The Beauty Industry’s Prisoner’s Dilemma: Why Every Skincare Trend Rushes to the Shelf Before the Science Even Works

Exosomes went from a cellular biology term that nobody outside of advanced academic labs could pronounce to the frontline skincare shelves of Sephora in approximately eighteen months. That pace is startling, but it isn’t the story of scientific innovation hitting hyperdrive. It is the story of game theory playing out across the modern beauty market, where competitive incentives force corporate boardrooms into coordinated races to the bottom. To understand why the latest miracle serum arrives ...