Here's the thing about skincare: so often, the results are just not measurable to us as beauty users. Sure, you can research before you buy, read the bumpf, check the product's got clinical trials with promising results plus good ingredients in decent doses - oh, and that it's going to be right for your particular skin concerns. All those things are great and necessary, I think, if you want to get value for money. But it's so easy to get carried away with promises and there can often be a huge disconnect between what's claimed and what ends up occurring on your face.
In order to manage expectations, it's vital to remember that a wrinkle on your skin is something that's tiny in the context of your entire body and yet the expectations placed on a pot of cream are massive. There probably has been an improvement to your face by the time you get to the end of a 50ml pot of moisturiser - even if it's just a hydration increase making skin look plumper - but how's the naked eye meant to discern a 50% improvement in a wrinkle that might be .5ml deep? In addition, you never look at your skin with fresh eyes because you see it all the time, so subtle change isn't noticeable. See the problem?
What we need - and what we're starting to get - is some form of measurability with skincare; an assurance that it's been milestoned against tangible goals, so that we know it'll perform the way we want it to. Clinique, a brand I'm increasingly impressed with for the quality of their new-to-counter skincare, is doing just that with the forthcoming Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector. A bit of a mouthful I'll grant you, I got to sit down with the brand's skincare boffin, Dr Tom Mammone, over lunch a few weeks ago to find out what this new serum is all about.
In between bites of risotto and shoehorned around a discussion about the various types of sport played in Ireland, England and the US, he got a few words in about the product and what it does.
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Most of the damage done to skin over time - like wrinkles and pigmentation spots - is directly related to UV rays which wreak havoc at a cellular level, damaging the DNA in skin cells. That leads to problems with cell regeneration and the breakdown of collagen, so you end up with lovely looking wrinkles. Laser is an effective way to kick-start skin into producing collagen: the laser wounds the skin, which in turn causes a healing reponse in the form of collagen production - and it works. So Clinique has benchmarked Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector against the efficacy of lasers and has found that it achieves 63% of the result you'll get from a laser when used twice a day over six weeks.
Ok, lest we become too hysterical, there a few things things that are now immediately obvious: one, the product doesn't work the same way as a surgical laser does as it's a topical skincare serum, two, you've got to do some consistent work yourself over time with regard to applying it and not just lying back and flinching as someone zaps you silly, and three, it's only about two thirds as effective. The flipside - of course there's always one - is that laser hurts. Oh it bloody hurts. It's also very expensive, and not something everyone wants or needs to undertake.
But, as Newstalk bore George Hook might say, "thas asss tha staff fafff saaaance faaactshun," and in the case of Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector, he would be right. Skincare's come on in leaps and bounds in the last five years, and this serum sounds, on paper at least, like a really positive response from a brand to customers who want decent solutions. Without making this post the Longest One in the World Ever, it's got that laser-tested result as well as a cocktail of proven hard-working ingredients that include peptides, a vitamin A derivative, vitamin E and amino acids.
Designed for use pre-moisturiser twice a day and aimed at an age group from 30+, it's lightweight and easily absorbed, so won't add hassle to your routine. In addition, it's very well priced for something so 'sciency' I think - at €48, the cost is one that's accessible to lots of us. Availability? Find it exclusively at Brown Thomas from August 6th, going nationwide from September 10th.
