MIT Researchers Develop Facelift In A Bottle

Publish date: 2024-06-20

Trending News: MIT's New Facial Cream Is Just As Good As A Facelift

May 9, 2016

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Why Is This Important?

Because you can now apply that flattering Instagram filter straight to your face.

Long Story Short

You can essentially have a 'facelift in a bottle' with MIT's XTL Technology — or ‘Second Skin’ — a two-step cream application that's a potential answer to those baggy eyes and wrinkles (that just seemed to appear recently). People in the medical community are unsure of whether to call this a “miracle” or “too good to be true.”

Long Story

The geniuses at MIT spent nine years developing a two-step cream system that has the potential to be the solution to our anxieties over aging. Second Skin which is licensed by Living Proof and Olivio Labs was created by MIT’s famous Robert Langer who led the research to develop the “miracle cream.”

The results are temporary and the product will be expensive. Second Skin can be used cosmetically or to treat skin conditions such as eczema. Out of 170 subjects who used Second Skin not one reported any irritation or allergic reactions. Hollywood hotshots such as Kim Kardashian (who suffers from psoriasis) could be first in line.

Other companies and researchers have trying to develop similar technology for years but couldn’t create a product that was flexible, strong, and non-irritating enough to hit the market. It would seem as though Second Skin cracked the code.

“We started thinking about how we might be able to control the properties of skin by coating it with polymers that would impart beneficial effects,” Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering said in a press release. “We also wanted it to be invisible and comfortable.”

How does it work? It's simple: Apply the first cream by simply rubbing it in. Then, apply the second cream. That's it. The siloxane polymers will interact and assemble into a cross-linked polymer layer (XPL). It'll look exactly like smooth and vibrant healthy skin.

The product just simply peels off or can be taken off with your average makeup remover.

“Creating a material that behaves like skin is very difficult,” says Barbara Gilchrest, a dermatologist at MGH and an author of the paper. “Many people have tried to do this, and the materials that have been available up until this have not had the properties of being flexible, comfortable, nonirritating, and able to conform to the movement of the skin and return to its original shape.”

If you want to get on this train, you best be investing in some makeup remover or just borro some from your lady (ask nicely and she just might share).

No word yet on pricing but you'd better start saving. Until then, find the right moisturizer for your skin.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Will Second Skin put plastic surgeons out of business or will they be promoting the cream to their patients?

Disrupt Your Feed: Second Skin sounds like a viable alternative to painful and exceptionally costly plastic surgery procedures. Those opposed to plastic surgery and the plastic surgery addicts among us will both be running to buy this product in no time. It’s a game-changer for the industry.

Drop This Fact: Creator Robert Langer believes the product can be used to deliver medications, making it ideal for burn patients.