Serum: wonder of the world?
A new generation of super-active serums promise unprecedented firmness, radiance and wrinkle resistance.
Lucia van der Prost weighs in on the new stars of specialised skincare …
… At Nude, marketing manager Annmarie Harris defines a super serum thus: "It addresses the skin holistically, rather than just one specific concern. It repairs damage, prevents damage reoccurring and protects the skin cells. A lot of products," she points out, "have one killer ingredient, but where our super serum differs is that it looks at repair and damage from all angles. Nude's Advanced Cellular Renewal Serum (£68 for 30ml), for example, has three systems working together to support, boost, preserve and protect." Its highly concentrated dose of hyaluronic acid smoothes fine lines, while Japanese sea kelp blocks the enzymes that break down hyaluronic acid.
… But it's worth also looking at the issue of chemicals in serums.
When it comes to skincare products, people mostly want the product to be truly effective and aren't too concerned about what makes it so.
However, there's a growing band of women who like their creams and lotions to be as pure as possible but want them to also deal with the brown spots, the wrinkles and the ageing. Nude aims to do just that, It's a wonderful brand started in 2007 by Brian Meehan, who founded organic food stores Fresh and Wild. He felt there was a big gap in the market for products that were pure and natural but also - and this is the key - as effective as those pumped full of artificial ingredients.
There are lots of lovely natural products, such as Dr Hauschka, Weleda and Jurlique, which smell divine, are delicious to use and do a good job of cleansing and moisturising, but don't deliver on anti-ageing. They don't use peptides or hyaluronic acid or co-enzymes, all of which are key in the war against the years. This meant that many women who in theory loved things that were organic and natural, "when it came to their wrinkles", as Harris puts it, "were willing to compromise". Meehan, however, also wanted to tick the eco and ethical issues - which us why the products are responsibly packaged.
After painstaking research, Nude came up with natural substitutes so that it now uses probiotics sourced from milk that stimulate cellular renewal, reduce cellular damage by up to 50 per cent - they have the clinical data to prove this - and reduce irritation (a story reported in How To Spend It in November 2009). While most peptides, which also stimulate the cells to produce collagen and hyaluronic acid, are synthetically manufactured in laboratories, at Nude they have managed to develop peptides, again, from milk. The range is, as yet, small, but its fortunes have been transformed by its Advanced Cellular Renewal Serum, which has put it right on the beauty map. It uses almost entirely natural ingredients - the only non-natural ingredient being a tiny percentage of preservative.
And instead of silicone, it uses a plant-based glycerine that allows the skin to breathe. It seems that Nude must be on to something, for it has been noticed by French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which bought a 70 per cent stake in the brand in February.