The Science of Skin Aging

Skin longevity and skin aging dynamics. What I am working toward.

Takeshi Matsushita

April 2025

Skin longevity has become a widely used phrase over the past few years — the science of maintaining healthy skin for longer. Shiseido, L'Oréal, and Estée Lauder are all using this language now.

I think this is a good development. The shift from "hiding aging" to "understanding and addressing aging" is the right direction for the industry.

But there is one thing I find unsatisfying.

No one seems to be genuinely pursuing the question of what causes skin to age in the first place.

Aging is not a phenomenon — it is a dynamic

I use the term skin aging dynamics. Rather than viewing aging as a static phenomenon, it means treating it as a moving process — multiple pathways advancing in cascade.

Concretely: UV exposure and stress generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS trigger chronic inflammation. Inflammation activates MMP, the enzyme that breaks down collagen. Collagen degrades, firmness is lost. In parallel, excess sugar forms AGEs (advanced glycation end-products), further deteriorating collagen. The barrier collapses, external irritants penetrate directly, inflammation accelerates.

This cascade has speed. It has mutual amplification between pathways. Some pathways advance before others. The pattern differs from person to person. The reason the same skin longevity approach does not produce the same results is that aging dynamics vary individually.

What comes after skin longevity

If skin longevity — the science of long-lasting healthy skin — is a philosophy of prevention and maintenance, what I am working on is the step before that.

First: know which aging pathways are advancing and how far. Then: determine the intervention approach. Not a single ingredient for a single pathway, but simultaneous action across all five.

This is the thinking behind REGINA's FABIR framework. F (fibroblast activation), A (anti-glycation), B (barrier function), I (anti-inflammation), R (antioxidant / ROS control). Achieving real skin longevity requires addressing all five pathways together.

Why major brands focus on one ingredient

This is a structural observation, not a criticism.

Major brands concentrate advertising spend to build recognition — "this brand means this ingredient." That is correct as marketing. But from the perspective of aging dynamics, it answers only half the problem.

Controlling ROS alone does not stop inflammation. Suppressing inflammation alone does not stop glycation. Repairing the barrier alone does not interrupt the upstream cascade. Genuine skin longevity requires simultaneous action across multiple pathways.

What CHROSNOF calculates

CHROSNOF is skin aging dynamics described as a mathematical model. Using ODE (ordinary differential equations), PDE (partial differential equations), and PINNs (physics-informed neural networks), it quantifies the state of all five pathways.

Seeing the state through calculation, not intuition. That was the starting point.

Skin longevity will only become more important as a field. But achieving the goal of long-lasting health requires first knowing precisely what is happening now. Skin aging dynamics is the language for that.

REGINA LOCUS LVXL designs its products in that language.