Dr. Ingrid van Riet | We are all getting older. But what can you still do about it, and when is the best time to start?
How far will we go to avoid aging? That question runs like a golden thread through the entire third season of The Cosmetic Conspiracy, and episode 1 sets the tone immediately. Dr. Barbara Geusens talks to Dr. Ingrid van Riet, a dermatologist, co-manager of Carpe Clinic Antwerp, and expert in aesthetic medicine. The conversation focuses on the shift from classic skin treatments to regeneration, where prevention, protection, and proper timing are key principles.
That tension is exactly why we had six completely different voices at the table this season.
"They’re going to use something they’ve seen, do it two or three times. It doesn’t work, so they move on to something else. Everything has to happen very quickly, even though skin turnover takes 28 days, so you need to give it three or four weeks before you can achieve any results."
Skincare among young people is booming, and not always in a good way: Ingrid is seeing more and more "dermorexia," an obsessive, early focus on skincare that does more harm than good.
Acids, retinol, peels: on social media, every young skin suddenly seems to need an active ingredient. Ingrid adds nuance: much of that young skin primarily needs a restored skin barrier, not an aggressive routine. And the biggest problem is impatience: people switch to the next product after just a few uses, while the skin needs time to renew itself.
“We don’t live to be 40-50 like in the Middle Ages, but we live to be 80, so our skin has to last twice as long, which makes protection really important.”
What she really believes is important from a young age is protection against light. Sun damage is visible aging, period. To her, a tanned skin is not a healthy skin, but a damaged one. According to Dr. Van Riet, protection against sunlight begins in the cradle. Initially, prevention is better than cure. But SPF remains important at a later age as well. There is no point in trying to fix a problem while the cause is still present.
"To see what boosted skin looks like, I treated one hand with polylactic acid and you can actually still see it. The treated hand is smoother and has much more density than the untreated hand."
The biggest shift in her field? From correcting to regenerating: triggering the skin to naturally produce its own collagen again (“boosting”), instead of fixing wrinkles after the fact with a facelift. Techniques like PRF (which releases growth factors) and polylactic acid (which stimulates fibroblasts) yield beautiful, natural results via a pathway present in everyone (though smokers generally respond less well). The stimulation works independently of your genetics, but timing is important: only start when there is actual sagging, usually from your late thirties or early forties. According to Ingrid, those in their twenties absolutely do not need this yet. The biggest factor that breaks down collagen is not heredity, but rather environmental light.
