RoC Skincare is testing its Patented Clinical Retinol in adult female identical twins, pairing clinical skin assessments with lifestyle biometric data from Oura Rings. The company says the pilot study was designed to establish whether twins offer a more precise model for studying visible skin aging, and it is now moving to an expanded phase.
Art Pellegrino, chief scientific officer at RoC Skincare, says identical twins begin with the same genetic blueprint, making differences between them harder to attribute to genetics alone. That, he says, makes it easier to observe what the retinol regimen is doing on the skin. The pilot’s central question was whether identical twins could provide a more precise way to study what drives visible skin aging; according to Pellegrino, the answer was yes.
Why twins are used as a control
Because identical twins share DNA and much of their early environment, researchers can more definitively identify lifestyle factors or products as explanations for differences in skin aging. Pellegrino describes identical twins as about as close as researchers get to a natural control: if their skin ages differently, lifestyle and environment become the likelier explanation.
In the pilot, twins in the placebo group had similar or worse signs of aging at the end of the study, according to Pellegrino, while twins in the treatment group saw improvements of 20% or more in just four weeks. Those are company-reported pilot findings; the expanded study is intended to examine how much daily life—including sleep and stress—can change the picture when genetics is held constant.
Next phase: 30 pairs, 12 weeks
RoC is recruiting 30 pairs of adult female identical twins aged 40 and older living in the US for the next phase. Participants will use the regimen for 12 weeks. Pellegrino says the focused group is meant to give cleaner data to build on, and RoC sees the work as one stage in a longer research program on “skin span,” or how long skin keeps looking its best.
Throughout the study, twins are asked to wear an Oura Ring, a wearable device that tracks health and wellness metrics throughout the day. The data captured includes variations in sleep, stress, heart rate, heart rate variability and temperature trends.
Pellegrino says wearables are opening an opportunity across the industry to factor in how people live when recommending skin care. Because RoC cannot guarantee that twins have identical external influences such as sun exposure or diet, it is recruiting twins with similar levels of environmental damage wherever possible and tracking lifestyle factors closely.
Comparing lifestyle and skin response
With identical twins removing the question of whether a difference is genetic, and the Oura Ring tracking lifestyle parameters, RoC plans to examine how stressors relate to changes in each participant’s skin. If one twin sleeps poorly or is under more stress, the company can compare whether her skin responds differently to the regimen than her sister’s. It also plans to look at whether weeks of poor sleep line up with lower hydration readings, or whether the twin with lower stress sees fine lines improve faster.
RoC is also interested in the reverse question: whether participants who see visible skin improvements feel less stressed. Its standard clinical skin measures evaluate changes in signs of skin aging through expert grading, digital photography, corneometer readings and subject self-assessment.
Pellegrino says what RoC learns will shape how it develops products for skin longevity and designs clinical studies going forward. The company expects results from the twin study by mid-2027.