Stem Cells in Anti-Aging Skincare Products: What Are They and What Do They Do?
Stem cell technology is a fascinating and complex area of medical research, with a wide variety of potential applications that could change the face of healthcare (and skincare!) completely. Not surprisingly, the potential health breakthroughs of stem cells have been adopted by many brands in the cosmetics industry, who claim that stem cell creams and stem cell serums can have potent anti-aging properties.
However, there is good reason to take such claims with a grain of salt. Medical research about stem cells involves stem cells that come from people, whereas it’s plant-derived stem cells that are used in skincare products. Cosmetics that contain plant stem cells don’t have the burden of proof requirements that medical research has before a product can be released to the public, allowing cosmetics companies to make such claims that sound too good to be true.
As it turns out, the most impressive-sounding claims about plant stem cells for skin are rooted more in fantasy than in reality — but they’re not useless ingredients, either.
Here’s what you need to know about stem cell skincare products, and whether they live up to the hype.
What Do Stem Cells Do?
Stem cells are specialised cells in animals and plants that are capable of becoming any other type of cell in that type of organism, and then reproducing more of those cells in a controlled manner. As you can imagine, these cells play a pivotal role in how plants and skin visibly repair and rejuvenate themselves once they’ve been damaged.
The thinking, then, is that putting stem cells into skincare products will boost their restorative properties — creating effective anti-aging products that will go a long way towards younger-looking skin.
However, there are some limits to this, especially when it comes to using plant stem cells in skincare or makeup.
How Come Plant Stem Cells Can’t Work as Claimed?
The thinking, as far as plant stem cells in cosmetics products goes, is that extracting stem cells from certain plants (usually apples, grapes, melons, or lilacs) can help your skin better defend itself against environmental aggressors, resulting in a younger-looking glow.
However, plant stem cells cannot deliver their promised results as they cannot influence stem cells in human skin. Actually, it’s a good thing that plant stem cells in anti-aging products can’t work as claimed; who wants their skin to take on the qualities of an apple, grape, or melon?
Stem cells must also be alive to function as stem cells, and by the time these delicate cells are processed and added to skincare products, they’re long since dead and unable to work as they once did.
The other problem: In people and plants, stem cells act only under certain environmental conditions. If everything isn’t lined up just so, the stem cells remain at rest.
Plus, if such products are packaged in jars, they’ll quickly lose their antioxidant benefits as well, because plant extracts break down with repeated exposure to air and light, which jar packaging allows.
Simply put – if you’re buying a stem cell cream for benefits that sound too-good-to-be-true, it’s not worth the extra cost.
However, that doesn’t mean you should lose hope! Although plant stem cells don’t work on us the same way that human stem cells do, their potential ability to strengthen your skin’s defence against environmental stressors is just like what antioxidants do. That’s why using products with plant stem cells could still be worth your time and money, especially if you’re looking for antioxidant-rich options.
What About the Benefits of Stem Cells Helping Plants Survive in Harsh Conditions?
Some anti-aging skincare products with plant stem cells claim that because a plant’s stem cells allow the plant to survive in harsh climates, these preservation benefits can be passed on to human skin when it’s exposed to aging elements. Sadly, that’s overpromising.
The way a plant functions in nature is completely unrelated to how human skin works. Not to mention that these claims are without substantiation. How well a plant survives in the desert or in a miserably cold climate doesn’t apply to us for a variety of reasons. Namely, because no matter how you slather such products on your skin, you still won’t survive long without specific nutrients, shade, clothing, and other skin-protective factors, which plants just don’t need to worry about.
One More Stem Cell Claim
A final twist on the stem cell issue is the claim by cosmetics companies that they have extracted components (such as peptides) out of the plant stem cells and made them stable. They go on to state that these ingredients will work as stem cells or will influence the adult stem cells that are naturally present in our skin.
This approach sounds enticing, but it’s just not valid, as plant stem cells must be complete and intact to function normally. Using peptides or other ingredients to influence adult stem cells in skin is something that’s being explored, but to date, scientists are still trying to determine how that would work and how it could be done safely.
Once you know how the stem cells really work, it’s easy to see how they cannot work as claimed in anti-aging skincare products.
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References for this information
Serra, M., Botelho, C., Sousa, D., Almeida, H., Casas, A., Teixeira, J. A., & Barros, A. N. (2025). Bioactive Potential of a Grape Stem Blend: A Sustainable Approach to Skin Regeneration. Antioxidants, 14(3), 338. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox14030338
Gardiki, V., Pavlou, P., Siamidi, A., Papageorgiou, S., Papadopoulos, A., Iakovou, K., & Varvaresou, A. (2025). Plant Stem Cells in Cosmetic Industry. Plants, 14(3), 433. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14030433
Stem Cells Translational Medicine, September 2013, pages 638–640
Aggarwal S, Sardana C, Ozturk M, Sarwat M. Plant stem cells and their applications: special emphasis on their marketed products. 3 Biotech. 2020 Jul;10(7):291. doi: 10.1007/s13205-020-02247-9. Epub 2020 Jun 5. PMID: 32550110; PMCID: PMC7275108.
PloS One, October 2008, ePublication
