At the sprightly age of 33, IMAGE beauty editor Holly O’Neill is forever trialling new launches – not only because it is her job, but in a bid to hold onto all of her collagen with both hands. Enter No7’s Prime Forever™, a new range now available at Boots to significantly reduce skin ageing activity and preserve skin in its visible prime.*
Trialling beauty products has been my job at IMAGE for over a decade now, and while that was all fun and games when I was a 22-year-old junior beauty writer who was just excited she could wear blue eyeshadow to the office, I’ve been listening a little harder to beauty experts and sitting up a little straighter at skincare launches since my 30s and nasolabial folds came around.
Prevention is better than cure, the pros tell us, so I’ve been, for the most part, diligently wearing my SPF, applying antioxidants and sticking to the routine, or at least feeling guilty about not doing it, but even the most committed of beauty editors is using a make-up wipe when needs must. We all hear a lot about what we should be doing for our health on a daily basis – drink water, eat protein, take supplements, walk ten thousands steps, limit screen time, double cleanse, you know the lot – but wouldn’t it all be a lot easier to have a hard working, simplified skincare routine that could stop the damage in the first place before you spend a lot of research, time and money trying to repair it later? Well, have I got news for you.
Meet No7’s Prime Forever™, an easy-peasy five-step system, just launched in Boots. The secret sauce throughout the range is Glaciology, a world-first peptide technology and No7’s most advanced antioxidant complex to date that supports skin’s self-protection against accelerated visible ageing and targets invisible damage beneath the surface of the skin. Throughout the range is also a variety of hero ingredients like niacinamide to support your skin’s barrier for brighter skin, hyaluronic acid for smoothness and plumping, glycerin for hydration to preserve your skin’s visible prime, rice peptides to help provide protection against age-accelerating enzymes in the skin, vitamin C and E, camellia leaf sourced from Korea that flowers in extreme, snowy conditions, making it naturally rich in protective antioxidants, and myrtle leaf, a potent antioxidant used in traditional Persian formulas.
Here’s the science bit – No7 has used state-of-the-art ‘Xenium’ machinery using spatial transcriptomics – stay with me – that provides new insights into how underlying causes of premature ageing, like oxidative stress, UV damage and skin-degrading enzymes, impact the skin. No7 scientists ran 500 experiments at the University of Liverpool to identify its most powerful combination of antioxidants, using high-throughput robotics and partnered with a photobiologist to model the long-term benefits of UVB and UVA protection. The result of their research is this range, No7’s Prime Forever™, which futureproofs the skin by protecting against extrinsic damage and helps prevent new and existing damage from appearing on the skin’s surface. Here’s your new skincare line-up.
No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation Transformative Gel-Oil-Milk Cleanser, €25.99
First up, an incredibly innovative gel-to-oil-to-milk cleanser that deeply cleanses and melts everything away, so cleansing no longer feels like an effort. It starts as a nourishing oil before rinsing to a hydrating milk; start your routine morning and evening by massaging this into dry or damp skin – it leaves skin feeling hydrated, brighter, perkier and primed.
No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation Serum, in 30ml, €47.99 or 50ml, €59.99
Next up, the lightweight serum that packs a punch, thanks to the antioxidant peptide blend that dramatically reduces skin ageing activity and comes proven to reduce oxidative stress by 7x.** Use it morning and evening on face and neck for optimal skin preservation – your skin immediately looks plumper** while over time, the quality and texture are visibly improved.
No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation Weightless Moisturiser, €47.99
Your next step is the moisturiser, a dreamy gel-textured plumping skin revitalizer for morning and evening that hyper-hydrates, providing 100 hours of moisturisation to visibly improve the quality and texture of the skin.
No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation SPF 50 Primer, €32.99
Your last step for the day is the SPF that does it all. Daily use of this five-star UVA-rated primer from the age of 30 until 80 could reduce UV exposure from 50 years to six years.^ The No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation SPF 50 Primer contains the brand’s most advanced SPF protection for UVA and UVB rays, along with Glaciology, while leaving no white cast and working as the most perfect primer for make-up. Long-term sun exposure is the number one cause of premature skin ageing (accounting for up to 80% of it!), so this one is a necessity to dramatically reduce the rate at which skin ages.
No7 Prime Forever™ Skin Preservation Reusable Silicone Under Eye Patches, €22.99
The last product in the routine might be my favourite of all – ingenious, reusable silicone under-eye patches so you’ll never have to repurchase an under-eye mask again. They soothe and depuff while sealing in your serums and creams, so you can use them alongside any Prime Forever™ product – just let it absorb for a minute, then apply your under-eye mask on top. Leave them on for 10 to 20 minutes (or longer, they’re silicone so they don’t budge) and when you’re ready to remove, give them a rinse and store them back in their lovely tin for future use. Keep them in the fridge for extra cooling, and say goodbye to tired eyes. Since I’ve had these, they’ve only come off when I’ve had to leave the house.
No7 Prime Forever™ is available now at selected Boots stores and Boots.ie.
*From UV protection & antioxidant protection against surface oxidative stress. Excludes cleanser & eye patches.
**Consumer testing. Always use SPF.
^Based on scientific modelling of visible ageing from daily use of Prime Forever SPF 50 Five Star UVA-rated Primer from antioxidant protection against surface oxidative stress. Excludes cleanser & eye patches.
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