RoC Skincare is testing its patented clinical retinol on pairs of adult female identical twins, combining biometric data collected from Oura Rings with conventional clinical skin measurements. The brand says the design is meant to isolate what a formula is doing on skin when genetic variation is largely taken out of the picture.
Art Pellegrino, chief scientific officer at RoC Skincare, says the pilot phase was about establishing whether the twin model works at all. “The pilot twin study was really about proving the model,” he tells Personal Care Insights, adding that the answer was yes.
Why identical twins
Identical twins share DNA and much of their early environment, which researchers can use to argue that differences in skin aging are more likely to come from lifestyle or product use than from genetics.
“When two people start with the same genetic blueprint, the differences you see between them are harder to explain away with genetics. That makes it far easier to see what our Clinical Retinol is actually doing on the skin,” Pellegrino says. He describes identical twins as “about as close as you get to a natural control,” noting that if their skin ages differently, lifestyle and environment become the likelier explanation.
Pilot results as reported by the brand
According to Pellegrino, twins in the placebo group showed similar or worse signs of aging by the end of the pilot, while twins in the treatment group showed as much as, or more than, 20% improvement in four weeks. These are brand-reported findings from a pilot study and are presented as such.
The next phase
RoC is recruiting 30 pairs of adult female identical twins aged 40 and older who live in the US for the next stage. Participants will use the regimen for 12 weeks, and the brand expects results by mid-2027.
Pellegrino says the scope was deliberately kept narrow. “We’ve kept this phase focused on purpose: at least 30 pairs of women aged 40 and over in the US, using the regimen for 12 weeks. A focused group gives us cleaner data to build on,” he says, describing the work as one stage in a longer research program on extending “skin span,” or how long skin keeps looking its best.
Wearables in the loop
Throughout the study, twins are asked to wear an Oura Ring, a wearable that tracks health and wellness metrics across the day, capturing variation in data such as sleep, stress, heart rate, heart rate variability and temperature trends.
“Across the industry, wearables are opening up a real opportunity to factor in how people live when recommending skin care,” Pellegrino says.
Because identical external influences such as sun exposure or diet cannot be guaranteed, RoC says it is recruiting twins with similar levels of environmental damage wherever possible and tracking lifestyle factors closely during the study.
What the design can and cannot show
The pilot did not attempt to measure how much skin aging comes from genes versus lifestyle; that is the stated purpose of the expanded study, which aims to see how daily life, including sleep and stress, changes the picture when genetics is held constant.
With twins removing the genetic question and the ring tracking lifestyle parameters, Pellegrino says the team can examine how stressors relate to changes in each participant’s skin and compare sisters within a pair. If one twin sleeps poorly or reports more stress, researchers can look at whether her skin responds differently to the regimen than her sister’s — for example, whether weeks of poor sleep line up with lower hydration readings, or whether the twin with lower stress sees fine lines improve faster. The brand is also interested in the reverse question: whether participants who see visible improvement also feel less stressed.
RoC’s standard clinical skin measures evaluate changes in the signs of aging through expert grading, digital photography, corneometer readings and subject self-assessment.
Implications
Pellegrino says the findings will feed both product development and future trial design. “What we learn from this study will shape how we develop new products for skin longevity and how we design our clinical studies going forward,” he concludes.