Is this really the elixir of youth? It took scientists years to develop, it costs £34 - Oh, and it’s got a ‘waiting list’ of 100,000 people
by Claire Coleman for the Daily Mail- No7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate has launched at Boots
- University of Manchester examined the effects of retinol for treating wrinkles
- FEMAIL delved into the research behind the £34 anti-ageing night serum
Anyone with an interest in skincare — or who has visited the Boots website in recent weeks — can’t fail to have noticed that the store’s famous No 7 skincare range has a new product coming on to the market.
The grandly named No 7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate launches today. Much of the hype centres on reports that more than 100,000 people have joined a waiting list to get hold of it, making it ‘the biggest waitlist in Boots history’. The serum is being sold for just £34 for a 50ml tube. So what is this miracle worker — and how did Boots manage to get so many people to sign up for it? Here, Femail gives you the lowdown on the next so-called wonder cream . . .
GOLD STANDARD OF SKINCARE
The product itself is an anti-ageing night serum, containing retinol, one of a family of vitamin A-based ingredients known as retinoids.
These really are the gold standard when it comes to anti-ageing, thanks to years of high-quality research into how they interact with skin.
Retinoids increase the turnover of skin cells, getting rid of dead ones that dull the complexion; they help disperse pigment, revealing a clearer complexion; and they boost production of collagen, the protein that makes skin firm and youthful-looking.
No wonder they are often referred to as the Holy Grail of anti-ageing ingredients.
The strongest form of these retinoids is tretinoin, also known as retinoic acid. It’s available only on prescription and is used to treat acne and sun-damaged skin (UV exposure is responsible for around 80 per cent of what we call ‘ageing’).
However, retinoic acid is strong stuff, and it can have some pretty unpleasant side-effects, including redness, peeling and even blistering.
Milder retinoids — that are still very effective — can be bought over the counter.
One step down from retinoic acid is retinol, the active ingredient in the new Boots cream, and one step below that are ingredients such as retinyl palmitate.
The further down the chain you go, the less potent the form of vitamin A, but the fewer side-effects.
HAVEN’T I HEARD THIS BEFORE?
While excellent ingredients, they aren’t exactly groundbreaking. Back in 2007, retinyl palmitate made headline news. It was the key ingredient in Boots’ new Protect & Perfect serum — and a BBC Horizon programme showed scientists at Manchester University proving, through clinical trials, that the serum could repair wrinkles.
The result? A year’s supply of the product sold out within two weeks.
SO WHY JOIN THE WAITING LIST?
Since 2007, Boots has tried desperately to recreate this gold rush moment, launching improved versions of the formulation over the years, and extending the Protect & Perfect franchise to encompass day, night, eye, hand and sun care creams.
More recently it launched the No 7 Laboratories range.
Interestingly, this new cream doesn’t come under either label. The company say that’s because it’s an all-rounder.
In recent years, Boots has also attempted to whip up excitement around launches using an age-old marketing trick: the waiting list.
Of course, there have been genuine waiting lists in the past, where devoted customers paid for a product before it came into stock. Chanel’s wildly popular Rouge Noir nail polish was one.
These days, however it’s wise to take brands’ claims of thousands of people signing up to a waiting list with a pinch of salt. What Boots do is use social media to tease the launch of a new cream, encouraging consumers to enter their details on a website to get more information or priority access to buy it.
Crucially, if they enter their details they are also entered into a prize draw to win a collection of products — in this case, worth £227 — so, of course, many sign up.
Boots then claims the number of entries represent the number of people on the waiting list for the product —when really it’s just the number of people who have entered a prize draw.
But, of course, hype drives hype, and the idea that 100,000 people are on a waiting list for a product suggests it must be good.
SO, DOES IT LIVE UP TO THE BUZZ?
No 7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate is genuinely new because it is Boots’ first foray into formulating with retinol instead of the less powerful retinoids, such as retinyl palmitate.
It’s a lightweight, unscented serum that sinks easily into the skin, leaving it smooth and non-sticky. Boots is positioning it as an everywoman’s retinol: a product that can deliver all the results women want, but with minimal irritation.
HERE’S THE NEW RESEARCH
‘One per cent retinol is considered to deliver an effective cos-metic improvement, but it can come with some irritation,’ says Dr Mike Bell, Boots’ scientific skincare adviser. Working with the University of Manchester, Boots carried out a trial asking 100 women to try a product that contained 1 per cent retinol, 100 to try 0.5 per cent retinol, and 100, 0.3 per cent.
‘Surprisingly, we discovered there was little difference between 1 per cent and 0.3 per cent retinol when it comes to efficacy and performance,’ says Dr Bell. ‘However, there was a significant reduction in irritation: 0.3 per cent seems to be the sweet spot, where you get maximum results with minimum irritation.’
After six weeks, only 4 per cent of women on the 0.3 per cent retinol had stopped using it due to irritation, compared to 28 per cent of the women using the 1 per cent product.
So confusingly, although the packaging says 1.5 per cent, the actual concentration of retinol in the new serum is just 0.3 per cent, a level that Boots says is the happy medium for smoother skin without irritation.
(The 1.5 per cent figure refers to the ‘retinol complex’ — a mix of retinol and other ingredients — and is presumably designed to appeal to those who think more equals better when they look at the label.)
WHAT ELSE IS IN THE TUBE?
The company is also making much of two other ingredients in the product: bisabolol, a skin-calming ingredient derived from camomile, and Matrixyl 3000, a blend of peptides — or proteins — that are used in Boots’ Protect & Perfect products and have been shown by independent studies to restore the skin-plumping elements that break down as we age.
There’s also another peptide which Boots say supercharges Matrixyl 3000.
While these peptides themselves aren’t exclusive to Boots, the ratio and concentration of them is — and they have trademarked it as Matrixyl 3000 Plus.
DOES NEW SERUM ACTUALLY WORK?
I know you’re bored of the science and the marketing — you want to know if it actually works. I asked Victoria Woodhall, editorial director of GetTheGloss.com, who has been trialling the product for two weeks.
Boots recommend you start by using the cream just once or twice a week to avoid irritation, applying to cleansed skin. Wait for it to sink in and then use a night cream on the top.
Over four weeks you should gradually build up to using it nightly, and should ensure you use sun protection as it can make skin more sensitive to UV light.
‘I really liked that it was unfragranced and it sinks in very quickly, but I definitely needed a night cream on top,’ says Victoria.
‘I usually use a 1 per cent retinol product regularly with no issues, but the No7 made my skin a bit dry, even when I was using the night cream, too.
‘It didn’t cause any redness or soreness though, so I just assumed the dryness meant the product was doing its job.
‘I didn’t really notice any significant differences in my skin, but then it normally takes about six weeks for me to see the effects of anything new that I use.
‘I imagine in the long term it would have some effect, especially if you’ve not used retinol before.’
THE OTHER INGREDIENTS THAT REALLY WORK
Alpha Hydroxy Acids
These chemical exfoliants are what most dermatologists advise instead of old-fashioned scrubs. Rather than rubbing off the top layer of skin, they break down the ‘glue’ that keeps old, dead skin cells attached.
Pricey: Revive Glycolic Renewal Peel (£220, harrods.com) acid-infused pads and a gel mask designed to be used in tandem.
Bargain: The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution (£6.30, theordinary.com), a blend including glycolic and lactic acids used as a face mask.
Niacinamide
A Form of vitamin B that’s good for skin prone to blemishes, as it reduces production of sebum, but can also help make pores appear smaller, and iron out fine lines.
Pricey: Chantecaille Blanc Gardenia Brightening Emulsion (£140, spacenk.com), a niacinamide-heavy moisturiser with peptides and natural extracts.
Bargain: Olay Regenerist Regenerating Night Cream (£14.29, superdrug.com) pairs niacinamide with peptides and moisturising ingredients.
Vitamin C
A true powerhouse of skincare. It’s an antioxidant, so good to layer under sun protection by day to help protect your skin from the ravages of UV rays plus it’s great for pigmentation.
Pricey: Skinceuticals CE Ferulic Serum (£140, skinceuticals.co.uk) is a favourite of many dermatologists. It’s 15 per cent vitamin C with moisturising vitamin E and antioxidant ferulic acid.
Bargain: Garden of Wisdom Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid (£10, victoriahealth.com). Packaged in an airless pump.
SHOULD YOU FORK OUT £34 FOR IT?
So is Boots’ latest offering really worth spending your money on?
At £34 for 30ml, it’s the same price as 50ml of No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Serum, which has a similar formulation but with retinyl palmitate instead of retinol, and not quite as pricey as the No7 Line Correcting Booster Serum (£50 for 25ml), its last major launch that contains the same peptides in a higher concentration.
Cosmetic chemist Nausheen Qureshi (nausheenqureshi.com) sounds a warning. ‘Looking at the formulation, there’s nothing really innovative in there in terms of ingredients.
‘They say how the encapsulation technology they’re using prevents irritation. But the same technology can be found in other less expensive products [see panels] and combining 0.3 per cent retinol with bisabolol isn’t new.’
Ultimately, while the research with the University of Manchester into optimum levels of retinol is interesting, I’m afraid the product itself isn’t.
THE BUDGET RETINOL WRINKLE-BUSTERS
The Ordinary (theordinary.com)
This budget brand has a number of retinol options. The Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion (£8) contains the same encapsulation technology as the Boots product as well as bisabolol, although with a slightly lower concentration of retinol.
It also does a Granactive Retinoid 5% in Squalane (£11.90) with bisabolol, which promises no to low irritation. If it’s the peptides you want, try its Matrixyl 10% + HA (£9.60) which has a far higher concentration of peptides than the Boots one, and can be used in conjunction with your retinoid.
The Inkey List (theinkeylist.com)
If you like your retinoid to come with peptides already packaged in, The Inkey List’s Retinol (£9.99) might be an option. It contains a blend of a 1 per cent stabilised retinol called RetiStar (which isn’t as strong as 1 per cent retinol but is still effective) alongside 0.5 per cent hydroxypinacolone retinoate (another retinoid that is a bit of a rising star as it seems to offer similar results to retinol but with less irritation) and the same peptides as the Boots product.
If you want serious results and are prepared to tough out the side-effects, why not go for the prescription stuff? Don’t have a dermatologist? No problem. Dermatica offers remote consultations and a bespoke prescription for £20 a month.
You tell them the issue — I said I was worried about fine lines and pigmentation — and send them photos of your skin, and it sends you a specific prescription cream. In my case, 0.025 per cent tretinoin with 4 per cent hydroquinone.