes. Currently, she doesn’t offer the treatment at her studio.

Here’s where things get trickier. Exosomes are difficult to stabilize — hence the refrigeration in in-office treatments — so it’s hard to determine whether you’re getting the maximum benefit of the ingredient or any benefit at all. If you are going to buy a cream, both Palm and Cass mentioned Plated, a human-derived exosome formula that costs a little more than $250. “It’s human derived, they have willing donors, and then they’re growing the platelets,” says Cass, which he adds explains the price. “I think it’s the real deal, but am I willing to spend $300 on a 15-milliliter product that I don’t think is going to give me different results than a retinol or other things that I use in my routine? I don’t know about all that.”

A human-derived exosome serum at an affordable price (sub-$100) is a ways off, if even possible. All of the factors required to formulate an exosome serum — from paying the donors to extracting the exosomes to stabilizing it — will show up in the price tag. A cheap human-derived option is a red flag and generally not recommended.

The cheaper the exosome product, the more likely it uses plant stem cells. Plant-derived exosomes are compelling because they don’t include humans, which requires extensive testing and carries concerns of transmissibility. It’s also easier to produce at scale. It isn’t easy to harvest large amounts of human exosomes, but plants are abundant. This one study, conducted in 2022, suggests that plant-derived exosomes are biocompatible and work similarly to human-derived exosomes, but the data is limited and there’s a lot more research to be done to confirm that it works as well as human-derived exosomes. “In theory, it’s a good sustainable idea, but I have not been impressed with the results in clinical practice,” says dermatologist Dr. Karan Lal.

Despite all the chatter, it’s still early days and regulation needs to catch up. While there are some promising formulas, it’s likely better to wait and see how the technology evolves. If they are effective, they may not end up doing much more than the retinol or antioxidant already in your routine. From talking to dermatologists and aestheticians, that seems to be the general sentiment. “I wouldn’t trade my retinoid or growth factors,” says Lal. Alternatively, exosomes may end up being mostly marketing — a shiny, buzzy ingredient added to support well-proven ingredients like vitamin C or hyaluronic acid and claiming to do the work.

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