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The Shelf

Edit 051 · THE BIOHACKED FACE

The Biohacked Face: Growth Factors, Exosomes and the New Biology of Skincare

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The shelf where skincare starts borrowing vocabulary from regenerative medicine.

The Biohacked Face: Growth Factors, Exosomes and the New Biology of Skincare

For most of its history skincare borrowed its words from the kitchen and the garden: butters, oils, extracts, essences. The newest shelf borrows from the lab. Exosomes, growth factors, placenta proteins, phytomelatonin, a DNA-named complex, and a vocabulary that sounds like a clinical trial even when it is describing a moisturizer.

Eleven products that use that vocabulary, read with the label in one hand. Two of them, the BIOEFFECT and the VENN, are built on epidermal growth factor, one grown in barley and one from a Korean lab. One is an exosome protocol from Harley Street, and one is a conditioned-media serum from a Californian founder who worked alongside a stem cell scientist. There is a placenta cream, a melatonin serum from Sicily, a plastic surgeon's peptide fluid modelled on platelet-rich plasma, a diamond-named infusion from Barcelona, and the Bader Elixir, which is the same TFC8 idea as the famous cream in a different vehicle. Every one is a cosmetic, and we describe what they contain rather than what they promise.

A note on the words. Exosome and growth factor describe an ingredient, not an outcome, and the evidence behind them in a topical cosmetic is early and mostly brand-funded. We are not making the claims, and the labels, read carefully, mostly do not either. What the page can tell you is what is in the bottle and how much the bottle costs, which at these prices is worth knowing before the vocabulary does its work on you.

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111SKIN Exosome Face Lift

Treatments UK Approx. $825

A four-week, two-step protocol from a Harley Street house, built around an exosome serum and a hydrolyzed-sponge step the brand designed to copy what microneedling does for delivery. At eight hundred and twenty five dollars it is the most expensive serum on The Shelf, and one of two on this page sold as a course rather than a bottle.

Sold as a course with a start and an end
Exosomes with a delivery step, not just a claim
Evening only, so there is nothing to remember in the morning

Texture: A two-step, four-week protocol: an exosome serum plus a hydrolyzed-sponge delivery step
Key ingredients: Exosomes · Niacinamide · Hydrolyzed sponge
Fragrance: Contains fragrance

The clinic protocol, boxed.

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Angela Caglia Cell Forté Serum

Serums USA Approx. $325

Built on conditioned media, the protein-rich fluid left behind when human stem cells are cultured in a lab, plus sh-Oligopeptide-1, which the industry files under growth factors. Angela Caglia is a Los Angeles facialist rather than a chemist, and the pitch reads that way: fewer steps, one bottle.

Conditioned media printed on the label, not hinted at
Fragrance-free
One serum where the routine used to be four
A facialist's product, priced like one

Texture: A watery, fast-absorbing serum
Key ingredients: Human stem cell conditioned media · sh-Oligopeptide-1 · Allantoin
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

This is the three hundred and twenty five dollar way to find out what conditioned media does for you. At least the facialist who made it prints it on the label.

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BIOEFFECT EGF Power Serum

Serums Iceland Approx. $379

BIOEFFECT grows its epidermal growth factor in barley, in greenhouses in Iceland. The whole list runs to twelve ingredients. Power Serum adds a second growth factor, KGF, and acetyl glucosamine to the original formula.

Twelve ingredients, all of them doing something
A growth factor grown in a plant, not a cell line
Fragrance-free
Two to four drops, so the bottle lasts

Texture: A clear, glycerin-based drop serum
Key ingredients: Barley-grown EGF · Barley KGF · Acetyl glucosamine · Hyaluronic acid
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

The plant-grown growth factor.

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Eighth Day The Regenerative Serum

Serums USA Approx. $800

Developed by a dermatologic surgeon, Dr Antony Nakhla, around a patented complex of twenty four peptides, amino acids and growth factors the brand calls Peptide-rich Plasma. The bottle is 100ml. Serums this dense with peptides usually sell in 30ml.

Twenty four named peptides and amino acids
A hundred milliliters, not thirty
Fragrance-free
Made by a surgeon who uses it in practice

Texture: A light, watery serum in a 100ml dropper bottle
Key ingredients: Peptide-rich Plasma complex · Niacinamide · Hyaluronic acid
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

The surgeon's peptide serum, full size.

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VENN Skincare Regenerative 10B-EXO EGF Ampoule

Treatments South Korea Approx. $250

Ten billion plant-derived exosome vesicles per vial, from ginseng, centella, sweet wormwood and buckwheat, and stable at room temperature where most exosome products want a fridge. Sold by a Korean house as a four-week, four-vial course.

Exosomes that do not need a cold chain
Four vials, one a week, then you stop
Plant sources, named
Two hundred and fifty dollars in a category that reaches eight hundred

Texture: Four 5ml ampoules, one per week
Key ingredients: Plant exosomes from ginseng, centella, artemisia and buckwheat · EGF
Fragrance: Not stated

One vial a week for four weeks, then it stops and you decide whether anything changed. Most exosome products need a fridge. This one does not.

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MZ SKIN Restorative Bio-Placenta Cream

Moisturizers UK Approx. $390

Dr Maryam Zamani is a London oculoplastic surgeon, and this is the richest cream in her range: squalane second on the list, built around a liposome-encapsulated complex of amino acids and vitamins the brand calls M5Rx. The bio-placenta in the name is the brand's term for a lab-made complex, not an animal ingredient.

Squalane high on the list
Encapsulated actives rather than loose ones
A surgeon's brand at three hundred and ninety dollars

Texture: A rich squalane cream
Key ingredients: M5Rx complex · Squalane · Hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid
Fragrance: Contains fragrance

It contains fragrance and most of this shelf does not. Check that before it goes near freshly treated skin.

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Dr. Diamond's Metacine INSTAFACIAL Plasma Bioactive Growth Factor Serum

Serums USA Approx. $200

A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon's brand, sold mostly as a three-part set that runs to eight hundred and seventy five dollars. The Plasma is the first step and the one you can buy alone, which is why it is the one here. It belongs on this shelf for what the list actually contains: five of the lab-named peptides the category calls growth factors, a tobacco-plant-derived hexapeptide, copper tripeptide-1 and hyaluronic acid, in a fluid the brand says is modelled on platelet-rich plasma. That is the brand's framing, and it is the clearest example on the page of skincare using a clinic's vocabulary. The list is now published in full at Dermstore, which is the reason we can name any of it.

The full list is published, so the peptides can be counted
Sold separately, so you are not forced into the set
Nine peptides and hyaluronic acid in a fluid that layers under everything
The texture is the lightest on this shelf

Texture: A watery serum from a glass dropper, and it disappears almost immediately
Key ingredients: sh-Oligopeptide-1 and sh-Oligopeptide-2 · sh-Polypeptide-1, -9 and -11 · Nicotiana benthamiana hexapeptide-40 sh-oligopeptide-1 · N-prolyl palmitoyl tripeptide-56 acetate · Acetyl hexapeptide-8 · Copper tripeptide-1 · Sodium hyaluronate
Fragrance: No fragrance in the list

The peptide list is the argument. Read it before the price.

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RescueMD DNA Repair Complex PRO

Serums USA Approx. $388

Lapachol is the active: a naturally occurring compound from the pau d'arco tree that the brand has studied for skin recovery. The serum is the work of a plastic surgeon, Dr Michael Suzman, and the PRO size is 120ml, priced for covering ground, not for dotting on one spot.

An ingredient you will not find elsewhere on The Shelf
A hundred and twenty milliliters for the price of a small serum
Fragrance-free and made for sensitive skin
Face and body from one pump

Texture: A light, silicone-slip serum in a 120ml pump
Key ingredients: Lapachol · Hexapeptide-9 · Panthenol · Allantoin
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

The surgeon's recovery serum, in bulk.

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Irene Forte Skincare Phytomelatonin Rejuvenating Serum

Serums Italy Approx. $290

Four ingredients. Oat, yarrow and sage from the Alps, taken through a patented extraction into a lipophilic phytomelatonin oil, plus vitamin E. The science belongs to Dr Francesca Ferri, the name on the label belongs to the Forte hotel family, and fifteen milliliters is dosed a drop or two at a time.

Four ingredients, one of them patented
Fragrance-free
A drop or two a night, so the small bottle is not small
Formulated and tested for sensitive skin

Texture: An oil-based drop serum in a 15ml bottle
Key ingredients: Alpine phytomelatonin from oat, yarrow and sage · Vitamin E
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

Oat, yarrow, sage and vitamin E, plus a patented extraction to get the phytomelatonin out. Two hundred and ninety dollars for four ingredients is either restraint or nerve.

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Natura Bissé Diamond Life Infusion

Serums Spain Approx. $680

The most concentrated serum in Natura Bissé's Diamond line, from the Barcelona house whose facials are on the menu at most five-star spas. Niacinamide sits second on the list, ahead of the hydrolyzed collagen and the encapsulated delivery system the brand calls bio-magnet naosomes.

Niacinamide near the top of a six hundred and eighty dollar list
The brand behind the spa facial, at home
A light texture that layers under a cream

Texture: A light, faintly pearlescent serum
Key ingredients: Niacinamide · Hydrolyzed collagen · Bio-magnet naosomes
Fragrance: Contains fragrance

The Barcelona spa serum.

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Augustinus Bader The Elixir

Serums Germany Approx. $550

The top of the Bader range: the second-generation TFC8 complex plus a phyto-peptidic concentrate the brand describes as exosome-rich. Centella leaf extract is the first ingredient, unusual on a five hundred and fifty dollar label, and niacinamide is seventh.

Centella first, niacinamide seventh
The newest TFC8, not the original
Fragrance-free
Two pumps, twice a day, and the bottle keeps up

Texture: A milky, fast-absorbing concentrate
Key ingredients: Advanced TFC8 · Phyto-peptidic concentrate · Niacinamide · Centella
Fragrance: Fragrance-free

Worth $550 only if The Serum already works on you, since this is the step above it.

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Filed 2026-09-06. Reviewed 2026-09-06. We recheck every link on The Shelf and retire anything we can no longer stand behind. Every product we have written up is listed in the product index.