A new firm friendship

Experts say that with ‘age’ comes ‘wisdom’ BUT the volatility of the last year may have also etched in a few more furrow lines, imprinted a couple of permanent jowl hollows and extinguished that all important  volume to your complexion leaving you looking more than a little deflated. Droopy skin may be adorable on a Basset Hound but it’s not so cute on adults and whilst the odd wrinkle here and there can add a little character to the face, skin with ‘no spring’ just sabotages your youth!

There are numerous reasons for skin to lose that all important volume and bounce and if you’ve just hit your 40’s then you should expect to be a little less firm in places.  It can also be down to ‘genetic lottery’ and chances are if your mum has a prematurely ageing skin you could be a lottery loser! And then there’s lifestyle factors such as prolonged exposure to the sun, smoking, stress or sudden weight loss which can all exaggerate a saggy complexion.  

Skin firmness is determined by two integral structural proteins – collagen and elastin which unite in the dermis (the skin’s support mattress) and make the perfect partnership when it comes to keeping skin smooth, supple and firm. Collagen is a protein that gives structure to our skin (It makes up 75% of it to be precise) and it’s what I like to call the ‘steel scaffolding’, giving resilience and strength. Unfortunately by the time you reach your 20’s you produce 1% less collagen each year naturally and that’s without the help of damaging UV rays and external aggressors which will deplete it even faster -  it’s like a ‘collagen ticking timebomb’!

Although elastin only represents 5% of the dermis, these fibres are still crucial, acting like rubber bands to allow your skin to move and stretch.  Sadly, we only produce elastin in large quantities up until the age of around 22 years old and just like an elastic band that is stretched too often, eventually elastin fibres don’t spring back into their original shape. And so, as both of these proteins begin to deplete, the skin undoubtedly loses its strength, resilience and bounce-back and has a greater difficulty defying the pull of gravity - the result being a thinning ‘inelastic skin’ which starts to slacken and hang more loosely especially around the eyes, lower face and neck. 

When it comes to ultra-luxurious and industry-leading  there's no skincare house quite as synonymous as Gatineau, a world-renowned heritage brand that creates pioneering science-led anti-ageing solutions.  In the quest to win the war on skin resiliency and improve overall tone we left it to our French scientists who really have pulled it out of the bag with the launch of Defi Lift™ 3D Toned featuring two brand new and targeted treatments, a Night Concentrate and an Eye Cream, which join the Defi Lift™ 3D family to help achieve a fitter, firmer and stronger feeling skin.   

Both products boast four highly advanced actives including a cutting-edge ‘Biopeptide Complex’ (a complex sequence of leading-edge peptides) which is like a’ lock and key’ concept working hard to unlock  your inner youth and restore firmness, elasticity and bounce to the skin.

In a nutshell, peptides are short chains of  amino acids that serve as the building blocks for proteins. Proteins play a vital role in almost all biological processes, aid in cellular communication and are the foundations of the skin. When these proteins break down, peptides hold the key to ‘trigger’ skin cells to become more active allowing them to perform different functions such as building collagen and elastin.

Think of a string of different coloured pearls linked together on a necklace  – the pearls are the amino acids, and these pearls are arranged on the necklace in a desired sequence to create the ‘designer’ peptide. And in this case Gatineau scientists have crafted a state-of-the-art ‘Biopeptide Complex’ which is able to prompt cells to produce vast amounts of skin-plumping collagen, in turn remodelling and rebuilding the ‘steel scaffolding’ and empowering the skin to look more volumized whilst dramatically increasing skin firmness. 

And harnessing a good measure of Hyaluronic Acid, (HA for short), this skin-loving ingredient  works like a 3D sponge to lock in moisture, encourage cellular  repair and help restore that all important bounce.  But Gatineau scientists didn’t leave it there and went one step further ‘encapsulating’ the HA molecule in a shiny slippery protective coating which takes it to a whole new level – in fact, a much deeper one - because this protective coating serves as an incredible carrier system sinking the HA molecule straight down to the dermis (the  skin’s support mattress)  where it then gets released very slowly and potently over a longer period  of time, making it even more effective and even more powerful.  

The addition of tiny Citric Acid molecules, derived from AHA’s, gently exfoliates dead, dulling skin cells to reveal radiance beneath,  boosts cellular turnover, minimises the appearance of fine lines, and helps support skin’s  natural moisture barrier  bringing skin truly back to life.

And this expert  formula has been crafted with skin-protecting Vitamin E providing a  superior defence from the ravages wrought by pollutants and other harmful aggressors and paving the way  for a stronger, resilient and youthfully dewy looking skin!

The products

The skin surrounding your eyes is exceptionally delicate and requires TLC to preserve its fragile fabric. Drooping eyelids, otherwise known as ‘ptosis ’, is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘falling’ and can be a common problem as the levator muscle (the muscle that elevates the upper eyelid) weakens with age and the surrounding skin and tissue around it stretch. Defi Lift 3D Toned Eye Cream is an ultra-lifting eye cream infused with seriously clever technology and the addition of nourishing Shea Butter,  which not only improves skin firmness and suppleness but reduces wrinkle depth and quickly combats skin ‘crepey-ness’, ‘seeing you’ to tightened and toned ‘peepers’. Shea Butter is made up of ton of beneficial ingredients including Vitamin A and E as well as fatty acids, so it makes it an incredibly diverse ingredient to lock in moisture, improve collagen production and induce an enviable glow.

The importance of beauty sleep is no fairy tale, as the skin uses time in dreamland to rejuvenate and regenerate itself.  Defi Lift 3D Toned Night Concentrate contains a high dosage of age-defying ingredients making it phenomenally potent and designed to work  whilst you catch up on that all important rest.  With a beautiful balm like consistency this super-charged overnight miracle has been enriched with  skin-hydrating squalene (found naturally in your skin and providing heroic hydration) which dials up a smooth and supple complexion boosting skin’s bounce, so you wake up pillow plumped with facial features visibly redefined.

These two age defying dynamos are like a daily protein shake for the skin, powered by ‘peptide science’ and the very  definition of luxury – the perfect additions to add to our Defi Lift portfolio which ALL take a’ firm stand’  in the defiance of gravity. 

Lucy x