I have sperm on my face.
I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not what’s happening. This is not sexy sperm. It is fish sperm, and it is making me beautiful. Maybe?
I’m on the subway, having just had a micro-needling treatment with Dr. Dendy Engelman at Shafer Clinic, in Manhattan. Immediately following the procedure—while those little micro-channels were wide open and thirsty—she slathered on a goo containing hydrolyzed DNA derived from salmon gonads. When I left her office, my skin was a tad pink and shiny, but I didn’t look crazy—which is why I opted for the subway instead of an Uber. But now I’m getting strange looks, and all I can think is: I have sperm on my face. Can people tell?
When I get home and look in the mirror, my question is answered. The substance has dried, and there are flaky white patches on my forehead and cheeks. It looks like … well, exactly. My husband walks in, and I immediately blurt out, “I have sperm on my face!” He registers no surprise. He merely shakes his head and says, “What will they think of next?”
Fair point. After we’ve slimed our skin with snail mucin and battered our bods with beef tallow, is anything shocking? Or even gross? In the pursuit of pulchritude—apparently not.
Salmon-sperm facials, as they are colloquially known (tap the term into TikTok if you’re feeling brave), are nothing new: they have been popular in Korea for at least a decade. Nor do they technically involve salmon sperm. What they contain is polynucleotides (PN) or polydeoxyribonucleotides (PDRN), which are forms of purified DNA extracted from the swimmers’ swimmers. (Salmon roe is also a source, though less common.) “Apparently salmon DNA is 97 percent bioidentical with human DNA,” Engelman tells me. And because it’s been around for so long in Korea, there is a lot of published research documenting its benefits. “It helps decrease recovery time after procedures,” she says. “And it helps to upregulate your body’s collagen and elastin formation, helping with everything from fine lines and wrinkles to pore size.” Panacea!
The fishy facials started to get attention in the fall of 2024, when Jennifer Aniston, Kim Kardashian, and JLo all copped to having them, and the first F.D.A.-approved PDRN solutions began to appear in dermatology offices shortly thereafter. Currently, the products have F.D.A. approval for only topical use, but they are likely soon to be greenlit as injectables. In Asia and Europe, injectors are mixing salmon sperm with hyaluronic-acid fillers and biostimulators such as Sculptra to enhance results. The first time I heard of PDRN was from Ivan Pol, the pricey facialist, who told me that his clients were flying to Europe to get fish DNA injected into their undereye hollows. I thought it sounded like the craziest thing I had ever heard.
And now? It’s everywhere. Getting a laser treatment at an Equinox Hotel spa? Feel free to add on a salmon-sperm “booster” for upward of $500. Luxe-cream purveyor Valmont recently revealed that PDRN has been in its formulas all along, and it’s a buzzy ingredient in low-cost skin care on Amazon. As for how effective fish DNA might be in a moisturizer, the jury is still out. “The molecular size of PDRN may limit its ability to penetrate the skin effectively when applied topically,” says Dr. Annie Chiu, a dermatologist in Redondo Beach, California. “Unless it’s specially formulated in a highly advanced delivery system, which many over-the-counter versions lack.”
Dr. Sheila Barbarino, a facial plastic surgeon in Los Angeles, has been using PDRN on patients following fractional ablative laser treatments as well as radio-frequency micro-needling. She considers it to be among the most exciting regenerative approaches currently available. “I have patients who have had life-changing facelifts and eyelid surgeries, and then they’ll get one of these treatments and they’re like, That was my favorite thing you’ve ever done,” she says. “It’s not that it’s better than surgery. It’s just that it made their skin glow and they felt like they looked instantly better, which is something that’s very hard to deliver.” The recommended protocol for salmon-sperm facials is a series of three, and Barbarino is having no trouble getting clients to return after the first one. “Never in my aesthetic-medicine journey have I ever had patients who are so eager to do something again,” she says.
I understand why. Previous micro-needling treatments have left my face rashy and bumpy for days. (Morpheus8? Forget about it. I was a beast for a month.) With the addition of PDRN, I had no irritation at all, and I’ve been getting compliments on my skin ever since. Sure, I was a little weirded out by the substance itself, and yeah, I did wonder if absorbing salmon DNA might result in some kind of Daryl Hannah–in–Splash situation. (Gills?) But will I sign up for another round? Absolutely. I even have my OOO ready for the brief window I won’t be looking at my phone: GONE FISHIN’.
April Long is a New York–based writer and contributing beauty editor at Town & Country
