My experience with The No7 Face Study

A few people have asked recently how I’ve been getting on with the No7 Restore and Renew Serum that I reviewed last year here. As you know, I’m often sent products to test but I only feature the ones that I believe have made a difference. Because I am always trying something new, it isn’t often that I then go out and replace a product when I’ve finished it. However, I have done with the Restore and Renew Serum.

The two things I like best about No7 are their commitment to providing research based evidence for each product and also their reasonable pricing. So I was really interested when they got in touch with me to talk about “The No7 Face Study” that is launching today and gave me the opportunity to play with it.

What is The No7 Face Study?

The No7 Face Study is an online tool that helps you to identify your skin’s problem areas by looking at another woman’s face in detail. It isn’t the same as looking at yourself in a mirror but in a way that’s a good thing because it’s easier to concentrate on a stranger’s face. The reason they have developed it is because their research showed that women find it hard to isolate the key issues that they have with their skin.

How does it help?

I know that when I go onto a website that asks you to choose between wrinkles, uneven skintone and loss of firmness, I often want to tick them all. I don’t have time to go into a store and have a chat with an assistant about skincare, so I’m always looking for straightforward solutions. In the past I’ve ended up with too many products and no idea about which ones to use where – or when.

The No7 Face Study helps you to think about your skincare concerns at your own pace. You focus on a video of a woman in her forties and you can zoom in and pan around her face. When you find a skin problem that you’d like to know more about, you either click on the hotspot or use the side menu to find out more.

Each skincare issue comes with an explanation of what causes it and why. You can even see images of the results that were achieved by real women during the No7 product trials for that specific concern. A chart then predicts how your skin should continue to improve if you keep on using the product over a period of time. When you’re ready, you can tick one or multiple concerns to access a personalised solution that will deal with them all. You can then buy the items straight from the site without having to do anything else.

My experience

When I looked at the screen, I could only see one area that wasn’t bothering me which is uneven skin tone (although I’m sure that’s on its way). I was alarmed to read that crêpiness at the neck happens at around 60. I’m sure my neck is starting to get crêpey now at 50. When I think about it though that is probably my own fault. For years I’ve used expensive skin products on my face but scrimped on my neck to make them last longer. It was such a stupid economy to make.

The other new lines that bother me are the ones at the corners of my mouth. I’ve often heard them referred to as the ‘lines of disappointment’ and they give you a grumpy resting face. So I’m taking my skincare more seriously than ever before because if I can stop time in its tracks, I want to do it.

The results

The No7 research results are impressive and they do literally talk about turning back time. So, for example, trials have shown that their serums can turn the firmness of your skin back by twelve years if you use it consistently. You can rewind wrinkles by eight years, take a further eight years off your neck and improve skin tone by up to 33%.

When I explored the site a little more, the application guides showed me that I’ve been using far too much serum and applying it in the wrong places so my products should last longer now.

The improvement in firmness is the thing that I’ve really noticed from using the Restore and Renew products so far. Most of my wrinkles are around my eyes and I hadn’t realised that there was a Restore and Renew eye cream until I played with the Face Study Tool, so I’ll be buying that next. My neck is starting to look better. It still seems to be ageing faster than the rest of me though and I’m now really going to make myself focus on looking after it.

So, go and have a play with The No7 Face Study. It does help you to understand what is going on beneath your skin and how you can use science to slow it down. I’m going to keep on with the Restore and Renew programme as my everyday skincare routine so hopefully you’ll soon start to see the years dropping off me when you read my posts!

I’m now heading down to London for the rest of the week so there won’t be a post on Friday but I’ll be back on Tuesday. In the meantime, Finery are celebrating their new collection by offering 30% off their new collection here until tomorrow night (Wednesday 21st Feb) – use code BIRTHDAY. Have a great week everyone.