Peeling back the years - Indeed Labs Retinol Reface review

I noticed the other day that my e-buzzing Beauty Blog ranking - the one I inadvertently gained when I failed to find a Perfume category to list Bonkers under way back when - has taken another tumble!  I am sure I was in the 80s before - that is a major plummet, and one I am not sure I can readily address.  That said, I had been planning another beauty post anyway, because of my latest quest in search of the best products for 'that unfortunate crossover condition of “problem mature skin”', as I once termed it.

What sparked my interest on this occasion was a post by the ethereally beautiful Dee on BOTOblog about her make-up regime, in which she explained that the condition of her skin (flawless, luminous, porcelain-like!) was largely down to her regular use of prescription retinoids, a derivative of Vitamin A.  There is a fair body of scientific evidence to suggest that retinoids do indeed 'minimise the appearance of wrinkles, bolster the skin's thickness and elasticity, slow the breakdown of collagen, and lighten brown spots caused by sun exposure'.  I was intrigued, but further research led me to conclude that prescription strength might not be for me, as the retinoid products are so much more potent than the OTC ones based around retinol.

Danielle de Medeiros - major lid love and socket envy!

I figured that as Dee has 20 years on me, her skin is doubtless more resilient, while mine is older, thinner, dogged by acne and rosacea, and susceptible to allergic reactions at the drop of a drop of tea tree oil, or a smidge of zit-busting benzyl peroxide.  There was also the possibility that I had neglected my skin for so long that it was in fact too late to perform anti-aging interventions - as I wrote in a comment on Dee's post, it might turn out to be a case of 'closing the stable pores after the collagen has bolted'.  This sorry state of affairs is attributable to decades of blithely ignorant sunbathing abuse, compounded by no regular moisturising regime whatsoever till I was knocking on 40.  The eye creams on the market for much of that time seemed to migrate into your eyes at night and sting like blazes, plus my vegan lodger prompted me to abort my brief flirtation with one of the major brands by claiming that its face creams contained minced deers' hoo-has, which must have been an apocryphal story that I should really have challenged.

Source: wallpapersdb.org - female deer unwittingly kiboshing my early skincare regime

Though the jury was out as regards the chances of improving my skin tone at this late stage, I decided to chat to Tara of Olfactoria's Travels about her own preferences in this field of anti-aging skincare.  She was also leaning towards a gentler approach involving OTC products, specifically Trilogy Rosehip Oil, which had garnered a lot of favourable reviews, and was available in Boots.  So on the shopping list it went, and the other weekend I set off for Boots to pick up a bottle.  As it turned out though, my local branch was too small to carry it, so instead my eye was drawn to another product from the Indeed Labs range - my dalliance with their Nanoblur cream is documented here.

Indeed Labs Retinol Reface seemed like the milder form of retinol treatment I was looking for - it promised to be 'moisturising as well as non-irritating, with no peeling, dryness or redness'.  Moreover, Retinol Reface apparently contained not one but 3 types of retinol: a 'Rapid Action' form, a slower release form where the retinol is encapsulated into plant micro-spheres, and a retinol-like peptide, which mimics the behaviour of retinol, but is kinder to skin.  Okay, so two types of retinol then, and a gentle interloper.

Tara of Olfactoria's Travels, also looking radiant!

That night I eagerly applied what I took to be a small amount of the Reface cream to my whole face, though it is very hard to know what exactly is the correct amount - some of the blogs I read spoke of a pea-sized blob, but that doesn't seem to go very far - or even two.  I took care to include the problem areas of age spots on my cheeks, lines above and either side of my mouth, plus the generally crepe-y bits above my eyes. Big mistake!  The next morning I woke up to find the skin above my eyes had swelled up - not as badly as the time I went to sleep in the sun that I mentioned in my interview on Olfactoria's Travels, but enough to look angry, as though I had been bitten by a mosquito or something (which has also been known).  Not bad enough to resort to shades but enough to make me self-conscious.

Source: Wikipedia - collagen helix

The next night I applied the cream everywhere except near my eyes, and the night after that I chickened out completely and didn't apply it at all.  My reading on the Internet suggests that puffiness of sensitive areas is not an uncommon side effect, and that the whole business of finding your skin's level of tolerance to these anti-aging products is a bit of a 'suck it and see' process.  

Oh, and you are meant to wear 50 SPF sun cream during the day, all the while that you are applying the retinol product at night.  Which meant a trip to Asda to find anything with that high a factor.  Ambre Solaire came up trumps but it was very greasy - classic suncream rather than moisturiser - such that I didn't want to go out looking that shiny, on top of having the puffy eyes!  But because I only applied the cream twice, I ended up only wearing the sun cream for one day. It felt counter-intuitive on an overcast day in mid-October, I have to say.

Source: ifood.tv

So anyway, having stopped using the retinol cream for the moment, I concentrated on trying to reduce the puffiness above my eyes, and tried eye baths and compresses of hot and cold tea bags to little effect. Two and a half weeks on, the eyelids are still a bit puffier than I remember them as being, but it just looks as though I have aged slightly.  Which is of course rather ironic, but there you go!  

I do plan to have another bash with the Reface cream, keeping clear of the eyes next time, obviously.  After all, I got pretty good results with Indeed Labs' sister product, Nanoblur, especially on the fine lines above my top lip.

And meanwhile I have invested in another product that Tara tipped me off about - Dermalogica gentle cream exfoliant, but haven't had a chance to use it yet.  I have never exfoliated my face before, and the rest of me only about once every couple of years.  I vividly remember Mr Bonkers complaining about the state of the bath afterwards.  I guess I am part of the 'pot of Nivea and ChapStick generation', tending to moisturise only when skin starts to resemble a cracked delta or actually sloughs off.  But as with pensions, so with skincare, it is something best started young when the idea seems almost incongruous.  Yes, it really is a case of a stitch in time saves nine.  Or a splodge or a slather, if you will.

And meanwhile, if I can't quite manage to peel back the years, I can always hide behind my hair.

UPDATE - December 2013

Right, so I have had another tentative dabble with the Retinol Reface product, being most careful to avoid the eye area, and have had no problems with sensitivity elsewhere on my face - am putting it on my forehead (major ploughed field zone!), cheeks and chin.  I get a slight tingling at best, but I reckon my skin has now grown accustomed to the product.  I have been using Retinol Reface on and off for about two weeks now - I don't do consistent regimes where beauty products are concerned ;) - and have the impression that my forehead looks a bit smoother, and maybe also the grooves either side of my mouth.  Not sure the vertical lip lines directly above my mouth are improved - if anything they look longer than I remember, but maybe I just haven't noticed their inexorable march!  But I will keep going, as I think the peptides part of the formulation may be helping plump out my deep frown lines at least.

"If I Could Blur Back Time": Review Of Indeed Laboratories Nanoblur Anti-Aging "Not A Cream" Advanced Optical Cream

It has been quite a week. I just passed the 100th follower mark (thanks, followers No 100 - 104!), and this is my 300th post. (Celebratory giveaway coming up next time...) And then there was my guest post on Now Smell This on the subject of perfume blogging, during which I set myself the challenge of being not once, twice, but "three times an American", by trying to stay up through all the time zones to respond to readers' comments. I gave up at about 7pm PST on the day my piece went up, but had fun trying! In the introduction to that post, I describe myself as having the apparent dermatological oxymoron of "problem mature skin", a reference to my ongoing rosacea, though it is a lot better at the moment. And to be honest, some might consider the mere fact of having "mature skin" a problem in itself, unless you are have the self-confidence to roll with the punches of the aging process - and the morning quilt face, crow's feet and lip lines they leave behind.

I am a bit on the fence with the whole business of skin care. Having abused my skin in my 20s and 30s through chronic sunworshipping, when I finally started an active moisturising regime in my 40s - and all but gave up sunbathing through circumstance as much as anything - part of me thought it was all rather like shutting the stable door after the collagen had bolted... I persist with my efforts even so, like smokers who give up in their 50s, hoping for health benefits from that point onwards.

Now when I say "regime" that is perhaps overstating things: mostly I just slap on whatever kind of day or night cream I happen to have to hand, and just occasionally I investigate products with more tantalising claims, such as the Avon Anew Ultimate (Day) Cream I featured a while back on Bonkers, which had the unfortunate side effect of stinging and smelling of burning flesh.

Then recently - partly mindful of the fact that I now have an unintentional Wikio Beauty Blog ranking to maintain ; - ) - I have been dabbling with Indeed Laboratories' Nanoblur, available from Boot's in the UK for £19.99. Indeed Laboratories Inc is based outside Toronto, and Nanoblur is on sale via specific retailers in Canada and a handful of other countries; it can also be ordered online. The name Nanoblur was an immediate draw to me, because of course the prefix "Nano-" is such a Zeitgeist-y word, along with "offset mortgage", "carbon trading", "bluetooth" (also as a verb!) and "vuvuzela". "Nano-" takes me right back to a company I interviewed in California in 2010, which made an array of products, including actual "arrays"(!), fashioned out of epitaxially grown silicon wafers (I believe). I strongly suspect nanotechnology was involved somewhere along the line...

I have just Wiki-ed the term and it means "the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale". So what is this cream then, and why is it on nodding terms with atomic and molecular matter, if it is indeed? "Indeed" being of course the operative brand name!

"Our promise: look 10 years or more younger in 40 seconds or less."

That is not the happiest of grammatical constructions, but we will overlook it, given the generous nature of the promise and its super speedy delivery.

"This product is based on advanced optics technology and is not makeup."

The packaging then refers you to the company's website for more information, where I firstly learnt the rationale for developing this product, namely to make people look better on TV.

"Since the advent of high-definition technology, skin imperfections have become far more apparent on camera and Nanoblur was created so that celebrities could 'blur' out imperfections that were previously not visible with traditional cameras."

And the most meaty additional information I could glean on the website is as follows:

"It is not a cream. It is a suspension of millions and millions of particles that reflect light perfectly in billions of directions to make the skin’s surface appear completely flawless. Within seconds, pores appear to disappear. Fine lines appear to vanish. The skin texture appears nearly perfect. With one application on any skin surface (even on your hands), you will be convinced that Nanoblur will make you look up to 10 years younger in a matter of seconds. It’s just that simple."

Not a cream? Yet it is described as an "advanced optical cream" on the packet. Moving on...

That is a very big claim, especially the 10 years younger bit. I will see if I have a photo of me when I was 10 years younger, so you can use it as a point of reference. Okay, here is my current passport photo, which is 9 years old...let's not set the bar too high. : - ) Actually, I am not sorry to have lost the hair and glasses, though I think the grooves either side of my mouth were less pronounced back then.

Oddly, the accompanying before and after photos on the website (completely untouched, and of the subjects' naked faces) look quite honest to me - but there again I don't see a whole lot of improvement either!

Further research on the Interwebs unearthed the fact that at only 700 nanometres (sounds big, but clearly isn't!) the "nanoparticles" in Nanoblur are smaller than the ones used in YSL's iconic product Touch Eclat, for example. This means they do a better job of diffusing the light in a flattering manner, like looking at skin through the soft focus medium of frosted glass. They are, however, too big to be absorbed by skin, which people may be glad to know.

Having tried Nanoblur a few times - and arguably you are only supposed to need to try it once for 40 seconds to see the years roll back.... - I will say that my vertical lip lines looked fainter, no question. Downside was that my top lip was slightly pushed out and appeared thinner, which it can ill afford to do. Though at the same my cupid's bow appeared more prominent, which I was quite pleased about. There is a pleasant sensation of tautness and no disagreeable smell, as with the Avon product.

BEFORE (SOME MONTHS BEFORE, BUT NOT TO WORRY)

ME MINUTES AFTER APPLICATION

ME SLIGHTLY MORE FACE-ON, THOUGH I DON'T THINK IT MAKES MUCH DIFFERENCE

The "not a cream" - or "advanced optical cream" as you prefer - had its work cut out with the long lines either side of my mouth, which have rather disconcertingly started to sprout tributaries lately at the ends - they also remind me a little of a snake's forked tongue... I would say that the effect there was of a slight plumping out and softening and then over time I thought I might even have detected a slight flattening of the grooves. However, I wouldn't say they vanished, or even appeared to vanish. Probably because they weren't "fine" lines to start with. The lip lines (which I would call "fine") do appear visibly reduced in photos and in the mirror. The effects also seemed to last till the following day, which may say more about the sloppiness of my so-called skincare regime than any inherent merit of the product. : - )

The members of Makeupalley rated this product 3.1 out of 5, which isn't a great score. Anything under 4.0 counts as a lukewarm response over there, I'd say. Some people found it didn't work well OVER foundation, the recommended method of application - or even UNDER it, for those who like me decided to flaunt the instructions - and I would agree with that. So that could be a stumbling block right there for anyone who usually wears full coverage foundation. People who had a good experience with the product talked of its "smoothing" and "mattifying" effect, which was the finding of my next-door-neighbour, who also bought herself a tube.

So I get the feeling that Nanoblur is a product that works best for obscuring fine lines (and possibly large pores or bits of unwanted pigmentation, though I wasn't trying it out for that). I would recommend it in a guarded way, as I think different people may get different results. As for the taking off ten years, I don't think so. Up to ten years - well, that's a more forgiving timespan.

And according to the website, Nanoblur comes with a customer satisfaction guarantee, so if you find you can't blur back time, you can get your money back at least...