Can beauty supplements make a scientifically proven difference to the appearance of your skin?

Before we hit the party season full on, I just want to tell you about a project I’ve been taking part in since summer. You may remember that all the way back in June, I seemed to be travelling up and down to London every week. At the time I mentioned that one of the trips was based around something scientific and as you’ve probably gathered, the picture above was taken on the day – I can’t believe I had a tan like that just from our English summer. You see along with a few other bloggers, I was invited to take part in a trial that SevenSeas were running in advance of the launch of their new skin supplement Perfect7 Renewal Advance. In tests the ceramisodes™ capsule in the box had already been scientifically proven to reduce the appearance of wrinkles in 60 days but now they were giving us the chance to assess those claims personally.

As soon as I knew it was going to be properly monitored they had my interest – so this is a project of two parts. In this post I’m going to tell you what I learned when we met for the first day and my skin was assessed as a baseline for any improvement. On Monday I’ll share the results.

A session with a skin expert

Our afternoon began with a session with a skin analyst who has over 15 years experience and runs her own company specialising in it. I’ve never known anybody to be quite so passionate about skin and here are a few of the facts that she shared with us:

The skin is the largest organ in the body and on average it is 16% of a person’s bodyweight
The skin is continually losing water and approximately three quarters of a litre is lost via transepidermal water loss every day on top of sweat and urine
Ceramides comprise 50% of the skin’s moisture barrier but the levels drop as we age
The loss of these protective ceramides is a key area that Perfect7 Renewal Advance has been designed to address. Perfect7 Renewal contains ceramides in a trademarked form called ceramosides™ which are scientifically proven to improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles by ensuring the skin is more hydrated from within.

Skin analysis

After the skin seminar, the next step was to have our skin assessed and measured by a state-of-the-art machine. I didn’t see the charts but the skin analyst told me that mine was in relatively good condition for my age. Thinking about the skincare factors she had discussed with us, it ought to be:

Sun exposure: I do sunbathe on holiday and always will but the trade-off is that I see very little sun all year round and I always wear SPF.
Diet: generally I eat healthily and I don’t drink much alcohol unless I’m out socially.
Sleep: I usually sleep well, it’s a priority because otherwise I don’t function well.
Topical factors: I use all kinds of things as I’m constantly testing products and I make a point of moisturising well because my skin’s always dry.

So I was intrigued to see whether Seven Seas Perfect7 Renewal Advance could make much of a difference. I left clutching a 60 day supply which included:

1 broad spectrum multi-vitamin and mineral tablet
1 Omega-3 capsule
1 Ceramoside™️ capsule

For 60 days I took the capsules first thing in the morning with breakfast. I usually take a standard multi-vitamin along with a probiotic so I just switched them over. I liked the fact that the pack contained Omega 3 too. I was scheduled to have my skin tested again at the end of August, in fact on the day after we returned from Turkey.

I told myself that I would be surprised if there was a big improvement. Of all the bloggers taking part in the trial, I was the oldest. Plus of course on holiday I really hammered my skin for two weeks directly before it was reassessed. I spent a fortnight in very hot Turkish sun, I ate ice cream and I drank wine… there was no way I was going to change my holiday habits. I then had a dehydrating four and a half hour flight just 24 hours before the second skin analysis.

So, the results were bound to be interesting… but you’re going to have to wait until Monday before I can tell you about them. In the meantime have a lovely weekend – we’re actually having a night away before the social madness starts next week. I’ll post on Instagram @midlifechic while we’re there and I’ll tell you all about it and everything else I’ve been doing in a ‘midlife lately’ post next Friday. Before then though, I’ll be back with the SevenSeas results (with a drum roll) on Monday!