Not for aging rockers... (Boots No.7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	Boots No.7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum
Date:	10/09/08 (508 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can be picked up cheaply now, easy to use

Disadvantages: not much difference observed

It's finally been just over 4 weeks since I (and a friend) started using the No 7 Protect & Perfect beauty serum so time for a review I think! I wanted to try this immediately after I heard about it in a magazine, however as most women know it was touted as such a miracle Boots sold out instantly and then struggled to meet the demand generated by the Horizon episode that praised it as very effective.

This didn't bother me enormously, I checked ebay and found sellers were selling this for much more than Boots would (if they had any to sell) so declined to pay more and decided to wait for some reviews to surface online.

And surface they did! There's a mixture of opinion about this serum, many have had good results with it and some haven't. I still dithered as to whether I should buy some until 5 weeks ago when I stumbled across some on ebay for £6.99 including p&p. I bought two 30ml tubes (one for my friend too) and eagerly anticipated its arrival.

Naturally the day it arrived I tried it immediately, on my hand as a test! I have the kind of skin that flares up regularly with irritated red patches if it doesn't like a product so I always do a 24 hour test. The serum leaves a waxy film behind where it's been applied but as serums usually contain quite alot of oil I didn't worry about this. After 24 hours my hand had not erupted in red blotches so we were good to go!

I used it religiously morning and night under my moisturiser for a week. Examined my face closely in the mirror (not something I like to do nowadays with the fine lines beginning to show) and could see no difference. The claim is it reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and refines the skin.

After week 2 I did the same thing and could still see no difference. I wasn't worried, it does say it takes 4 weeks so I just persevered.

After week 3 I started to notice my skin was looking a bit fresher, not dramatically so but slightly more refined and plumper but it hadn't affected the fine lines.

After week 4 I decided it wasn't going to affect the fine lines and was only going to give the slightly more refined appreance to my skin. My friend and I had avoided comparing notes up to this point so we didn't affect each others perception of the product and she confirmed she could only see a very minor difference to her skin too (she's 38).

Now although I have some fine lines appearing (I'm 35 it's inevitable) I'm far from looking like one of the Rolling Stones so I was disappointed this didn't alter the appearance of the lines. I also found it didn't make a difference to the texture of the skin unless I was wearing it, before I applied it my skin returned to it's former texture. That might sound obvious but after all the hype I expected the serum to actually improve the skin not just work to the same degree as Clarins Flash Balm or Gale Hayman's Face Lift In A Bottle which quite obviously need to be applied to make a diiference as they create a kind of "mask" effect. This made me wonder if the waxy serum just filled the pores to give the appearance of refined skin? If that's the case I'm expecting some spots!

I will continue to apply this as long as I have some but I'm not sure if I would bother to buy more, I find exfoliating freshens my skin much better than this serum and my moisturiser absorbs far better without the waxy serum in the way. My friend has already stopped using hers, she's looking for a new product to try instead as this didn't seem to make much difference.

Another aspect that makes me wonder about this product is all the hype has vanished and as far as I know other companies did not rush to copy the ingredients. Usually if ingredient/s work other companies thinly disguise copies and sell them for slightly less and I haven't seen any. That doesn't mean they aren't out there but I haven't noticed any.

My friend and I have seen each other since the end of this experiment and neither of us could see a difference in each others skin, this actually made us both wonder if we had just been affected by the promise it would work!

The beauty serum is in a 30ml tube, it is white liquid that seems slightly thicker than other serums I've tried so you need a bit more to apply it before it disappears. The tube has a nozzle on the end, I assume this is for precise application, and a screw top. After 4 weeks I still have about a third of the tube left.

I haven't noticed a fragrance so if there is one it must be very light. It feels waxy on your skin after applying. For me and my friend it made only a slight difference so we were disappointed.

Summary: Works for some but not others