Biohacking Explained: From DIY labs to everyday optimisation
The word biohacking has moved quickly from niche circles into mainstream culture. It can mean many things: a longevity researcher experimenting with fasting, a wellness enthusiast tracking sleep and heart rate, or a scientist in a community biology lab exploring genetic tools.
At its heart, biohacking is about taking proactive steps to influence biology - not waiting for decline to set in. The concept took shape in the late 2000s, when community labs such as Genspace in New York opened biotechnology to everyday citizens. At the same time, the quantified-self movement began: individuals measuring sleep, exercise, and nutrition to refine performance and resilience.
Today, biohacking spans from serious research circles to consumer wellness, united by one theme: guiding biology rather than simply reacting to it.
What makes Biohacking different?
Most health advice is familiar: eat balanced meals, move daily, reduce stress, sleep well. These remain cornerstones of health, but biohacking goes further.
What makes biohacking distinct is its focus on cellular pathways. Rather than staying at the level of lifestyle habits, biohackers aim to:
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Influence the molecular processes that govern repair, renewal, and longevity.
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Use data - from wearables to lab tests - to optimise results.
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Act preventively, often before disease symptoms appear.
In short, biohacking is not about shortcuts. It is about working with the body at its deepest levels.
Biohacking and Medicine: Integrative & Functional
To understand how biohacking has developed, it helps to see how it relates to medicine’s evolving branches.
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Integrative medicine came first. Emerging in the 1980s, it sought to bring conventional care together with complementary practices such as nutrition, acupuncture, supplements, and mind-body techniques. It focused on whole-person care and found particular traction in oncology and chronic conditions.
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Functional medicine followed in the 1990s, founded on systems biology. Its goal is to uncover root causes of illness, often using nutrition, microbiome interventions, and lifestyle redesign. It is currently the fastest-growing niche approach, especially in the US and UK, as patients seek more personalised care.
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Biohacking emerged in the 2000s. It borrows from functional medicine’s systems view and from integrative medicine’s holistic approach, but adds a culture of experimentation, technology, and proactive longevity.
Each influences the other: integrative medicine paved the way, functional medicine provided the biochemical framework, and biohacking can be seen as layering the technology and data.
Biohacking and the Skin: Can you really hack skin cells?
The skin is not a passive covering - it is a living, dynamic organ that constantly repairs, communicates, and adapts. This makes it a natural target for biohacking.
Science shows that the same pathways studied in longevity research also shape skin health:
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NAD+ and sirtuins
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NAD+ fuels DNA repair and mitochondrial health.
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Sirtuins (NAD+-dependent enzymes) regulate ageing and resilience.
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As levels decline, skin loses repair capacity and elasticity.
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Autophagy
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The skin’s recycling mechanism, clearing damaged proteins and organelles.
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In keratinocytes, it supports barrier renewal; in melanocytes, it regulates pigmentation.
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When autophagy slows, skin becomes fragile, uneven, and prone to dysfunction.
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Circadian clocks
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Skin follows a daily rhythm.
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At night: DNA repair and renewal peak.
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During the day: barrier defences are strongest.
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Disrupted rhythms accelerate visible ageing.
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Inflammation control
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Chronic, low-grade inflammation (inflammageing) erodes collagen, weakens the barrier, and drives pigmentation.
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Calming this “background noise” is key to long-term clarity and resilience.
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Epigenetic reprogramming
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Ageing skin is influenced by changes in gene expression, not just DNA damage.
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Certain bioactives can shift expression back toward repair and youthful function.
Together, these pathways show that skin biohacking is not about gadgets or quick fixes. It is about strengthening the cellular foundations of repair, renewal, and longevity.
Skin Biohacking in practice: Pathways and Skin Diligent’s role
How do these pathways translate into real care? And how does Skin Diligent align with this new vision of skin biohacking?
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Sirtuins → Our CEL™ Retinal Serum delivers encapsulated retinal in a proprietary complex that stimulates collagen while regulating sirtuins. By delaying senescence - the stage when cells become too damaged to function - it helps preserve youthful cellular activity.
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Autophagy → The CEL™ complex also supports autophagy, encouraging cells to recycle damage and renew efficiently. This strengthens the barrier, balances pigmentation, and reinforces resilience under stress.
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Circadian rhythms → Our Exosome Advanced Night Cream carries exosome messengers that synchronise with the skin’s nightly repair cycle, amplifying renewal when the skin is naturally primed for recovery.
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Inflammation control → All formulations are crafted to be free of endocrine disruptors and harsh irritants, calming the low-grade stress that accelerates barrier damage and collagen breakdown.
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Epigenetic reprogramming → All our products contain bioactives that influence gene expression toward repair and balance, addressing wrinkles, skin texture, skin tone, sebum regulation, hydration capacity, antioxidant capacity, barrier strength, and more.
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Antioxidant defence → Our Vitamin C Serum-in-Oil protects fragile lipids from oxidation, targets free radicals through a trio of antioxidants, and improves skin barrier quality, clarity and vitality.
In practice: Skin Diligent is not just skincare. It can be seen as skin biohacking in action - as we guide the skin’s deepest pathways back toward balance, resilience, and longevity.
Frequently Asked Questions About Skin Biohacking
Q: Is skin biohacking the same as anti-ageing skincare?
Not quite. Anti-ageing skincare often focuses on visible signs such as wrinkles or dark spots. Skin biohacking goes deeper, aiming to influence pathways like telomeres, sirtuins, and epigenetics. The goal is not only smoother skin but long-term cellular resilience and longevity.
Q: Can you biohack your skin without products?
Not really. A balanced diet is essential for health and for healthy skin, but the skin also needs minimum external support: hydration, moisturisation, and antioxidants. Without this baseline of care, the skin barrier cannot function properly and becomes vulnerable to damage - which is the opposite of biohacking.
Q: Is Skin Diligent a biohacking skincare brand?
Technically, we are epigenetic skincare. Our work targets epigenetic markers of ageing and skin health. But we share many objectives with biohacking: protecting cellular health, focusing on prevention, and addressing biomarkers relevant to skin longevity. Through these pathways, Skin Diligent targets the conventional beauty objectives such as wrinkles, skin tone, skin texture, and brightness.
Q: Can food supplements help with biohacking the skin?
Yes. Food supplements are part of modern-day necessity, especially for those living in urban environments with higher oxidative stress. Prioritising antioxidants helps reduce oxidative damage, which is central to both skin biohacking and overall longevity.
Biohacking invites us to see skin differently: not as a wall to be polished, but as a living, intelligent system we can guide.
Skin is not a mask. It is a living storyteller of time. When we support its rhythms and pathways, the story it tells is one of clarity, strength, and resilience.