What a Longevity Scientist Actually Does for Her Skin

What a Longevity Scientist Actually Does for Her Skin (My Real Routine)

People expect me to have a forty-step routine.

I founded a longevity company, and I formulate supplements for a living. I am 37, with a child and a schedule that does not care about my skin. So people assume my bathroom shelf must be packed with serums. It is not. Most of what keeps my skin looking the way it does happens nowhere near that shelf, and that is the more useful half of the story.

The thing formulating these products taught me is that skin is built from the inside, in a particular order of importance. Get the order wrong and you can spend a fortune on the last 10% while ignoring the first 90. So here is what I actually do, roughly in the order it matters, with the reasoning behind each part. Some of it will surprise you, especially the part about blood sugar.

It starts with sleep, not serums

If I could keep only one thing on this list, it would be sleep. I protect eight hours the way other people protect their skincare budget.

I know how that sounds. But your skin does most of its repair work overnight, when growth hormone peaks and cells turn over. In one study, poor sleepers showed more visible signs of ageing and a slower recovery of the skin barrier than good sleepers. Skimp on sleep and you are cutting short the exact window when your skin rebuilds itself.

Close behind it is my nervous system, which sounds vague until you translate it into one word: cortisol. Chronic stress keeps cortisol high, and cortisol actively breaks down collagen. You cannot serum your way out of a permanently stressed system, so I treat downregulating my nervous system, walks, breathing, actual time off, as skincare. Because biochemically, it is.

I eat for my skin, blood sugar included

Two things run on my plate. The first is protein: I aim for around 30g per meal. Collagen is built from amino acids, and after 35 you are fighting a slow decline, so you have to supply the raw material generously. Most women I know are undereating protein without realising it.

Glycation: what sugar actually does to your collagen

The second is the part almost nobody connects to their face: blood sugar. Does sugar cause wrinkles? Indirectly, yes: high blood sugar damages collagen through a process called glycation.

Here is the science that changed how I eat. When blood sugar spikes, excess glucose latches onto collagen and elastin in a process called glycation, forming compounds with the fitting acronym AGEs, advanced glycation end-products. Glycated collagen goes stiff, brittle and yellowish. Dermatologists sometimes call the visible result "sugar sag." It is the same reaction that turns liquid sugar into hard caramel, happening slowly to the collagen in your face.

So I keep sugar low and processed food to a minimum, not for my waistline but because I can see the logic ending at my skin. And when I do eat out, or when I want sushi with all that white rice, I take AVEA's Stabiliser just before the meal. Its main ingredient, Reducose, is a white mulberry leaf extract shown to blunt the amount of sugar absorbed from a meal, which flattens the spike that would otherwise feed glycation. Fewer spikes means less glycation and, in my experience, calmer skin with fewer breakouts. It is the least obvious skin product I use and one of my favourites.

I also do not drink alcohol and have never smoked. Both accelerate skin ageing through oxidative stress, and giving them up is free.

I train for my skin

I strength train three times a week. Not for my skin directly, but skin is connected to everything underneath it, and muscle is not just muscle. It behaves like an endocrine organ, releasing signalling molecules that support tissue health throughout the body as you age. Maintaining muscle through your late thirties and into menopause is one of the best things you can do for how you look and age, full stop.

There is a structural point to it too. Strong bodies carry themselves differently, and that carries into a face, even if no serum can take the credit.

The one topical step I never skip

Sunscreen, every single day, rain or office or Swiss winter.

I am relentless about this because the numbers are relentless. The large majority of visible skin ageing is driven by sun exposure rather than the passage of time. Daily SPF is, gram for gram, the most effective anti-ageing product ever made, and it costs less than a single fancy serum. If you take one thing from my entire routine, take this one.

On my skin: barrier first, always

Now the actual bathroom shelf, which is smaller than you would think, and built around one principle: protect the barrier.

Your skin barrier is the frontline that holds moisture in and irritation out. Wreck it with harsh actives and over-exfoliation and everything looks worse, so I keep my routine gentle. I double cleanse in the evening to remove SPF and the day properly, then I stop before I overdo it.

On top of that, a handful of things make the cut:

My SkinSpan Serum. This is my hero topical. It is peptide-based, and peptides are messengers: short signals that tell skin cells to behave younger, including making more collagen. Rather than sitting on the surface, they prompt the skin to do the work itself, which is the whole idea.

A retinal serum, every other night. Retinaldehyde is the one active I bother with, because retinoids are the most evidence-backed anti-ageing ingredient there is, and retinal is a gentler step than prescription-strength retinoic acid. I use it every other night rather than nightly, and always with SPF the next day, since retinoids make skin more sun-sensitive. Introduce it slowly so you do not wreck the barrier, and skip it entirely if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

A pine bark antioxidant serum. My one addition from outside our range. Pine bark is rich in polyphenol antioxidants, and I use it as daytime backup against oxidative stress, alongside the SPF.

Red light, 15 minutes a day. I sit in front of a red light panel while I answer emails. Red and near-infrared light has been shown in controlled trials to increase collagen density and soften fine lines by stimulating the fibroblasts, the cells that build collagen. It is passive, and I am impatient, so passive suits me.

From within: what I genuinely swear by

Topicals reach the upper layers. To support the deeper structure, I go from the inside, and two products have been non-negotiable for me for years.

The Collagen Activator. I have taken this daily for longer than we have officially sold it, because I helped design it and I trust the mechanism. Instead of animal collagen you swallow and hope for, it gives your body the exact building blocks to make its own, in the ratio research points to as optimal, plus the vitamin C your body needs to assemble it and astaxanthin to defend against oxidative stress. In our own clinical study it improved hydration within a month and, over six months, was linked to a measurable drop in biological age. That last part is why I never skip it.

The SkinSpan supplement. The internal partner to the serum. It works on the barrier and hydration from within, which is the foundation everything else sits on. Think of it as maintaining the wall while the collagen work rebuilds the structure behind it.

How I'd start if I were you

If this looks like a lot, the honest truth, from someone who lives it, is that you do not need all of it, and you certainly do not need it all at once. The impact is heavily front-loaded.

If I were rebuilding from scratch, I would go in this order. Sleep properly. Wear SPF daily. Get your protein up and your sugar down. Keep your muscle on. Be gentle with your barrier. Then, and only then, add the targeted support: a peptide serum, a retinal if your skin tolerates it, and collagen help from within. The last layer is genuinely worth it, but it works because the foundation is there, not instead of it.

That is the whole philosophy really. I do not have younger skin than my age because of one miracle product. I have it because the unglamorous 90% is handled, which lets the interesting 10% actually do its job.

(If you want the internal layer I rely on as one step, the SkinSpan System pairs the Collagen Activator supplement, which is the combination I take every day.)

References

Oyetakin-White P, Suggs A, Koo B, et al. Does poor sleep quality affect skin ageing? Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. 2015;40(1):17-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/ced.12455
Danby FW. Nutrition and aging skin: sugar and glycation. Clinics in Dermatology. 2010;28(4):409-411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2010.03.018
Wunsch A, Matuschka K. A controlled trial to determine the efficacy of red and near-infrared light treatment in patient satisfaction, reduction of fine lines, wrinkles, skin roughness, and intradermal collagen density increase. Photomedicine and Laser Surgery. 2014;32(2):93-100. https://doi.org/10.1089/pho.2013.3616
Mukherjee S, Date A, Patravale V, Korting HC, Roeder A, Weindl G. Retinoids in the treatment of skin aging: an overview of clinical efficacy and safety. Clinical Interventions in Aging. 2006;1(4):327-348. https://doi.org/10.2147/ciia.2006.1.4.327
Flament F, Bazin R, Laquieze S, et al. Effect of the sun on visible clinical signs of aging in Caucasian skin. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology. 2013;6:221-232. https://doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S44686
AVEA Collagen Activator (Colgevity™) clinical trial: reversing biological age and improving skin elasticity, hydration, and texture. AVEA Longevity Insights. https://insights.avea-life.com/our-scientific-studies/avea-collagen-activator-colgevity-clinical-trial/