I recently interviewed a well-known name in the beauty industry whom I knew must be over 30, but beyond that, his age was impossible to discern. It wasn’t so much that he looked younger, but his skin was so poreless, so wrinkle-free, that it wasn’t a version of a thirtysomething I had ever seen before. It was like a Roman sculpture come to life, marble smoothness in human flesh form, an image of youth that existed in no time and eternal time. Here was a man, pickled.
We may soon be encountering people like this on a daily basis. We might even begin to look this way ourselves. That’s because the next ten years will see a significant shift in the skincare industry, a shift fuelled by advancements in treatment technology, the rise of GLP-1 weight loss medications, a growing fatigue with fillers and Botox, and a desire for a unique, ‘authentic’ appearance in a culture increasingly dominated by AI.
Face wrap, £52, by Skims. Top, £2,300; harness, £4,000, both by Hermès
If beauty ideals of the past decade were typified by ‘Instagram face’, its exaggerated volume and feline features achieved through plumping and freezing methods, the next decade will see the emergence of an ideal manifested through subtle restorative treatments that respect the face’s natural architecture and place a primacy on skin health. Melinda Farina, often called ‘the beauty broker’, is known for connecting famous names with the world’s most skilled plastic surgeons. Based on what her clients are asking for now, she predicts that the most aspirational look of the future will be one that ‘appears lifted, energetic and youthful, but without signs of manipulation’ and focuses on ‘natural contours, strong mid-face support, refined jawlines, and exceptional skin quality’. Essentially, the hope is to look like yourself but better, in a way that is difficult to place. Whispers of this have already been seen on celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Christina Aguilera, who have recently returned to the spotlight looking younger than they had when they left it, spawning discussions of a new ‘undetectable era’ of plastic surgery.
The large-scale cultural effects of this could be significant. If experts like Farina are correct, we are about to nosedive into the uncanny valley with an unprecedented force. Longevity culture is helping to create a world in which people have never lived so long; and now they have also never looked so young. As increasingly sophisticated AI technology continues to undermine our ability to perceive what is real in the digital world, new technology is making it harder than ever to identify what is real on the most overt of human attributes: our face.
The defining feature of this future face will be flawless, baby-like skin: smooth and soft to the touch, with few visible wrinkles or pores, firm enough to see the contours of the face without losing the fullness associated with youth. As plastic surgeon Dr Jonathan Dunne, co-founder of dermatology and aesthetics clinic Montrose London, says: ‘Demand for treatments that elevate skin quality has surged in a way that none of us were talking about a decade ago. Five or ten years back, the focus was almost entirely on volume loss and wrinkles. Today, patients are thinking far more holistically; they’re asking about skin texture, elasticity, luminosity, pigmentation and overall resilience.’
Dunne and his team at Montrose are responding to this interest with a number of new technologies. These include Sofwave, an ultrasound treatment used for skin tightening that claims a natural lift with minimal downtime, and BBL (BroadBand Light), a pulsed light device that addresses hyperpigmentation, acne and vascular issues while also stimulating collagen and elastin production, among other skin concerns.
Similarly, Shane Cooper’s innovative use of skin-enhancing tech has made him one of London’s most in-demand practitioners, with a roster of celebrity clients that includes Lily Allen, Sabrina Carpenter and Sienna Miller. When asked about what his clients are looking for, he says, ‘People want to age well and maintain their features rather than alter them. I think we’ll see more people stepping away from heavy filler use as technology continues to offer lifting, sculpting and rejuvenation in a far more natural way.’ To offer that ‘natural’ effect, Cooper uses more than 15 medical machines and devices, which he ‘layers’, personalising the combination and order to the client’s unique needs.‘I’m especially inspired by exosome science,’ he says, referring to the nanoscopic vesicles, naturally released by skin cells, which are purported to help regeneration and repair (as such, they have been called ‘messenger cells’). ‘Particularly the E50 exosomes [derived from salmon cells]. They support deep cellular repair and, when combined with the right devices, the results are even more impressive.’
A country long hailed as a beauty industry pioneer is South Korea, which, as Jennifer Seo, founder of luxury beauty and wellness travel service Aneue Concierge, says, ‘tends to be a decade ahead of its US counterparts when it comes to treatment offering and technology’. Salmon sperm treatments, common in South Korean clinics years before they reached other countries, are administered via a ‘stamping’ method performed with a Dermashine device that delivers PDRNs (polydeoxyribonucleotides, often derived from salmon DNA) via vibrating microneedles for high-impact results and low downtime. She predicts that this method will soon migrate beyond South Korea, but thinks the most significant advancements of the next few years will not be to do with salmon DNA, but human.
‘Stem cell treatments are becoming popular worldwide, but the technology and public understanding are still fairly nascent,’ says Seo. In the US, practitioners are typically limited to using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood or placenta tissue, but not autologous ones (those taken from your own body), which is not the case in South Korea. According to Seo, these cells, especially those derived from fat, are uniquely effective at rejuvenating skin, joints and even hair, and although only a limited number of clinics in South Korea are capable of performing these fat-derived stem cell procedures at a high level, their popularity will only continue to grow. Such treatments can already be found at the London, Harley Street clinic of plastic surgeon Dr Yannis Alexandrides, founder of luxury skincare brand 111Skin. He offers both nanografting treatments, aimed at improving skin regeneration and quality, and micrografting treatments, aimed at adding volume and contour procedures; both of which emulsify fat harvested from the patient into a near liquid rich in stem cells and growth factors.
When it comes to more invasive treatments, Alexandrides cites deep-plane facelifts as one of the most transformative offerings, since the procedure goes beneath the muscles to lift the foundational elements of the face (muscle, connective tissues, fat) to create a smooth surface that rests more naturally than a typical facelift. But there are other factors at play, too – like the rise in popularity of GLP-1s (better known by brand names like Ozempic and Mounjaro), which can collapse fat compartments and increase facial laxity. Farina says the industry’s reflexive response to ‘Ozempic face’ has been to overfill, creating a wave of distorted, heavy complexions that don’t align with the patient’s identity. To combat this, she’s been pointing her high-profile clients to practitioners who specialise in collagen-stimulating facials and skintightening technologies ‘to help restore the appearance of the face, rather than inflating it, offering a more natural-looking solution for those who have lost weight suddenly’.
Beyond GLP-1s, there is, of course, that pernicious force that has been shaping our understanding of beauty for decades – digital technology. As Dunne notes, ‘social media filters and AI-edited images have changed what patients notice about their faces. They come in with far more precise concerns – subtle asymmetries, shadowing or jawline definition – often influenced by how their face appears on camera rather than in real life.’ This has driven a rise in treatments that improve skin quality, refine structure or, in Farina’s words, ‘help patients stay camera-ready without looking ‘overdone’.
It’s interesting to note that when asked what they think the ‘ideal’ face will look like in 2045, every professional I spoke to for this piece said it would be a face that respected ‘authenticity’. Speaking about authenticity in relation to beauty treatments, especially plastic surgery, seems like an oxymoron, but it may stem from the cultural tide moving away from a generic ideal towards a more subtly restorative form of beauty that retains people’s unique features. The emphasis is on looking symmetrical and ‘snatched’ enough to translate well to camera, but unique enough to stand out from the crowd.
On the one hand, this shift can be seen as a positive thing, pointing to a more individual understanding of what beauty is. As more people under the age of 30 report getting injectables and even facelifts, the rise of treatments that place skin health above altered features seems a welcome alternative. But it also presents a darker vision of the future – one in which, in order to look ‘natural’, one must alter one’s face; a future where the line between what is real and what is fake becomes ever harder to identify.
The existential questions embedded in this development are vast and complex, particularly as this trend is emerging at a time when advancements in science and the rise of longevity culture has led to us living longer than ever. It’s worth asking: what does this mean? Will looking younger transform our perceptions of beauty? And what will be the physiological consequences?
At best, this means we might soon live in a society of Benjamin Buttons (everyone looking younger but older and wiser on the inside) and, at worst, we’ll live in a world populated by Dorian Grays (our youthful faces belying a troubled interior). Chances are, we’ll probably end up somewhere in between – living at a time in which the technology we have to alter our faces is more advanced than ever, when AI is changing our perceptions of those faces, and medical advancements are allowing us to live longer than ever. How our future will play out is always hard to tell, but how we look is unlikely to change for a long time – at least, for those of us who get the work done.
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A version of this story appears in the March 2026 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
Model: Lisa Hageman at Women Paris. Casting: Suun Consultancy. Hair: Sachiko Yamashita at Agence Saint Germain using Phyto Réparation. Make-up: Mayumi Oda at Bryant Artists. Manicure: Marieke Bouilette at Calliste. Set design: Coline Robert. Local producer: Clara Perrotte. Digi tech: Arnaud Scheid. Photography assistants: Yiouli Itskou, Peggy Theodorogianni. Fashion assistant: Julie Stueven. Hair assistant: Hiro Yahune. Make-up assistant: Justine Sirabella.