In this 7‑minute YouTube video, board‑certified dermatologist Dr. Shereene Idriss addresses the growing anxiety many people in their 20s and 30s feel about early facial aging, especially as social‑media platforms push ads for jawline fillers, preventative Botox, collagen‑banking masks, and other pricey “quick fixes.” She explains that the perceived rapid change is real but biologically normal: roughly 1 % of collagen is lost each year after the late‑20s, facial fat pads begin to shrink and descend, and facial bone slowly thins. The constant high‑definition self‑viewing and algorithm‑driven insecurity create a “perfect storm” of manufactured panic. Dr. Idriss then debunks the hype around “collagen banking,” clarifying that collagen cannot be stored in the body and that topical collagen masks cannot penetrate the skin to boost collagen production. She emphasizes that true long‑term protection comes from prevention, chiefly daily broad‑spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen, which she cites as the single most effective anti‑aging tool. She adds three additional, evidence‑based interventions that cost under $100 /month: (1) vitamin D3 and K2 supplementation to support facial bone density, (2) regular strength training to preserve muscle mass and bone health, and (3) consistent use of a micro‑current facial device to maintain facial muscle tone. Dr. Idriss critiques the trend of “preventative Botox,” noting it only makes sense when dynamic lines are already forming; otherwise it is an unnecessary expense. Finally, she outlines a simple three‑step skincare routine—daily SPF 30+, a low‑strength retinoid used consistently, and vitamin C morning and night—as the foundation for sustainable anti‑aging. She closes with a reflective message that aging is a natural, beautiful part of life and encourages viewers to celebrate their faces rather than fix perceived flaws.
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27, 25, 31, 28, and you feel like overnight your face has aged drastically. And to make matters worse, TikTok is pushing forward these ads specifically aimed at you for jawline filler, preventative Botox, collagen banking, and worse, a $500 face mask that's coming to save you. You're not crazy because your face is changing, but all of these things that you're being served, they're never going to save you. In two words, It's manufactured panic. I'm Dr. Shereene Idriss. I'm a board-certified dermatologist, and in the next 7 minutes, we're going to talk about 3 things. One, what is actually happening to your face, because you deserve to know the truth in order to know how to proceed. Two, why collagen banking is one of the most ridiculous marketing terms that I have heard as of late, and in under 60 seconds, I'll explain the biology as to why that is. And number 3, 3 things that you can do with comfort and ease in your mind, knowing that you're going to help yourself for the long run for less than $100 a month. And by the end of this video, I hope you feel calm, not because I've dismissed your fears, but because you have understood what is actually going on and you know how best to help yourself moving forward. So let's dive in. This type of comment is in my DMs every single day, or at least some version of it. I'm 27, I'm 31, I'm 29, and I feel like my face has changed. Is it too late for me? Things are changing and shifting between 25 and 35, and it's what I like to refer to as the first peak of aging where you can't quite put your finger on it, but something is different. The truth of the matter is we start to lose approximately 1% of collagen every single year in our late 20s, compounded with the fact that our fat pads in our face— yes, we all have fat pads— start to shrink and drop. And that is why we never want to get rid of them prematurely, because as we age, it's our face or our asses. And third, our bone structure is slowly starting to get thinner, not so fast as in your early 40s, but it's still happening. So when you compound all three together, we start to notice a shift in our face, and you're not imagining it. It's biology. It's not a flaw. This happens to every single person on Earth. But what is exceptional about how you are feeling it in today's day and age is that the biology is compounded with the fact that we are looking at ourselves in 4K, and we are getting constant feedback from cameras, and we are looking at how we are aging every single day. Plus the fact that the algorithm on social media loves to scrutinize our insecurities and throw them back at us so they're amplified in our minds. Perfect storm. So let's start with the spiciest one: collagen banking. Because they want us to believe that we can actually bank and save up our collagen now so we can have way more later. But here's the actual biology, and I'm gonna say it very plainly. Unlike fat Very sadly, we cannot store collagen. Collagen cannot be stored the way fat can be stored. They're not created equal, and your body will eventually produce collagen, eventually use it up and break it down, and then create more. That's the way it works. And if you ask me, there is no vault, and the goal is really to make sure that you keep production high of collagen while keeping the breakdown low so that you can maintain your collagen better over time, and the degradation and the slowdown slows down over time. The collagen sheet mask that they're selling you with this language of it's gonna help to produce more collagen— the sad fact of the matter is the collagen molecule itself is way too big to ever penetrate your skin to help you make more collagen. Unless it's a collagen peptide or a precursor, it's never going to happen. The collagen itself is going to offer nice hydration, which is great if that is what you're looking for. And quite frankly, it offers beautiful hydration, and I would highly recommend you test it out for that. But if you are using it because you're expecting it to bank collagen and help with firmness over time, I am sorry to say you're wasting your efforts and your hard-earned money. What actually is protecting your collagen long term. It is not sexy. It is not paying hundreds of dollars to bank it. And it is really the tried and true— and I sound like an old broken record, but sorry to beat a dead horse to death even more so than we already have— but it's about prevention. And the number one thing that you can do is sunscreen, because UV rays from the sun that gives us our Earth, our life, our planet, etc., are the number one culprit that are going to break down your collagen even more so than genetics. Even more so than diet, and definitely more so than any serum you can buy to try to reverse that damage. So sunscreen every single day, even when it's raining, even when it's cloudy, especially if you work in front of a window like I am right now, is a non-negotiable and the real thing that will collagen bank over time. While we're here, let's talk quickly about the whole glazed donut look, which by the way, I love the idea of glazed skin. And yes, I love donuts, and who wouldn't want to have glazed skin like a donut? Because of course Of course we all do. But here is the thing: dewy is beautiful, but it is just a look and it is not a health metric. And if you wake up at 8 AM and your skin is not looking like a glazed donut, you're not failing. You're just human. That is all. Maybe in need of more hydration. And I've done a whole YouTube video on how to layer hydration, and I will link it below so you guys can check it out. Now, the next one is slightly harder to focus on and harder to put into words, but you're looking in the mirror or a camera and you're constantly doing this when you're on a Zoom to try to hold your face up. Or when you're on in front of the mirror on your own, you're like, oh, I just look so much better like this, maybe I do need a facelift at 28. Let's talk about what's happening because almost nobody is explaining the actual biology. And no, you do not need a facelift at 28. Your face is built in layers. Think of your face like a couch. You have bone, the structural integrity of the couch. You have muscle, and fat, and think of like the feathers within the cushions, and then you have your skin, and think of that like the fabric of the couch. As we are aging between 25 and 35, all 3 layers are being affected, from the tissue, the surface of the couch, aka your skin, to the stuffing, i.e., the muscles and the fat, to the structure, aka your bones. And it's all happening simultaneously at a very slow rate, so you're starting to notice shifts and you're kind of doing double takes because you're like, is it in my head? Is it real? Because you can't fully tell because they are subtle. But because you're constantly looking at yourself, you're tending to notice them more than generations past. But it is real, and that is what you are seeing. And this is where I'm going to lose some of you, because the real answer is not a serum that you can use at home. And 3 things, almost none of them, are what the skincare industry want to sell you. Vitamin D3 is going to help support bone density, and vitamin K2 is going to make sure that that calcium goes into your bones and not necessarily your soft tissue like your arteries. And when I say your bones, this includes the bones of your face, not just your body. So if your facial structure is something that you are worried about, let's say you have a dainty jawline, this is one of the highest leverage things that you can do to support your face and your vanity as you age. And most of us are walking around being vitamin D deficient, and it's not because of sunscreen use. Um, so please go ahead and get your levels checked. Number 2 is strength training. Now I know you guys came here for skincare, but muscle mass is one of the biggest predictors of how you're going to age, including how your face ages. Lifting weights 2 to 3 times a week— and it's not that big of a deal, you do not have to go become the Hulk— you're going to help support not just your muscle mass but also your bone density, which we just covered. And this is also going to help with your fat distribution. And although We're talking about our body because we're not necessarily lifting weights with our heads. Our faces sit on our bodies, and by doing this action, it is translating to the rest of our body as well. And number 3, microcurrent. Now, I've been very honest about at-home devices in general, and they only work if you actually use them. But when it comes to microcurrent, there's a few devices on the market, whether it is the NuFace, the ZIIP, the FOREO. It's a whole category. Works by sending a low-level electrical current through your skin to simulate both cellular ATP within your cells, but also to help with underlying facial muscles. So it's kind of like a tiny gym for your face that's going to help with your muscle tone over time. And indirectly, there may be some benefit when it comes to your intrinsic cellular health. Going to give you a short-term lift, a short-term snatched effect, but it's only going to really work if you do this very consistently, aka every single day for a few minutes a day, 5 times a week or so. But if you are doing this consistently over time, you will maintain your muscle strength, and it will help with your skin cellular health. And here is why it makes sense in this conversation, because everything we just talked about— vitamin D3, vitamin K2, uh, strength training— are all related to the health of your muscles in your face as well, um, as well as your bone density. So to be able to incorporate them from the inside out and the outside in is going to help yourself maintain yourself better in the long run. Moving on now to the big one, and this one is gonna be where I lose a lot of you guys no matter what I say, because the marketing has been so loud on this for so many years that now the conversation is frankly broken. But preventative Botox— let me walk you guys through it. So the pitch is, starting in your mid-20s, before you have any sort of lines on your face, you want to treat it with Botox to prevent any lines from forming. It's the same energy as collagen banking, but this one includes a needle. Botox does one thing. It's going to relax your muscle movement. So the only situation where it is preventative and that makes biological sense is when you already have the beginnings of etched lines on your skin and you're preventing them from developing even further. So if you have strong lines in your 11s, let's say at 28, because you're constantly frowning while you think, Sure, go ahead. A light dose of Botox can help to minimize how that line forms and develops over time so it doesn't become imprinted in your face. That I agree with. But the line is already starting to form, and we know that you have the predisposition of having it etched into your skin. But here's the part that most people are not saying out loud, and that drives me absolutely bonkers. Most 25-year-olds have zero lines formed on their forehead, and it's not necessarily a guarantee that they're going to have these lines form on their forehead because of their muscle movement. Have our dynamic lines, lines that are there with movement but that disappear at rest. And that is absolutely normal. And nobody, nobody needs to have those lines prevented because we don't even know yet if they're going to develop static lines that are there at rest because of those movements. And so what essentially is happening is you're being sold a recurring $600 appointment in the best case scenario for a problem you may never, ever have. Take that money and go to Paris instead and go live out an experience at 25 that most people never get the chance of living. So here is the framework that I ask you to take into every consultation. I want you to ask the physician or the injector, whoever it is that's treating you, please God, make sure that they are at least board certified, to hold up a mirror and to show you the lines on your face at rest that are there that they want to try to treat or to minimize how they appear in the long run. You have to at least see something, because if you see nothing, they are preying off of your insecurities, and that is a fact. Then I think you need to run and reevaluate in a year or two, because I promise you, you will not melt over the course of a year or two. Okay, so now for the relief. You're in your 20s or 30s, and if you take away one thing, anything from this video, is that the foundation of anything is in 3 products. One, sunscreen. A minimum of an SPF of 30, not an SPF of 15. The SPF in your makeup is likely not enough, and please do not rely on just powders or sticks, but an SPF of 30 every single day, whether it is cloudy, rainy, monsoon season, sunny, etc., just so you get into the habit of wearing it. Because being in the habit of wearing it is a much harder habit to break than never having used it at all, which is very easy to discontinue. So this is probably the closest thing to an actual time machine when it comes to skincare because it's going helped prevent all of the damage in your skin and therefore allow you to look like a fetus longer. If you started wearing an SPF at 22 or 28, you guys are still golden. You're fine. We're not 70. But even then, if you're 70 years old, it's better, better late than never, I guess. But the damage is really there because most of the sun damage in your skin starts before we're 20. 2, a retinoid. You want to use this consistently, and you don't want to go wrong and strong. Consistency over intensity is the name of the game. Using a tiny pea-sized amount of the lightest concentration of the over-the-counter maybe 2 times a week in perpetuity is way better than trying to go really strong once a month and never sticking to it again. Retinoids are the tried and true and the most studied ingredients within dermatology, with over 50 years of data showing that it helps to boost collagen production, help with cell turnover, and give your skin a much more radiant look and finish. I will link below a whole video on how to start a retinoid, so I hope you guys can dive into it. Below. And 3, a vitamin C both morning and night, because it is one of the most proven antioxidants on the market that are going to help neutralize environmental damage that can also lead to premature breakdown of collagen and your skin. I'm talking about pollution, UV exposure, blue light, the city that you live in, the stress of your love life, you name it. And the thing I love about vitamin C, if you're combining it with other brightening actives, it's a win-win-win. If you focus on just those 3 steps, you will build yourself a solid routine with the best anti-aging angle for the long run. So if you're doing nothing right now and you don't know where to start, let's start with washing our face at night, number 1. Introducing a sunscreen in the morning, number 2. Getting ourselves a moisturizer with vitamin C, so it's 2 steps in 1 for the morning and the evening, number 3. And once we have these steps laid out, then we will slowly start to incorporate a retinoid, which we talked about earlier. And I want to leave you guys with this, that aging frankly is not a problem to solve. It is not a flaw that we need to bank against. It is the most universal, unavoidable, and frankly most beautiful evidence that we have been alive and that we are living. That is the truth when it comes to aging. In the comment section, I hope you guys leave me a comment about one thing that you actually love about your face and not something that you're worried about or that you want to change, because I for once would love to see a comment section flooded with positivity. I hope you guys have a beautiful Saturday. I'll see you guys next week.
