Skin Care of One’s Own

Personalization and technology are seeping into every aspect of our lives, and skin care is no exception. In fact, Nu Skin is pushing the category full bore into new territory with the introduction of ageLOC Me, which recently won Happi’s second annual Readers’ Choice Anti-Aging Product of the Year contest.


The award was presented during Happi’s fifth Anti-Aging Conference and Tabletop Exhibition on Sept. 20.


Earlier this year, Happi asked its readers to nominate anti-aging products launched in 2015 and from those nominations the top four finalists were selected. Our readers then voted for their favorite and NuSkin’s entry came out on top.


Helen Knaggs, vice president of R&D at Nu Skin, was on hand at the conference in New Brunswick, NJ to accept the award. According to Knaggs, Nu Skin merged some significant trends not just in personal care but from our everyday lives, namely the increasing use of smart technology and customization.


“We wanted to provide a product that would really change the personal care landscape,” Knaggs told Happi.


The team at Nu Skin spent four plus years developing ageLOC Me.


The product marks a shift away from “one-size fits all” when it comes to skin care by allowing users to develop a truly customized skin system, according to the company.
There’s three main components to ageLOC Me— an app, the device and the formulations.


Through a series of 20 questions on the app, Nu Skin gets feedback from the customer that helps tailor the product.


“We get feedback about you, about the environment you live in and your lifestyle, because it all affects skin health,” Knaggs said. In addition, the questionnaire captures customer preferences—do they want SPF in their moisturizer, do they want fragrance or fragrance free, and whether they are interested in anti-aging treatment or more maintenance type products, for example.


The app then provides a personalized code that correlates to cartridges of product that are placed inside the device. There are five cartridge slots inside—one each for daytime and nighttime moisturizer products, with three reserved for serum formulations that are then dispensed together.


The three cartridges serve different purposes; formulations address cell turnover, pigmentation and tone and skin structure—all together they provide “a really great anti-aging serum that’s built around different needs,” insisted Knaggs.


Knaggs said Nu Skin’s R&D team was able to do some “clever things with formulations”—such as allowing for different pH levels, for example— because they are housed in separate chambers.


The serums are fueled by Nu Skin’s ageLOC blend, as well as other ingredients like alpha hydroxy acids, lemon peel extract and peptides.


There are options to customize the moisturizer components too, which means further personalization based on the consumer’s environment, whether she’s living through a dry winter in Utah or a hot, humid New York City summer.


Users place their hand into the mouth of the device and it dispenses the products in the regimen at the right time.


And ageLOC Me even reminds users if they have missed a step in their regimen.


“There’s some built-in programming that helps with compliance,” said Knaggs. “We want to make it simple and easy, and as habitual as brushing your teeth.”


Knaggs sees ageLOC Me as a sea-change in skin care and a mechanism for Nu Skin to deliver even more tailored skin care in the future.


“We are changing the dynamic,” she said.