Is this new ‘miracle’ face cream better than Botox ...or is it just BUNKUM?
This week, Boots launched its latest £38 anti-wrinkle serum, claiming it could wipe 5 years off your face. As women clamour for it ...
THERE was a definite whiff of anticipation and excitement on the High Street this week. The subject on everyone’s lips — and the backs of their hands, squirted there by eager sales assistants — was Boots’s latest ‘super serum’, a £38 tube of gloop called No 7 Laboratories Line Correcting Booster Serum, that comes with the bold promise of being able to knock five years off the appearance of skin.
Its launch — a public relations and marketing stroke of genius — has seen the biggest hype since, well , Boots’s last publicity coup 11 years ago, when its Protect & Perfect range hit the shelves.
While the store is a master at blowing its own trumpet, it was a BBC2 Horizon investigation in 2007, in which dermatologist Professor Chris Griffiths concluded that the Protect & Perfect serum was as effective as far pricier lotions, that created the first of many sales stampedes.
Rationing even had to be enforced as shoppers queued out of the door and 20 weeks’ worth of product sold in just one day.
This week, the hysteria was back again, as 17,000 people across the UK added their names to a waiting list to be among the first to purchase a tube of the so-called miracle product.
One sold every two seconds, both online and in-store, on the first day of sale on Wednesday.
Packaged in a clear plastic 15ml tube, with a pointy top and twisty bottom, the serum — a much more concentrated version of the original — is designed to be rubbed directly into wrinkles.
The bottle bears more than a passing resemblance to the sort of syringe that might be used to administer Botox, no doubt leading consumers to hope for similar, albeit more natural, results (and also giving it a hint of medicinal gravitas).
Unlike many other anti-ageing products that use Retinol — a substance which is basically pure vitamin A and said to increase skin cell turn- over and collagen production — the key ingredient in the No 7 range is a curiously named ingredient called Matrixyl 3000 plus.
This claims to prompt the production of fibrillin, the building blocks of elastin, a protein which ‘plumps and holds up’ the skin, giving it its ‘spring’, thus minimising the appearance of wrinkles.
It all sounds very impressive, but does it actually work? I went to investigate . . .
WHAT’S THE SCIENCE?
COMPARING facial skin to a mattress, Dr Mike Bell, Boots’ skincare scientific adviser, says that fibrillin is like the springs, plumping it out and giving it bounce.
It is ‘very sensitive to sun and light’ which, over time, causes fibrillin to break down leading to lines and wrinkles.
‘The three peptides (the smaller building blocks of proteins) which make up Matrixyl 3000 plus combine to restore the fibrillin, smoothing out the skin and reducing lines and wrinkles,’ says Dr Bell.
‘In our trials, it didn’t matter what the age of the consumer was, or the severity of their wrinkles, we saw similar results — skin which looked up to five years younger.’
In their effort to get better results from products, Dr Bell says the researchers, working in conjunction with a skin research team at the University of Manchester, had two options: to increase the quantities of Matrixyl or create lotions targeted at specific problem areas.
‘We decided to do both, by making it seven times the concentration of the original 2007 formula, and designed to be rubbed directly into lines and wrinkles,’ he explains.
‘We had to make sure that the results were clinically relevant, so that dermatologists could see them, and consumer-relevant, so that the majority of people on the trial were able to see them.
‘And we’re proud to say that this is the first time we’ve been able to achieve a clinically proven reduction in signs of age by up to five years.
‘Quite a large number of people can achieve that, but for some it will take longer.’
DOES IT WORK?
OFFICIALLY, yes, it does. As part of the testing process, 50 human guinea pigs used line correcting serum on one half of their face and ordinary cream on the other.
The results were strictly monitored by Clearcast, a non-governmental organisation which assesses the content of TV adverts. To approve their claims, 20 per cent needed to have turned back the clock in the appearance of their skin age by more than five years. And considering the advertising campaign is up and very much running, we can safely assume it did.
In Boots’ consumer trials, 98 women testing the product reported ‘a visible reduction in the appearance of lines and wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes’, after one week.
Within a fortnight, they saw ‘ visible improvements in six targeted wrinkle areas’ which were the forehead, crow’s feet, lips, between the brows, under the eyes and in the nasolabial folds, which run from nose to mouth.
Having applied the serum for two months, nearly three- quarters of the 81 testers who had been considering Botox said they were less likely to have the treatment.
Among a further 81 women who had previously had Botox, 80 per cent reported that the line-correcting lotion gave them better results than they thought possible from skincare, while almost threequarters said they would delay their next round of Botox injections.
A smaller group of 31 women, who used it for three months, saw a reduction in wrinkles equivalent to turning back the clock by up to five years.
Rather cannily, instead of being a replacement for existing face and neck serums, or creams, Boots says that this latest invention, which has been in development for ten years, is designed to be bought and used in conjunction with a woman’s existing skincare regime.
WHAT EXPERTS SAY
THERE’S still a healthy amount of scepticism in the medical world. Cosmetic dermatologist Dr David Jack is unaware of any clinical evidence — independent, randomised trials in which the effectiveness of Matrixyl 3000 plus has been measured against a placebo — to support its wrinkle banishing claims.
Likewise, he believes that Boots’ assertion it can reverse the signs of ageing by up to five years would be difficult to quantify.
‘Any research I can find has been
done by the companies which manufacture or promote this product, so that takes away the neutrality needed in clinical trials,’ says Dr Jack.
‘ There is far more evidence available supporting the benefits of vitamins C and E, found in many products, for skin health.
‘Also, I don’t know how you could prove a fiveyear reduction in skin age as it is such a subjective thing. It’s not just about lines and wrinkles, a reduction in the thickness of skin is another marker of age.’
While recognising that packaging the serum in a syringe-like tube is clever marketing, making it look ‘quite scientific and medical’, Dr Jack says it is unlikely to achieve the same results as injectable Botox, which freezes muscles. Nevertheless it can smooth out the appearance of wrinkles without the obvious drawback of an invasive treatment. ‘ There is nothing to suggest this would be as effective as Botox or fillers, which produce quick , visible results,’ he says. ‘ Of course, it doesn’t carry the same risks (pain, swelling, bruising and droopy eyelids) either. ‘And if you are averse to more invasive treatments, or even alongside them, skincare ranges definitely have a place.’
THE WAITING LIST
THE serum went on sale via the
Boots.com website at 3am on Wednesday, when the first tubes were sent out to the 17,000 who had put their names on a waiting list. When the stores opened their doors at 9am, the serum was on sale, amid much fanfare.
According to industry insiders, the ‘waiting list’ was a clever trick. Customers were ‘invited’ to add their names to the list which made it appear that this anti-wrinkle potion could be tricky to get your hands on.
‘Sales are very encouraging — we’re selling one every two seconds,’ a spokesman said. ‘We have a group of real No 7 fans who are so keen to be the first to hear
about anything new that they wouldn’t have needed to be asked to put their names on the list.’
What she didn’t mention, was that customers were enticed, via social media, to add their names to the list by the offer of being entered into a prize draw to win one of ten No 7 £100 gift cards.
Sophie hill, PR and events consultant at The Beauty PR Experts, says: ‘Creating this type of hype around a product is pretty rare nowadays, as consumers and journalists are wise to it.
‘Boots is in a fairly unique position in that, as well as being a huge high Street name, with a great deal of engagement through its website, it had the success and hype of the previous product range to help promote this new product prior to launch.
‘It’s important not to hype too early, as people lose interest, but you have to leave enough time to get all your messages out, more than once, to pique the interest of the relevant people.’ And, according to Dr Jack, the cost of such a campaign is likely to run into ‘hundreds of thousands, if not millions’, so Boots is surely confident of making that, and much more more, through sales. sales
WHO’S BUYING IT?
WELL . . . me actually. As a woman of a certain age (just turned 50), I have been a devotee of the No 7 Protect & Perfect range ever since its launch in 2007, and friends have complimented me on the smoothness of my complexion.
however, given it’s impossible to do a like for like comparison with another me who has used different creams for the past decade, I’m prepared to believe my relatively youthful complexion has more to do with genes: my mother was pretty smooth-skinned.
Still, that doesn’t stop me forking out around £65 every couple of months on tubs of day and night cream, plus a tube of serum for good measure, ‘just in case’.
Will I be buying this latest product? Yes, I probably will.