1 week Ago By Emily Orofino
It’s not just the novelty factor that has made salmon-sperm facials the buzziest beauty treatment on the block – the celeb-approved procedure actually delivers on its purported claims of glowier, healthier-looking skin. But if you can’t get yourself into a medical spa or doctor’s office to try it yourself, you have the next best option: PDRN serums and creams. To understand why PDRN creams and other topical products have become so popular, you’ll first need to understand PDRN itself.
PDRN, or polydeoxyribonucleotide, is the active ingredient in “salmon-sperm” facials. “It’s a fragment of DNA,” says Dr. Eunice Park , dual-board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and the founder of AIREM in New York.
(Not outright sperm, as hype would lead you to believe.) According to Brian Murdock, general manager, North America, for K-beauty brand Memebox , PDRN’s restorative properties were first researched back in the 1980s, but subsequently became widely used in Korean skincare and dermatology treatments, including injectables. Vogue ’s favourite PDRN skin-care products: The most common pro-grade treatment you’ll see is Rejuran Healing Essence.
This formula uses PDRN derived from salmon sperm cells that are harvested from the fish as they literally swim into the company’s specially designed facility at the end of mating season. Park uses this formula in her practice, noting that many practitioners in Korea will administer the product via multiple shallow injections, not unlike Juvéderm’s skin booster SkinVive. Rather than injecting it, Park applies it to the skin after microneedling or lasering.
“It’s like a vitamin boost to the skin,” she says. PDRN has many skin benefits, with preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties, as well as the ability to synthesise collagen and reduce hyperpigmentation. These benefits have made in-office PDRN procedures wildly popular, so it was only a matter of time until the active ingredient found its way into at-home formulas.
“While topical PDRN products don’t penetrate as deeply or work as intensively as injections, they still deliver visible results over time, improving skin texture, elasticity, and overall radiance with consistent use,” says Murdock. This is especially true if you use at-home microneedling devices – those little channels created by a dermaroller will help a PDRN serum penetrate the skin more deeply. In this article: As we dug into the research for this story, we wondered: Why salmon? “When PDRN was first gaining traction, its use started with salmon-derived PDRN because they found that salmon sperm shared similarities with DNA found in human placenta,” explains Victoria Fu , cosmetic chemist and cofounder of the podcast Chemist Confessions .
To determine if your formula actually contains PDRN, just search its ingredient list for the term “sodium DNA.” “These should all include a version of DNA fragments,” says Fu. “However, the labels don’t tell you where the DNA fragments would be sourced from.
” This is important, because in addition to salmon-derived products, there are now plant-based PDRN creams on the market. Yes, most studies are on salmon-derived DNA fragments, but there are a few proving the efficacy of botanical PDRN too; ginseng-derived PDRN is shown to support skin regeneration and barrier function. Whether you’re looking for a PDRN serum made with salmon or one that will adhere to vegan beauty standards, read on – we’ve found the best PDRN skincare products to suit a variety of needs, goals, and preferences.
Best eye cream: Valmont Vitality Collection Vital Contour Cream Best for fine lines: Medicube PDRN Pink Peptide Serum Best with hyaluronic acid: Anua PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Capsule 100 Serum Best with retinol: Innisfree Retinol Green Tea PDRN Skin Booster Ampoule Best vegan: VT Cosmetics PDRN 100 Essence Best for sensitive skin: Heveblue Salmon Caring Centella Cream Best for redness: Iope Bio-PDRN Caffeine Shot Best moisturiser: Gangnam Glow Rejunol Mucin Cream Best overall: Rejuran Turnover Ampoule Anti-Aging Face Serum Yes, PDRN can absolutely provide some impressive benefits, including helping the skin heal, boost collagen , and improve elasticity, says Murdock. The studies we mentioned earlier also show that PDRN can help address hyperpigmentation and prevent skin damage – however, it’s important to remember that most evidence of PDRN’s efficacy was proven using the ingredient as an injectable or as applied topically to broken skin, such as after microneedling or ablative laser. According to Park, her patients that get treated with PDRN see changes to their skin immediately after treatment, especially if they’re prone to dryness.
“Patients who will typically slather Aquaphor on their skin, but their skin is still so dry – they notice a measurable improvement in just the absorptive quality to their skin after PDRN,” she says, adding that she sees significant improvement to patients’ acne scarring when alternating PDRN treatment with fractional laser. For topical products, like the PDRN serums and creams above, you’ll need to be a little more patient. “You might notice hydration and mild skin improvements quickly, but bigger changes take several weeks and likely won’t be as dramatic as injectable PDRN,” says Murdock.
No, and that’s kind of the point – in-office treatments are professional-grade products, stronger than what you’d use at home because an expert is administering them, either via injection or topically to skin they’ve just treated with a powerful laser or other device. That allows for in-office PDRN treatments to penetrate the skin far more deeply than an at-home PDRN cream ever could. Deeper penetration of an active translates to more dramatic improvement in a faster amount of time.
However, the more affordable and convenient nature of at-home PDRN serums make them worthy of consideration..
