Sara Yoon shares her skin care routine with more than 90,000 followers Sara Yoon When the dermatologist explained that the clinic's new treatment was made "from dead people", Sara Yoon thought she heard something out of a science fiction movie. The 40-year-old influencer, who was born in New Jersey and has lived in Seoul since 2023, quickly understood that this was one of the most recent bets in the South Korean beauty industry: a procedure that uses donated human tissue to try to reverse signs of skin aging. In sophisticated clinics in the Gangnam neighborhood, one of the centers of South Korean aesthetics, treatments of this type began to attract patients willing to pay a lot for the promise of younger skin. A Re2O session, one of the products leading this new wave, costs between 600,000 and 800,000 South Korean won, the equivalent of around R$2,000 to R$2,700. The price is approximately four times higher than that charged for traditional skin rejuvenation treatments, according to Bloomberg.
Dead people's skin and salmon DNA: clinics charge up to R$2,700 per exotic rejuvenation session
Sara Yoon shares her skin care routine with more than 90,000 followers Sara Yoon When the dermatologist explained that the clinic's new treatment was made "from dead people", Sara Yoon thought she heard something out of...
The growth in demand also boosted companies in the sector. Shares of L&C Bio Co., the South Korean biotechnology company that developed Re2O, have more than doubled in the last year. The movement shows how South Korea's beauty industry is pushing the boundaries of so-called K-beauty, known worldwide for cosmetics, skin care routines and products aimed at the so-called "glass face". Now, the new frontier is in regenerative medical procedures. Human skin, salmon DNA and pig collagen Re2O is not the only treatment that draws attention due to the ingredients used. Another popular procedure in South Korea is Rejuran, an injectable made with salmon DNA. There is also Laetigen, which uses pig collagen. These treatments stimulate the skin's natural collagen production. The difference with Re2O is in the reconstruction proposal. The product uses an extracellular matrix (ECM), a structure rich in proteins such as collagen and obtained from processed human skin. The material is injected into the face and neck to create a type of support where the body's own cells can develop. The company's slogan summarizes the proposal: "skin over skin". According to Bloomberg, the skin used in the product comes from human tissue donated in the USA and certified by the Association for Advancing Tissue and Biologics (AATB), an entity that establishes standards for the safe use of donated human tissue. “It is simply skin tissue without any cells, to avoid immunological rejection and allergic side effects,” said Kim Han-saem, chief dermatologist at the Department of Defense Dermatology Clinic in Seoul, in an interview with Bloomberg. "When you inject into aged or damaged skin, you are not stimulating it but rebuilding it, which is why it is a completely different approach," said the doctor. Demand exceeds production Demand for treatment grew faster than production capacity. According to Kim, interviewed by Bloomberg, some patients started to wait up to a month for an appointment. L&C Bio currently produces around 80 thousand bottles of Re2O per month. The company's plan is to increase this capacity to 150,000 units per month in the second half of the year and reach 300,000 in the next two years, according to the company's executive president, Lee Whan Chul. ? Growth already appears in the financial results. The company's operating profit in the first quarter increased 917% from the same period last year and reached 6 billion won, according to Bloomberg. “We are receiving inquiries from all over the world, also thanks to the Korean beauty boom,” Lee told Bloomberg. The product, whose name means "Return to 20 years", is already exported to countries such as Singapore and Japan. The company intends to expand sales to Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russia and Thailand, in addition to entering the American market next year, according to the executive. The business of aging The companies' focus is on a global market that is growing with the aging of the population and the search for treatments capable of delaying visible signs of aging. The global market for anti-aging products and services is expected to nearly double by 2035, reaching US$150 billion. The expansion is mainly driven by Asia, where rising incomes, the influence of social networks and the aging of the population are increasing demand. The change also appears in the South Korean medical sector. The number of plastic surgeons in private practices has almost doubled in the last decade and surpassed 2,700 professionals, according to data cited by Bloomberg. With higher salaries and growing demand, doctors from different specialties began to migrate to aesthetic medicine. Ethical dilemmas Critics question whether using donated tissue for cosmetic purposes can compete with traditional medical applications such as breast reconstruction and burn treatment. The popularization of these procedures highlights a dilemma of the new era of beauty: how far are consumers willing to go — and how much are they willing to pay — to try to regain a more youthful appearance. For patients like Sara Yoon, the decision depends on trust in doctors and a willingness to try new things. “I started to adopt this cultural mentality of trusting the doctor a lot,” the influencer summarized to Bloomberg.
This story was originally published by G1. Visit the original publication for further details.
Open original publication
