Beauty bible

Our columnist is head over heels for hyaluronic acid

The hydrating power of hyaluronic acid

I GET FIXATIONS. They give me purpose – and something to google while my husband’s watching the cricket. In the course of my life (and in no particular order) I have fixated on ’40s crêpe mididresses, the Pink Panther, Mixa body lotion, an apple-flavoured Spanish liqueur named Manzana Verde, Michael J Fox, meatballs, Jay Mcinerney, Paul & Joe novelty belts, Sempé cartoons, Big Red cinnamon chewing gum and pretty much anything with a mushroom motif.

Currently I am fixated on hyaluronic acid: the naturally occurring carbohydrate molecule that is present in many areas of the body including skin, eyes and connective tissue. It is able to hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, and feels like wearing cashmere for the first time. Granted, this particular fixation is probably shared by much of the age-fearing population, but I’m in the privileged position of being able to try all the hyaluronic heroes out there – and there are some cracking new products available.

That said, the product that spawned my HA obsession to begin with, Swisscode’s Pure Hyaluron, remains unsurpassed in my mind. As I said in this column a while back, even if I found out newborn Pomeranians were used in its making, I would continue to buy it by the crate-load. Why they didn’t choose to plaster that across their marketing bumpf, I can’t imagine; but the good news is that you can now combine Swisscode’s magic serum with all sorts of other Ha-enhanced products for a still more dramatic effect. And that’s something worth fixating on.