RoC Skincare uses twins and wearable tech to test retinol efficacy

RoC Skincare is testing the efficacy of its Patented Clinical Retinol on adult female identical twins. Using insights collected from Oura Rings, the brand is embarking on pairing lifestyle biometric data with clinical skin measures. 

The pilot clinical study says twins are a promising model for pinpointing the precise catalysts of skin aging. 

“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,” Art Pellegrino, chief scientific officer at RoC Skincare, tells Personal Care Insights. 

“The pilot twin study was really about proving the model. We wanted to know whether identical twins could give us a more precise way to study what drives visible skin aging,” says Pellegrino, adding that “the answer was ‘yes.’” 

As identical twins share DNA and a lot of their early environment, researchers can more definitively identify lifestyle factors or products as the explanation for the differences in skin aging. 

“Identical twins are about as close as you get to a natural control. If their skin ages differently, lifestyle and environment become the likelier explanation,” he explains. 

RoC is working to recruit 30 pairs of adult female identical twins aged 40 and older living in the US as it moves into the next phase of the study. 

RoC Skincare is studying retinol efficacy in identical twins. 

Twin study findings 

Pellegrino tells us that twins in the placebo group had similar or worse signs of aging at the end of the study. “Whereas twins in the treatment group had as much or more than 20% improvement in just four weeks.”

“What the pilot didn’t do was try to measure how much skin aging comes from genes versus lifestyle. That’s what the expanded study is for. We want to see how much daily life, things like sleep and stress, can change the picture when genetics is held constant,” he says. 

Pellegrino underscores that demonstrating how habits like sleep and stress affect the skin can improve the brand’s ability to provide efficacious anti-aging skin care solutions. 

“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, and we see this as one stage in a longer research program on extending skin span, or how long skin keeps looking its best.”

RoC Skincare is using Oura Rings to track sleep and stress 

Tracking external factors 

Throughout the study, the twins are asked to wear an Oura Ring — wearable tech that tracks health and wellness metrics throughout the day — to capture variations in biometric 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,” says Pellegrino. 

He explains that, as it’s not possible to guarantee the twins have identical external influences such as sun exposure or eating the same diet, RoC is recruiting twins with similar levels of environmental damage wherever possible and tracking lifestyle factors like sleep and stress closely throughout the study. 

“With identical twins removing the question of whether it’s genetic or not, and the Oura Ring directly tracking their lifestyle and its parameters, we can look at how stressors relate to changes in each participant’s skin,” Pellegrino tells us. 

Factors such as stress or sleep deficits impact the skin. With the combination of lifestyle tracking and the control for genetic differences through studying twins, the brand expects to quantify external stressors and their impact on the skin’s condition. 

“That means we can compare twins throughout the study. If one twin is sleeping poorly or under more stress, we can look at whether her skin is responding differently to the regimen than her sister’s,” Pellegrino says. 

“For example, we’ll be able to see whether weeks of poor sleep line up with lower hydration readings, or whether the twin with lower stress levels sees her fine lines improve faster.” 

Conversely, the brand is also interested in exploring whether participants seeing visible improvements in their skin will also feel less stressed. 

RoC’s standard clinical skin measures evaluate changes in the signs of skin aging through expert grading, digital photography, corneometer readings, and subject self-assessment. 

“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,” Pellegrino concludes. RoC expects results in the twin study by mid-2027.