All products featured on Ethos have been independently selected by our editorial team.
When you buy something through our links, Ethos may earn an affiliate commission.
Estrogen deficiency has produced its own beauty category for menopausal skin. But do the skincare products work? And are the formulas clean?
“In my forties, when my hormones started plummeting, I didn’t feel there was a support network at all,” Naomi Watts told WWD of the years that led her to launch Stripes, the menopause beauty brand she built after finding almost nothing on the shelf that spoke to what was happening to her skin. “It can be quite alienating when you’re looking at a brand and they’re putting forward this notion that you can look so much younger.”
The category she helped open has since split into three distinct approaches — and only two of them are available without a prescription. Compounded topical estriol, a weak form of estrogen, is dispensed by pharmacies under a doctor’s supervision. The two that shoppers can actually buy off the shelf are non-hormonal molecules engineered to switch on the skin’s estrogen receptors without introducing a hormone, and plant-derived phytoestrogens such as soy isoflavones, which loosely mimic estrogen’s shape. Both are marketed to the same problem, which dermatology now calls estrogen deficient skin.
“Women should feel like the menopause conversation is a normal one to have,” Watts said. “This should be the end of the shame and secrecy, and the beginning of something new and wonderful for women.”
What estrogen deficient skin actually means
“Up until now, there has been a lack of awareness of some of the signs of estrogen deficiency in the skin,” Joel L. Cohen, director of AboutSkin Dermatology and DermSurgery, said in a panel discussion published in Modern Aesthetics. “Many people simply think of estrogen deficiency as causing vaginal dryness without attributing some of the same issues specifically to the skin.”
“Women don’t necessarily realize that hormonal changes are causing their signs of aging,” Diane Berson, associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in the same discussion. “A woman could be doing everything right…and she’s still not going to look her best because she’s missing that one factor after menopause.”
The market has moved quickly to meet that realization. Global menopause skin care sales are projected to reach $2.92 billion by 2033. The most clinically documented non-hormonal option remains MEP, or methyl estradiolpropanoate, the patented molecule in Biopelle’s Emepelle line. Biopelle is clear that MEP is not estrogen, not a hormone replacement, and not “able to cause effects elsewhere in the body.” A 2022 open-label study of the brand’s eye cream in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology found 26 of 31 women showed clinical improvement in the periorbital area, with participants reporting a 47 percent improvement in satisfaction with how that skin looked.
Are phytoestrogens in skincare safe?
The Journal of Integrative Dermatology review found phytoestrogens delivered “improvements in skin hydration, elasticity, and wrinkling, albeit to a lesser extent than topical estrogen therapies.” A 2009 pilot study measured what isoflavones did in postmenopausal women over six months, finding a 9.46 percent increase in epidermal thickness and a significant rise in collagen fibers in 86 percent of participants.
Paula Begoun built two products around that research. “Estrogen loss absolutely impacts skin adversely in terms of aging, health and balance, and that starts around the age of 45,” Begoun told NewBeauty when Paula’s Choice introduced its Clinical Phytoestrogen line, which pairs the soy isoflavones daidzein, genistein, and equol with the antioxidant resveratrol.
Not every brand in the category agrees that plant estrogens belong in a bottle. Womaness formulates its skincare without estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones, treating hormone mimicry as a line it declines to cross while still addressing the dryness and crepiness that follow menopause.
That caution has clinical backing where actual estrogens are concerned. “Topical estriol is the most commonly used one in cosmetic, facial aging skincare. It is a very weak, gentle estrogen receptor activator,” Suzanne Trott, an American Society of Plastic Surgeons member surgeon, said in a recent report published by the organization. Her colleague Karen Horton adds that for women with a history of hormone-sensitive conditions, like estrogen-dominant polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), hormone-sensitive hyperpigmentation (melasma), rosacea that gets worse at certain times of the month, hormonal acne or a history of breast cancer, it’s best to speak with your doctor before using topical estrogen face cream.
The best clean skincare for menopausal skin
Nothing sold over the counter in the United States contains prescription estrogen, so the choice comes down to how close to hormonal activity a formula gets, from soy isoflavones to formulas that omit plant estrogens on purpose.
Oio Lab Superpause Restorative Facial Cream
Oio boasts 99.96 percent ingredients of natural origin, built on chasteberry extract and liposomal melatonin rather than soy isoflavones. Oio Lab reports a 9 percent reduction in wrinkle depth after 28 days in its own instrumental testing.
Korres White Pine Meno-Reverse Volumizing Serum-In-Moisturizer
Korres built its post-menopausal line around sustainably sourced white pine extract and natural peptides, aimed at volume loss and dryness rather than surface texture.
Stripes The Power Move
Watts’s hydrating and plumping serum leads with ectoine, an extremophile-derived molecule that holds water in the skin barrier without any hormonal mechanism at all.
True Botanicals Chebula Active Serum
Made Safe certified and built on terminalia chebula fruit extract, an ayurvedic antioxidant, with hyaluronic acid, elderberry, and ginger root. In a six-week single-blind study of 30 women aged 35 to 65, 97 percent saw a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles after four weeks.
Three Ships Firm Believer Smoothing Neck + Face Cream
EWG Verified, fragrance-free, and formulated for the neck and décolleté, where thinning shows first, with goji and edelweiss callus culture extracts and pomegranate pericarp. The brand reports that 84 percent of a 45-person consumer panel noticed improvement in the appearance of fine lines.
Related on Ethos:
