One of NYC’s Most Sought-After Dermatologists Shared the Top 5 Skincare Trends of Fall 2026

Playing the Long Game

As a beauty editor, my stance on skincare is pretty simple: wash your face and wear sunscreen. The rest are just extras. But this is precisely why new trends in skincare intrigue me so much. I test products for a living, so my personal routine contains, well, a lot of extras, most of which are born from whatever buzzy ingredient or product type is all over my feed. So, what’s on the docket for fall 2026?

“When looking at skincare trends, I’m predicting fall trends will lead back to skin recalibration,” dermatologist Dendy Engelman, MD, tells me. “In the past few years, we’ve all tried the actives, enzymes, and growth factors, and I’m now starting to see patients who are more concerned with calming the barrier rather than challenging it.” After years in attack mode, we’re finally focusing on recovery. “I believe there will be a heavier emphasis on protecting your skin before you begin to tamper with it,” Dr. Engelman says.

She walked me through the topline trends we’ll be seeing in skincare over the next few months, from in-office tightening to high-tech peptides.

New-Age Anti-Inflammatories

Gone are the days of approaching your skincare routine like a problem you need to solve. Now, we’re all about playing nice, including a slew of trendy ingredients that help improve wound-healing and reduce inflammation. “PDRN (also known as salmon sperm), exosomes, and ectoin seem to be taking both the internet and the treatment room by storm,” says Dr. Engelman.

She’s especially interested in ectoin, “a stress-protective molecule that helps support hydration and barrier function, because it fits this shift toward making skin more resilient.” We’ll likely start seeing it pop up in more soothing serums, masks, and moisturizers.

Longevity is the skincare buzzword on everyone’s lips (and also printed on the front of all of your new product bottles). We don’t just want skin that looks younger, but we want to protect the skin we already have, then make enhancements. “Longevity resonates because it changes the conversation from ‘How do I stop aging’ to ‘How do I keep my skin functioning optimally for as long as possible?’” says Dr. Engelman.

One of the ways skincare brands are beginning to target this is by shifting focus onto your “zombie cells,” aka the aged cells that “stop dividing but can remain metabolically active and contribute to inflammatory signaling as they accumulate,” explains Dr. Engelman. There are a few new products on the market claiming to target these zombie cells (like Peach & Lily’s Advanced Rebound Bioglow Zombie Cream), but Dr. Engelman cautions that we don’t have tons of reporting on the subject just yet, so soften your expectations.

But the best thing you can do for longevity? Building better, stronger collagen. And the best place to do it is in office. “Patients increasingly want collagen remodeling, tightening, and better skin quality rather than simply more volume,” she says. “That’s why treatments like radiofrequency, RF microneedling, biostimulators like Sculptra, and intelligently layered combination treatments are becoming so compelling.”

Superior Sunscreen

Listen, just because it’s cooler and the sun goes down earlier doesn’t mean you don’t need to wear sunscreen. In fact, I suspect sunscreen will have a huge fall, thanks to the FDA’s recent approval of BEMT, the first sunscreen filter approved in the U.S. in more than 25 years. I’ve already tested a few sunscreens with this ingredient, one from Neutrogena and another from Ultra-Violette. It’s more cosmetically elegant, offering up a similar lightweight, comfortable feel as many of the Korean sunscreens that have blown up on social media. As more brands are innovating and working with this new filter, we’re going to see lots more SPF formulas launch.

The Milky Way

Everything is milky right now. Toners, serums, moisturizers, even sunscreen. “Whether someone has dry, sensitive, or normal skin, milky skincare products offer lightweight moisture without feeling heavy on the skin,” says Dr. Engelman. “Provided they do not contain comedogenic ingredients, they can even be a great option for oily, acne-prone skin.”

But she also loves them for barrier support. “Milky skincare products are typically hydrating, nourishing, soothing, and smoothing, and they play well with other products,” she says, which is why you’ll often find them in pre-makeup formats as a makeup primer/skincare hybrid. “A milky texture creates a beautiful, silky canvas that keeps the skin hydrated and glowy throughout the day, and is easy to layer products on top of.”

Plump as a Peach

Virtually every brand is releasing a product that promises to increase volume and plump skin, likely as a result of the GLP-1 boom. Rapid weight loss can cause skin laxity, pushing people to reach for products that make their skin look firmer and plumper without needing injectables like fillers, which Dr. Engelman says people are asking for less these days. Hyaluronic acid and peptides are the gold standard here, “which support youthful-looking fullness both in the short term and over time,” she says.

One of the ways we’re doing this is through sophisticated peptides, says Dr. Engelman, like copper peptides or GHK-Cu. These peptides boost collagen production and accelerate wound healing by binding with copper ions in your skin.

Many are also looking toward in-office radiofrequency to do the trick. Ever since XERF, a dual-frequency radiofrequency treatment, got mega popular in South Korea and made its way stateside, it’s been everywhere. “Patients are looking for treatments that improve skin quality and laxity without surgery or significant downtime,” says Dr. Engelman. The treatment “allows us to address the tissue at different depths, which fits perfectly into the world of stimulating and remodeling your preexisting collagen rather than simply adding volume with filler or Botox,” she says. But it’s not the only one out there. Dr. Engelman prefers Everesse, another radiofrequency treatment that uses a single frequency, which can be a bit more precise and more comfortable for some patients.

Meet the expert

Dendy Engelman, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York, where she practices at the Shafer Clinic. She’s well-versed in products and ingredients, especially over-the-counter options.

Why trust Cosmopolitan?

Beth Gillette is the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan with eight years of experience researching, writing, and editing hair, makeup, nail, and fragrance stories. She’s especially interested in trends, hence why her screen time is outrageously high. She’s always researching and scrolling with a purpose (figuring out what the next-best thing in beauty will be).

Beth Gillette

Beth Gillette is the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers skincare, makeup, hair, nails, and more across digital and print. She can generally be found in bright eyeshadow furiously typing her latest feature or hemming and hawing about a new product you "have to try." Prior to Cosmopolitan, she wrote and edited beauty content as an Editor at The Everygirl for four years. Follow her on Instagram for makeup selfies and a new hair 'do every few months.