StriVectin-AR Night Treatment - the return of Retinol

The older I’ve become, the more important night-cream has become. Having dry skin doesn’t help – waking up with a ‘tight’ feeling was awful, and was so easily resolved when I started using a night cream. I sometimes use my day cream at night – my winter cream is rich enough, but there are so many night creams and treatments out there, it’s good to give them a go.

Recently I have been using StriVectin-AR Advanced Retinol Night Treatment. Products with Retinol in them have been having a bit of a resurgence of late. Retinol is nothing new in skincare – it was first discovered over 80 years ago –  but how it is being harnessed is.

All retinoids—the umbrella name for a class of compounds that encompasses retinol, retinoic acid, retinyl palmitate, retinol aldehyde, and a host of others—are derivatives of vitamin A, one of the body’s key nutrients.

Vitamin A’s mighty chemical makeup was identified in 1931, and the man who isolated and described it, Swiss chemist Paul Karrer, was rewarded with a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

Retinol used to a be a bit iffy – degenerating when exposed to oxygen and light, but techonolgies from the 1960s onwards have been working with it, and it probably is one of the most miraculous anti-ageing products out there.

However, it has been known in the past to irritate and weaken the skin barrier in some people, and cause dryness, redness and flakiness. But harnessing it, with the right mix of ingredients, produces outstanding results.

This product hasn’t given me any issues like that, and I am enjoying the thought that it is working it’s anti-ageing magic while I sleep!

The key ingredients in this are NIA-114, a compound from niacin, which helps to stimulate DNA repair for healthier skin, strengthening the skin barrier to protect against Retinol’s harsher side effects; Retinol and Retinyl Palmitate to encourage cell turnover and stimulate collagen production; Sodium Hyaluronate, for hydration, and botanicals for collagen production.

StrVectin-AR Advanced Retinol NIght Treatment, £79,  is available now, from Space NK, Selfridges, Harrods and Harvey Nichols