Can your face predict how long you'll live?

It can

Researchers in Denmark photographed 1,826 twins over the age of 70 and asked people to guess how old each one looked. Then they followed them.

Within each pair, the twin who looked older was more likely to die first - and the bigger the difference in how old they looked, the stronger the effect.

Your face ages with your whole body. It is reading out what is happening everywhere else. So why are we trying to fix it with a cream?

Your face ages in four layers

Skin. The fat pads under it. The ligaments that hold those pads in place. And the bone underneath it all.

All four change with age - skin thins, fat pads shrink and slide, ligaments loosen, bone is resorbed. Guess how many of them your serum reaches.

One

Whatever you rub on stops at the skin. The fat, the ligaments and the bone never see it.

That does not make skincare useless - sunscreen and a retinoid genuinely change the skin. It means skincare can only ever work on one of the four layers.

Some treatments reach too far

The opposite problem exists too. In October 2025 the US FDA issued a safety communication about radiofrequency microneedling, a device sold to tighten skin, after reports of burns, scarring, nerve damage and loss of facial fat - the fat that keeps a face full.

These are reports, not a rate, and the devices are safe in trained hands at the right settings. But it is a reminder that a treatment aimed at the top layer can harm the deeper ones without you knowing - and it is the deeper layers that shape how your face ages.

And the collagen powder you bought?

Collagen powder: 23 trials

A 2025 meta-analysis pooled 23 randomised trials of collagen supplements, with 1,474 participants. Taken together, they seemed to improve skin hydration, elasticity and wrinkles.

Then the authors split the trials by who paid for them. The benefit showed up only in trials the sellers funded. In the independent, higher-quality trials it disappeared.

Collagen you swallow is digested into amino acids like any other protein. You are better off eating the protein you can sustain - financially, logistically and practically.

So what does reach the deep layers?

Nothing sold for your face

None of these is marketed for the face. All of them protect it, because they protect the rest of you - and that is the point of the twin study. Where volume has already gone, your own fat is the one treatment that reaches the deep layer and stays your own tissue.

The best anti-ageing habits aren't sold for your face.