To Good Health

Most women here seem to think using just moisturiser is enough, let alone adding a pre-serum booster to their routine. So why is L’Oreal launching one? According to the brand, the most basic principle of skincare is giving it a healthy start. Natasha Chiam reports.

Iuse seven skincare products every morning, and the same number every night, so when I heard that about half the women in Singapore use just one or nothing at all, I. Was. Shocked. According to a study by L’Oreal Paris, 80 per cent of women use facial wash. Forty to 50 per cent use a moisturiser. Less than that use sunscreen, and only 17 per cent have tried a serum. I’m like: “What are one in five women using to wash their faces? Are half of us really walking around with skin unprotected from UV rays?” 

When the brand’s deputy marketing manager, Gale Choong, tells me it’s launching Youth Code Boosting Essence ($39.90) here – the product is L’Oreal’s bestseller in China since its launch in September 2011 – I’m more bemused. Why would L’Oreal bring in a pre-serum? Surely it should be pushing basic skincare first? 

Aileen Lee, former trainer for skincare brands including L’Oreal and Kose, begs to differ. “Pre-serum is a good product to start with as it focuses on keeping skin cells healthy – something that’s necessary for everyone,” she says.

Over the past few years, boosters like Lancome’s Genifique and Dior’s One Essential have become each brand’s best-selling skincare product here, and around the world. Used alone, they promise a clearer complexion and improved texture, but what gives them added edge is how they work with other products: They reportedly help skin absorb other skincare better. Lee explains: “Stressed and tired skin can’t absorb as many ingredients as healthy skin as the cells are undernourished and don’t function properly.”

L’Oreal’s Boosting Essence is the first mass market pre-serum, and works like Lancome’s Genifique, stimulating the recovery gene, which repairs damaged cells. You need one drop morning and night respectively, after cleansing and toner, and before other skincare, all over the face except the eye area. Lee says: “After one application, skin will feel soft. After a week, you’ll look radiant. After a month, you’ll see more results from your other skincare, whatever you use.”

We applied the light-textured white liquid to only the left side of our face, followed by a serum over the whole face. The first observation: The serum absorbed, with no residue, around twice as fast on the left side as the right. The second: Skin felt softer and more moisturised all day.

In spite of women’s attitudes to skincare here, L’Oreal is convinced Youth Code Boosting Essence will be a success. Why? Lee says: “Because it shows short- and long-term results, on its own, and with other products, it suits everyone, regardless of age, gender or skin type.