Our editor spoke with Janna Ronert, founder of IMAGE Skincare, licensed esthetician and chairwoman of the board, whose brand says it is used by more than 60,000 licensed estheticians across over 60 countries. Together we explored what has really changed in clinic demand, why sensitive skin is still so often misread, how professional skincare should work alongside in-clinic procedures, and what clinics need to focus on now to keep their skincare offering strong going into 2026.

As advanced aesthetics places greater emphasis on recovery, clinicians are looking more closely at the technologies that can support tissue repair, regulate inflammation and improve patient comfort after treatment. LED phototherapy has long been used within acne and skin rejuvenation protocols, but its role is now widening. In clinic settings, it is increasingly being considered as part of a broader treatment plan that sits around a procedure, rather than as a standalone skin treatment.

In the past few years, polynucleotides have lived where regenerative claims are allowed to be explicit: in the hands of clinicians. Mention PDRN, salmon DNA, or the viral “salmon sperm facial”, and the mental image is rarely a bathroom shelf. It is an injectable protocol, a post procedure recovery plan, a “skin booster” appointment, and a patient who expects their skin to behave differently in weeks, not months.

Vitamin C has moved from niche antioxidant to non-negotiable in many professional skincare menus. Yet for every client who swears by their brightening serum, there is another who reports stinging, flushing or rough texture after introducing it. For practitioners, understanding why vitamin C behaves beautifully in some skins and irritates others is essential for safe recommendations, realistic expectation-setting and troubleshooting when things go wrong.

When the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) announced that it had banned a series of LED face mask adverts over acne and rosacea claims, it sent a clear signal to the beauty sector. Four brands were found in breach of the CAP Code after social media and website ads claimed their masks could “treat acne”, “heal rosacea” and “kill acne causing bacteria”, often backed with before and after images. Both acne and rosacea are classified as medical conditions in UK law, which means any device claiming to treat them must be registered with the MHRA as a medical device and supported by robust clinical data.

A 5 News undercover investigation has found beauty clinics across the UK offering microneedling facials that use exosomes harvested from human tissue, despite UK rules that prohibit human-derived material in cosmetics. In the report, some clinics acknowledged using products sourced from umbilical cord blood or liposuction fat.

When Dua Lipa unveiled DUA, a three-piece skincare line created with Augustinus Bader, industry watchers clocked more than another celebrity drop. It looks like a new blueprint for how fame, science and price architecture can co-exist without cannibalising the parent brand or exhausting consumers who are weary of celebrity-fronted launches. The range launched on 4 November 2025 with a cleanser, a glow serum and a moisturiser priced roughly $40 to $85, well below Augustinus Bader’s core line. The line uses a proprietary complex called TFC5, positioned as a gentler sibling to AB’s hallmark TFC8.

Shay Mitchell’s launch of Rini, a kids’ skincare line for children as young as 3, has intensified a debate already rumbling through clinics, schools and social feeds: should children have skincare routines at all, and if so, what do they need. The short answer from dermatology literature and UK clinical guidance is simple. Healthy children need very little beyond gentle cleansing, moisturising when skin is dry, and rigorous sun protection. Everything else risks irritating an evolving skin barrier or normalising cosmetic overuse at an early age. The longer answer is that needs change with biology, not marketing cycles, and that biology is clear.

Lemon essential oil is popular with formulators because it smells clean, cuts through oil, and carries a reputation for brightening. Its activity comes largely from volatile monoterpenes such as limonene, β-pinene and γ-terpinene, with smaller amounts of citral and related compounds. In vitro and ex vivo work shows antioxidant capacity and broad antimicrobial effects against several bacteria and fungi, which helps explain its use in products aimed at oily or blemish-prone skin and as a natural preservative adjunct. That said, most efficacy data sit at bench scale rather than in robust clinical trials, so positioning should be measured.