Forget jade rollers, LED masks and salmon sperm facials. The latest skincare trend taking over TikTok is a blood test.

“Ferritin face” is the social media term for the claim that low iron levels leave visible clues on your face – dark circles under the eyes, pale or grey-looking skin. Some influencers say raising their ferritin levels transformed their complexion in ways no product could.

But before booking a blood test or buying iron supplements in your quest for better skin, let’s look at the science.

Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in the body, so a ferritin blood test is really a way of checking how much iron you have in reserve. Unlike iron itself, which can fluctuate throughout the day, ferritin is a better indicator of the body’s iron stores.

Iron is an important nutrient. It supports growth, immune function and energy production and is essential for haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen around the........

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