Can a €30 cream really turn back the clock?

Back in 2007, an entire year’s supply of Boots’ No 7 Protect & Perfect Serum sold out in two weeks. Now Boots has launched a new version of the serum. Margaret Carragher gives it a month-long trial.

YOUTHFUL beauty potions are nothing new. Japanese geishas used bird poo. Cleopatra favoured donkey’s milk and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I swore by a toxic mix of white lead and vinegar. Thankfully today’s anti-ageing treatments are less extreme and much more user friendly.

Take for example Boots’ No 7 Protect & Perfect Serum. Back in 2007 this product created quite a stir among skincare professionals when in clinical trials its anti-ageing effects were shown to be equivalent to that of a gold standard, prescription-only treatment. When a BBC documentary subsequently revealed the serum’s efficacy pharmacy shelves nationwide were stripped bare as an entire year’s supply of the stuff sold out within two weeks.