What is a skinbooster?
Skinbooster names a purpose and covers several ingredients: the 2023 systematic review used later in this article included eight studies of hyaluronic acid alone and five of hyaluronic acid with other active ingredients. What skinboosters share is the method, small amounts placed at many points in the dermis, the layer beneath the surface, to improve skin quality such as hydration, texture and fine lines. The article on what skinboosters fix, and what they never will covers what to expect.
The names people ask about sort into three groups: hyaluronic acid on its own, in stabilised or high-concentration forms; polynucleotides (PN), which include PDRN; and cocktails of hyaluronic acid with other ingredients. In Malaysia these products are regulated as medical devices, and each can be searched on the Medical Device Authority's public register at mdar.mda.gov.my. An entry shows that a device is registered. It says nothing about whether the product works. The regulation hub sets out how the registers fit together.
Hyaluronic acid skinboosters: Skinvive, Restylane Vital and Profhilo
Skinvive is cross-linked hyaluronic acid (HA) at 12 mg/mL with a little lidocaine, made for injection into the dermis; the FDA's summary says it is marketed as Juvéderm Volite outside the United States. Restylane Vital, in the Restylane Skinboosters range, is described on the Malaysian register as stabilised HA of non-animal origin, injected in the dermal layer. Profhilo's register entry describes highly purified HA in two molecular weights, 32 mg of each in a 2 mL syringe, and a higher-concentration version, Profhilo Structura, holds 45 mg of each. A 2022 paper by authors who work for its maker describes these as heat-stabilised hybrid complexes, a different class from chemically cross-linked gels.
The trial behind Skinvive's US approval randomised 209 adults to cheek treatment or a delayed-treatment control. The evaluator was blinded, the participants were not, and the maker ran the study. One month after treatment, 57.9% of the treated group and 4.5% of controls had improved by at least one grade on a cheek smoothness scale; at six months, 55.6% of treated participants were still responders, with no untreated group left for comparison.
For Profhilo, a small triple-blind split-face trial in 12 women compared it with saline around the mouth. Imaging showed improvement in wrinkles and pores, but on ultrasound the dermal thickness rose on both sides, and the authors concluded that the effect on thickness did not exceed the placebo effect and that participants were not fully satisfied with the outcomes. In a 24-woman split-face study of Profhilo against another HA skinbooster, both improved hydration and elasticity from baseline and did not differ significantly over 14 weeks. For Restylane Vital, the study read for this article had 30 women and no control group, so it cannot show what the injections themselves changed. A 2023 systematic review of 13 studies of injectable HA for facial skin quality found improvement in hydration, firmness and texture, and called for large randomised trials. None of these results can be laid side by side, because the products, areas, comparators and measures all differ.
Disclosure: in September 2026 I received the 2025 IBSA Key Opinion Leader Award; IBSA makes Profhilo.
Polynucleotides and PDRN: Rejuran and the salmon injections
Polynucleotide (PN) products, such as Rejuran, Plinest and Nucleofill, contain purified DNA fragments, and in this group the DNA is usually taken from the gonads of salmon or trout. PN is the wider group; PDRN is a subset with smaller fragments, and the two names are often used interchangeably. The Malaysian register lists Rejuran, Rejuran I and Rejuran S as one family, at 20 mg/mL of highly purified sodium polynucleotides for injection in the mid to deep dermis, and a separate entry, Rejuran HB Plus, combines polynucleotide with hyaluronic acid.
The proposed mechanisms are binding to the adenosine A2A receptor and supplying DNA building blocks to stressed cells. A narrative review in the Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery cites many laboratory studies of cultured cells behind them. How far they hold in human skin is for trials to show, and the randomised evidence is small. A 2026 systematic review found seven trials with 183 participants, four of them in skin rejuvenation, and none of those four compared an injected polynucleotide with an injected placebo; they compared delivery methods, formulations or an add-on to another treatment. The review found no serious treatment-related adverse events, and noted small samples, varied protocols and varied outcome measures.
Among its limitations, the narrative review lists few standardised protocols and variation between batches from the same source, and it notes that no data yet cover long-term evaluation. It advises caution in anyone with hypersensitivity to fish, so mention a fish allergy before treatment. The register entry for Rejuran also states that only a physician may use it and that it is not for children, adolescents, or pregnant or breastfeeding women. The article on PDRN, polynucleotides and salmon DNA goes further into the evidence, and exosomes, another emerging category, have an article of their own.
Cocktail products: NCTF, Sunekos and Jalupro
The third group mixes HA with other ingredients. The register describes NCTF 135 HA as free, non-cross-linked HA in a solution called NCTF, which a 2015 review, written with help paid for by the company that markets it, describes as containing vitamins, minerals, amino acids, nucleotides, coenzymes and antioxidants. Sunekos and Jalupro pair sodium hyaluronate with amino acids. The idea, often called biorevitalisation or polycomponent mesotherapy, is to supply raw materials that skin fibroblasts are said to use.
That review draws mainly on laboratory studies of cells, and calls for large, well-controlled clinical trials. One randomised trial of NCTF 135 HA, funded by the maker, enrolled 146 people and compared injections plus a moisturiser with the moisturiser alone. At day 75 and day 120, superficial wrinkles had reduced more in the injected group, but the control group had no injected placebo. The 2023 systematic review described the effect of HA alone as more pronounced than that of cocktail preparations, a comparison made across studies. Clinical data on the amino acid products are thin: one example is an uncontrolled study, funded by the maker of Sunekos, of 46 women treated for cellulite on the hips, buttocks and thighs.
What to ask before any skinbooster
Which product is it, made of what, and which of the three groups does it belong to? What is the evidence for that product in that area, and who paid for it? How many sessions, and how will the result be judged? What is the registration number, and does it match the register? Fish allergy matters for polynucleotides, and severe allergies, or allergy to lidocaine or bacterial proteins, matter for some HA gels. For dermal fillers in general, the FDA notes that safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding is unknown.
A skinbooster answers a question about skin quality. Whether that is the question the skin is asking is settled by examining it, and no product name can do that.
