Givaudan launches age-fighting active using nerve revival

Givaudan Active Beauty has revealed PrimalHyal NeuroYouth, an active targeting skin rejuvenation and sensory perception through “Neuro Skin Aging,” which the company calls a newly defined skin aging pathway. Last week, the ingredients company teased the release to Personal Care Insights at the PCHi 2026 show. 

The latest iteration of Givaudan’s PrimalHyal range, NeuroYouth, is a complex built on low molecular weight hyaluronic acid and amino acids, and functions by reviving nerve fiber functionality and reinforcing neuronal connections.

The ingredient focuses on sensory perception as an actor of skin health. The company highlights that the skin is a sensory network and, as time goes on, there is a decrease in quantity, function, and length in nerve fibers in the skin. This decrease leads to impairments in sensory perception and stunted cellular communication and quickens skin aging.

Givaudan has underlined the skin-nerve connection with previous research and was recognized by the 2025 International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists as one of the top scientific contributions presented at the congress.

Drawing from this research, Givaudan has harnessed the skin’s innate favor toward very low molecular weight hyaluronic acids as conduits for selected amino acid delivery in the skin.

Enhancing skin bioavailability

PrimalHyal NeuroYouth targets neuro skin aging for visible rejuvenation.

PrimalHyal NeuroYouth is a hyaluronic acid-based amino-acid complex that aims to enhance skin bioavailability and the biological relevance of the amino acids. Givaudan says its functions are inspired by microneedling. 

Findings from clinical studies from a sample group of 120 volunteers have indicated that the ingredient delivers tangible anti-aging results.

The results include: reduction of apparent skin age by more than five years; notable reduction in wrinkles and fine lines; improved firmness in skin; restoration of touch perception by up to 30 years; and improvement in sensations in subjects.

The company touts that the ingredient reverses the neuro-aging pathway, which supports neuronal growth and improves density-related parameters, resulting in a 28% increase in nerve fiber count and a 29% increase in nerve fiber length.

The ingredient also emboldens neuronal communication pathways via functions comparable to nerve growth factor protein activity and reactivates neuronal mitochondria’s energetic efficiency.

Givaudan says that by bolstering the skin’s neuro-sensory ecosystem and protecting the skin balance, PrimalHyal NeuroYouth improves skin health and youthful appearance while enhancing the skin’s perceptiveness of its environment.

“Beyond aesthetics, PrimalHyal NeuroYouth redefines skin aging from a skin health perspective. By addressing ‘Neuro Skin Aging’, it offers new perspectives for the positioning of silver age, pre-juvenation, and skin resilience concepts, where neurological health becomes a key pillar of youthful skin,” explains Romain Reynaud, R&D director at Givaudan Active Beauty.

Personal Care Insights spoke with Mathias Fleury, the head of category for active ingredients at Givaudan, live at the PCHi 2026 trade show last week in Hangzhou, China, who divulged the ingredient’s launch.

The ingredient “is all about solving a newly identified aging pathway for the skin that we call neuro skin aging, demonstrating that there is a kind of interconnection or intercommunication between our skin cells and the nerve fibers in the skin, showing that it kind of accelerates the skin aging when the nerve fiber quality decreases,” said Fleury.

According to Fleury, the ingredient provides the “perfect solution” to this issue by “restoring the quality of the nerve fibers with anti-aging benefits, and on top of that, the new ingredient possesses very significant reactivation of the sense of touch, which makes it a wonderful product for sensoriality and well-being.”