The Daily Telegraph - Features
Can it ever be worth spending £445 on a face cream?
As a new range debuts with bold claims and a hefty price tag, beauty editor Annabel Jones tests it out
Just three months ago, Boots No7 hit the headlines with a £35 serum that researchers found helps trigger skin regeneration. Now British firm Lyma is launching a long-awaited skincare solution that is significantly costlier (it will set you back £5,390 a year) and 30,000 beauty fans have signed up already.
But in an already crowded market, can it really be so different? Lyma’s founder, Lucy Goff, claims the two-product routine is doing something that no brand has done before: addressing ageing in eight different ways, synergistically. Tackling cell turnover, skin renewal and sustained hydration, as well as mitochondrial energisation (mitochondria is integral for processes such as wound healing and pigmentation, according to the National Institutes of Health) and inducing the lipid profile of 22-year-old skin (studies show the lipids in our skin begin to decline from 22 onwards).
The cost breaks down as £495 for the starter kit, which includes two copper vessels and a 30-day refill of the serum and cream that work in conjunction, thus you have to purchase both. There is then a further £445 a month for the refills should you wish to continue.
Before embarking on the formulation, Lyma commissioned a team to deconstruct 15 of the industry’s leading science-led skincare brands to find out at a granular level what’s actually in the creams we pay so much for.
“Most leading skincare contains some type of vitamin A (retinoids), vitamin B (such as niacinamide or panthenol) and vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) or peptides (amino acids). These formulae make the skin look and feel nice, but at their core they are simply refashioning old science and making ridiculous claims,” says Dr Graeme E Glass, associate professor of clinical surgery at the US’s Weill Cornell Medical College and the lead scientist behind the launch.
Goff says the cost of the skincare duo is justified. “We didn’t set out to create a product to fit a certain price point – our scientists set out to develop a daily skincare protocol that is proven to work”, adding, “because of the number and quality of the active ingredients it’s more expensive than some skincare, but compared to other products at a similar price, its power is unrivalled.”
She tells me it is undergoing “groundbreaking clinical trials” that will be published before the end of the year. In the meantime, the preliminary evidence is impressive. In a doctor-led clinical trial over a 12-week period on 50 people aged between 30-65, results showed a 72 per cent improvement in skin hydration, 51 per cent in skin firmness, 24 per cent in elasticity and 21 per cent in redness.
MY VERDICT
I’ve been using the serum and cream for three days and can confirm my menopausal skin – on the surface at least – is as hydrated and baby-soft as it’s been in decades. Would I pay £445 a month for it? If money were no object, yes.
That said, I’m sceptical how long I (or indeed any beauty enthusiast) would last before trading in their subscription for the next big thing. Especially when there are other brands touting expensive creams that claim big things too.
Barbara Sturm’s £1,000 MC1 cream harnesses PRP (plasma-rich platelet) technology to make a bespoke cream from the growth factors in your own blood (drawn in the spa on Mount Street) that’s couriered to your home. Whereas Eighth Day Regenerative Serum, £270 (harrods.com) has been developed by Dr Antony Nakhla, a leading reconstructive skin cancer surgeon, wound-healing expert and clinical researcher. Built around the notion that aged skin is wounded skin, it targets the 10 most visible skin concerns with its peptide-rich plasma.
And let’s not forget Professor Augustinus Bader’s The Cream, £225 (ausgustinusbader.com) that’s still going strong due to its “wound-healing” TFC8 complex. Even Beauty Pie, the company whose premise is to save its customers money by cutting out the middleman (marketing, packaging etc) is selling its Youthbomb Collagen Peptide + Glow Duo for £360 (for non members). One thing I do know for sure is that Lyma’s skincare system won’t be the last to claim it’s in a league of its own. Do you need it? Perhaps not, but then nobody needs a £5,000 handbag, and your skin isn’t a fashion accessory, it’s your largest organ.