I don’t often talk about the visible signs of ageing on here – as you know I believe we all need to approach our advancing years with a positive mindset. By midlife most of us have become increasingly aware of what a privilege it is to grow older. The years of being a 50-something are known as sniper’s alley for good reason and if we make it through, complaining about looking as though we’ve lived feels like the biggest insult to the people we’ve lost. I firmly believe that older faces are beautiful anyway. A smooth young face is as fresh as untrodden snow but an older one is so much more interesting because it tells the story of the person who lies within. By midlife people who are fundamentally unkind can no longer hide it with a smile whereas those who’ve lived with their hearts open have the blessing of The Twits:
“a person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
And I never, ever understand why anyone has their laughter lines erased with Botox, it’s like having all of your happy photographs erased. In the mirror though I can see that 57 has been the year when my face has aged more quickly. I’m doing more of that pulling bits back when I look at it, just to try to find the contours of the face I used to know. They say you’re either a wrinkler or a sagger and it’s no surprise to me that as I have a face that’s more like my dad’s, I’m a sagger (I have a quiet hope that I don’t end up with his bloodhound eyes though!). As somebody who can’t even bear spending time in a salon having her nails done I’m never going to have hours of beauty treatments. The one thing I focus on is keeping my skin looking as fresh as I can within the boundaries of whatever I can do at home. And topical skincare with good science behind it is something I’m always interested in.
I mentioned last week that I’ve been trialling a selection of products for No7. It’s been a real pleasure to play around with a brand that makes affordable products with a lot of research behind them. I have lifelong affection for Boots, I’m sure most people in our generation do. I worked there as a Saturday girl when I was at school, it was the start line for my career in retail. I loved the uniform – a turquoise pinafore dress over a floral blouse and the power symbol of a till keychain that clipped onto your pocket. And I’ll never forget the sheer satisfaction of manning the tills, there was something hypnotic about keying the prices in manually and ringing them up hour after hour… swiping the credit card slips on those old fashioned triplicate sliders… stuffing wodges of bank notes into till safes… you’ll only know what I mean if you did it too. Then when I went to Nottingham University we had the original Boots family to thank for a lot of it – they’d funded some of the halls of residence and the building where the best parties were held. As for No7, it takes me back to my mum who wasn’t a make-up wearer so it was the sign of a special day if she dug her No7 ‘gay geranium’ lipstick out! I’m going back 50 years but it’s a shade that they still do and so for old times’ sake I always have one (it’s the same shade as Mac’s Lady Danger).
The last association that comes into my head when I think of Boots is a meeting with the Beauty Buyer at Selfridges and the UK head of the world’s biggest beauty brand. Our buyer had heard that they were going to start supplying Boots who had a big store right across from us. She was a brilliant but often feisty woman and so as she led us into their building in Mayfair for a showdown it was like heading into combat. “Why would you do that?” she wanted to know when we got there. “Because our stats show that every person in the UK walks through a Boots store at least once a week,” he replied. And it was true, back in the 1990s that was a footfall figure that couldn’t be matched. Remembering that helps me to understand why a brand that’s as good as No7 has fallen off my radar a bit since lockdown – I just don’t go into shops as often as I did. And I think of No7 more in terms of R&D than big glossy adverts so while they’re quietly beavering away on new scientific developments, other more shiny brands with shouty voices commandeer my attention.
Today No7 have asked me to share their latest scientific advance with you and I’m going to do that but first I just have to finish the story about the beauty buyer. Imagine my surprise when years later it transpired that one of my boys was dating her daughter at university. You know how your mind goes when that sort of thing happens… right to a wedding day and a lifelong in-law connection… we’d have had so many stories to share… and I’d really have been kept on my toes! In the end it didn’t last long though. So, let me tell you about this new product launch and break the science behind it into understandable chunks. We’re talking about a discovery No7 have made that’s enabled them to develop a new night serum that’s been clinically proven to reverse the visible signs of ageing^.
Visible signs of ageing – can they be tackled?
Could This Be the Secret to Reversing Skin Damage While You Sleep?
We all know that by midlife the sun is the thing that’s caused most of the damage to our skin. I’ve always loved having a tan and I admit I wince when I think back to the 80s – even in the revision months of summer I used to adjust myself on a garden lounger to make sure that the notes I needed to commit to memory didn’t cast any shadow on my (completely unprotected) face. Even ten years ago it still felt like Factor 15 was ‘sun block’ in the heat of the Turkish sun in August, it’s only really since I hit 50 that I’ve started wearing factor 50 every day. I’m paying for it now in terms of visible damage so when anything comes along that’s clinically proven to help repair the outcome of my years of living life to the full, I take notice.
As I said I’ve been trialling a number of products from No7 for while. A few weeks ago they unveiled Future Renew Damage Reversal Night Serum explaining that it’s unlike anything they’ve done before. I’ve been using it happily since then, it’s too soon for me to be able to see any obvious results in my own skin but there are enough studies behind it for me to feel it’s worth talking about now.
No7 have been continuing their years of research to see how the visible signs of skin damage can be reversed. They’ve already developed their Future Renew range that includes a general serum, eye serum and moisturisers but they were interested to see if they could add some extra oomph at night. So, led by No7 Head of Science Dr Mike Bell, they began a project with Qing-Jun Meng, Professor of Chronobiology (the science of biological timekeeping) at the University of Manchester. Chronobiology is already used in mainstream medicine so it isn’t a new concept. Things like blood pressure medications are often prescribed for night-time use and chemotherapy is carefully timed for maximum impact. Now, along with the University of Manchester, No7 has identified that there’s a good reason to apply the same kind of chronological precision to skincare.
You see their project made a pretty big discovery – that our skin has its own version of a rush hour. The team took 160 skin biopsies from volunteers to compare sites on the forearms which are often exposed with skin from the buttocks that is protected most of the time. Nearly 58,000 genes were analysed in total, specifically the ones responsible for repair and their activity was compared at four different times over a 24 hour period. They found that in healthy skin, nearly two-thirds of the repair work happened between 2am and 4am. However in the skin samples that had been exposed to external factors, this nighttime repair process was delayed and weakened, in fact some genes responsible for cellular renewal stopped firing altogether.
Their next task was to find something that would help reset these newly discovered internal skin clocks so the research team went on to conduct a study on a traditional East Asian plant, Lindera Strychnifolia. It’s something that’s been used in herbal medicine for a long time and they discovered that its root extract may be able to resynchronise the cycle in damaged skin, bringing the circadian rhythm back to skin cells, basically helping them to remember how to repair themselves properly.
As a result they’ve combined Lindera Strychnifolia with No 7’s established and trademarked super peptide blend, Night Active Pepticology, a combination of No7’s world-first peptide blend supercharged with Lindera and higher levels of niacinamide. This gives skin a carefully synchronised boost for nighttime repair and visible damage reversal while you sleep^. In fact, 100% of women had clinically proven visible damage reversal*. Dr Bell’s conclusion was that,“ in sun-damaged skin cells, it’s like the conductors of the orchestra have dropped their batons. This extract helps get them back in sync.”
As I said at the beginning, I haven’t been using the new Future Renew Damage Reversal Night Serum for long enough to be able to vouch for it personally but these before and after pictures show what can happen to the visible signs of ageing when you use the day and night Future Renew serums together.
What’s the difference between the original day serum and the new nighttime option? The original serum uses No7’s exclusive peptide blend to reverse visible signs of skin damage*. The new night serum contains the same super peptide blend, hyaluronic acid and an antioxidant complex of vitamins C & E but is also supercharged with Lindera to support the newly discovered circadian rhythm that we’ve been talking about along with a higher level of niacinamide. These ingredients give the skin a synchronised boost for nighttime skin repair^. Over 80% of people tested saw better results when they were used together so for round the clock impact use the day serum in the morning and new night serum at night**.
Future Renew Day Serum; Future Renew Night Serum
So if you’re looking for a serum that works with your skin’s natural overnight rhythm, restoring its ability to renew itself while you sleep this one is worth trying for a few weeks to see what results you get. It isn’t just the old notion of “beauty sleep”, it’s a clinically observed, gene-level rhythm reset and there’s £10 off until 6th May with code REVERSE10.
That’s everything from me today, I’ll be back with an outfit try-on next week when we’ll finally be in my favourite month of May. Like last year I’m going to be fully embracing being another year older by making the most of festival season and days of dancing in the sunshine ahead… this Future Renew Night Serum is going to have its work cut out over the next few months!
