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Every bathroom mirror is our laboratory.
Instead of isolating research inside corporate labs, DermaDAO treats everyday skincare routines as the most underutilized scientific resource on the planet. Every morning and night, millions of people apply products, observe changes, and make judgments about what works and what doesn’t, yet almost none of that information is captured, structured, or used to improve formulations.
DermaDAO asks a simple question:
“What if those daily routines became structured experiments instead of wasted signals?”
Making those experiments meaningful requires a way to consistently capture skin changes over time in a comparable format.
By combining research-backed formulations, AI-assisted skin tracking, and decentralized science infrastructure, DermaDAO turns bathroom mirrors into distributed research stations. All contributing to a continuously improving body of real-world, observational insights.
Once outcomes can be measured, two complementary data streams become possible.
The first is standardized product trials. In these studies, participants follow a defined protocol: the same product, the same usage timing, and standardized photo guidance. This allows DermaDAO to ask precise questions—whether a formulation change improves outcomes, whether irritation increases, and how effects evolve over weeks rather than at a single endpoint.
The second is everyday user tracking. Outside formal trials, people continue using SkinScan during normal life—with different routines, climates, stress levels, sleep patterns, and adherence. This data is intentionally messier. It is not presented as clinical proof, but it reflects how skincare is actually used in the real world.
The result is a new skincare model, one where products like Moon Drops and Sol Drops are not validated by influencers or marketing claims, but informed by thousands of people living their actual lives under everyday conditions.
Why the Skincare Industry Still Feels Stuck in the Past
Skincare loves the language of science. It rarely embraces the process of science.
Despite being a $190+ billion global industry, most skincare research still relies on:
- Small, tightly controlled lab studies
- Homogeneous testing groups
- Short evaluation windows
- Metrics that don’t translate to real-world use
These studies often involve a few dozen participants in highly structured, controlled settings with standardized routines, strict compliance. That environment looks nothing like real life.
In the real world, people:
- Live in different climates
- Have different skin tones and sensitivities
- Combine products unpredictably
- Miss days, overapply, underapply, or stop entirely
Traditional skincare R&D struggles to capture this complexity. Worse, once a product launches, the feedback loop effectively dies. Consumers complain online, but brands rarely revise formulations because doing so is expensive, slow, and operationally risky.
As a result:
- Products stagnate
- Innovation slows
- Personalization becomes superficial
In an era where health, fitness, and longevity are becoming data-driven and adaptive, skincare remains stubbornly static.
This is the structural failure DermaDAO targets.
How Decentralized Science Makes This Possible
This model would have been difficult to implement even a few years ago.
DermaDAO is built on decentralized science (DeSci) infrastructure, which addresses three limitations of traditional research systems:
1. Incentives: Participants are rewarded for contributing data rather than acting as unpaid or extractive test subjects.
2. Transparency: Methodologies, research directions, and aggregated outcomes are visible and auditable, rather than locked behind corporate walls.
3. Coordination: Large-scale, opt-in observational studies can be organized without a single controlling institution.
Through Biofy, DermaDAO connects product purchases, user participation, and data contribution into one coherent loop. Buying skincare is not just consumption, it represents enrollment in an ongoing, opt-in observational study.
Participants earn BioXP for their involvement; this structure aligns incentives across users, researchers, and formulators, ensuring that improvements in scientific quality benefit the entire network.
Rediscovering K-Beauty’s Original Strengths
Korean skincare has long been respected for its emphasis on prevention, barrier health, and long-term skin resilience. However, when K-beauty products are exported at scale, that rigor is often diluted.
- Stabilization methods are compromised
- Active concentrations are lowered
- Marketing replaces methodology
DermaDAO deliberately returns to clinic-grade Korean dermatological principles, working with veteran formulators experienced in stabilizing sensitive activities without refrigeration or excessive preservatives.
What changes everything is validation. Instead of testing products on narrow or homogeneous demographics, DermaDAO evaluates performance across:
- Different skin tones
- Different climates
- Different routines
This shifts K-beauty from a trend-driven export into a globally validated, continuously evaluated science.
Moon Drops: Antioxidant Science Without Compromise
The Moon Drops product represents the first skin rejuvenation aspect of DermaDAO’s longevity system. Its formulation centers on one of the most thoroughly studied antioxidant combinations in dermatology:
- L-Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
- Alpha-Tocopherol (Vitamin E)
- Ferulic Acid
Research has shown that Ferulic Acid significantly stabilizes Vitamin C, enhances photoprotection, and amplifies antioxidant performance.
Moon Drops uses carefully designed stabilization systems to maintain potency without heavy fillers or rapid oxidation. The formula is lightweight, water-based, and designed to integrate into real routines rather than idealized lab protocols.
Crucially, Moon Drops are not validated once and forgotten. Its performance is continuously evaluated through community-submitted longitudinal scans, creating a living, evolving dataset that informs future formulation decisions.
Sol Drops: Daytime Protection That Doesn’t Undo Progress
Sol Drops (also called Sol Drops Mineral Serum) addresses a common failure point in skincare: daytime skin protection that undermines consistency and long-term adherence.
Sol Drops prioritizes real-world usability alongside protection. Its mineral-based formulation combines:
- Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide for skin soothing benefits
- Niacinamide and Panthenol for barrier support
- Antioxidant lipids to reduce oxidative stress
The result is a serum that layers cleanly, avoids white cast, and supports long-term skin health.
Paired with Moon Drops, it creates a complete daily cycle with around the clock repair and defense and supported by continuous, community-generated observational data.
The Human Expertise Behind Derma
Behind the protocol is a small team with deep clinical, scientific, and formulation experience, spanning dermatology, life-science research, and product development, ensuring that decentralization strengthens rigor rather than diluting it.
Jez Marston is a physician-scientist with a PhD in Immunology and Computational Biology from Cornell, with training at Yale and Cambridge. His work focuses on translational life-science research across dermatology and longevity, bridging fundamental biology with real-world health applications.
Dongsinne Sohn is a health and Web3 entrepreneur working at the intersection of skincare science, community, and culture, with prior experience building products focused on eczema and chronic skin conditions. She brings a user-first perspective to how scientific research translates into everyday routines.
Hongseok Kim, also known as Dr. DTS, is a board-certified Korean dermatologist (MD) recognized for translating clinical dermatology and evidence-based K-beauty into accessible, education-driven skin science. Through his public work and clinical background, he bridges traditional dermatology with community-led research.YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drhong3_cosmetic
Hyeon Pyo Jhun is a veteran cosmetic chemist with over 40 years of experience in high-performance skincare R&D, overseeing formulation integrity, scale-up, and quality systems to ensure that scientific intent survives real-world manufacturing.
Together, this team anchors DermaDAO’s decentralized research model in clinical credibility, formulation discipline, and real-world applicability, combining old-school scientific rigor with modern, community-driven coordination.
How Decentralized Trials Actually Accelerate Innovation
DermaDAO’s research framework allows community members to:
- Vote on future research directions
- Participate in structured, opt-in observational studies
- Submit longitudinal SkinScan data
- Earn rewards for validated contributions
AI-assisted analysis quantifies changes in measurable skin attributes, while privacy-preserving systems ensure data integrity without exposing individual information.
The LUNAR trial (Longevity Using Novel Actives for Rejuvenation) illustrates how this framework operates in practice. Moon Drops serves as the baseline formulation, with enhanced variants tested side-by-side under standardized protocols. Outcomes are tracked longitudinally using SkinScan, allowing comparative evaluation over weeks rather than at a single endpoint.
Ingredients that consistently improve measured outcomes without compromising tolerability progress. Those that do not are removed or reworked.
This structure shortens iteration cycles significantly compared to traditional R&D, allowing insights to emerge over weeks to months rather than years.
Importantly, anyone can audit aggregated results, methodologies, and conclusions or challenge interpretations. Science becomes participatory rather than declarative.
Why This Model Is Bigger Than Skincare
Skin is visible, trackable, and responsive, making it ideal for testing decentralized health research models. If this approach proves durable here, it can extend into longevity, dermatology, and preventive health more broadly.
DermaDAO demonstrates that consumer health products do not need to choose between scientific rigor and scale. With aligned incentives and transparent infrastructure, they can achieve both.
Closing Thoughts
DermaDAO exposes an uncomfortable truth for legacy brands:
Skincare doesn’t need more marketing. It needs better feedback loops.
By turning everyday routines into structured scientific signals, and giving users ownership over participation and outcomes, DermaDAO reframes how skincare research is generated.
Products like Moon Drops and Sol Drops are not the end goal. They are the entry point into a longer-term research ecosystem shaped by the people who use it.
SkinScan is not the product. It is the accountability layer that enables this model to function.
The mirror was always there.
DermaDAO just taught it how to listen.
