Arriving in the UK this month is a new line of skincare formulated with medical-grade actives more often found at dermatology offices and other doctor-led practices.
Synergie Skin was founded in 2005 by biological scientist and cosmetic chemist Terri Vinson. Her skincare line is currently available in her native Australia, as well as in Hong Kong and the US. But later this month it arrives here in the UK too, sold initially via online boutique skincare consultancy Visible.
I had the privilege of meeting Terri and Visible founder Helen Ritchie a few weeks ago in London, to talk about the UK plans. I was pretty bowled over by what I heard. I also recently received samples of some of the hero products. I’ll be posting a full review shortly.
Synergie Skin founder Terri Vinson |
Terri’s philosophy is to create formulas that make a noticeable difference to a person’s skin. That means taking ingredients derived from cutting edge science and fusing them with purest naturals.
“I don’t think you should say natural is best or laboratory is best. You have to take the best of both and harness them in synergie. That’s why I called my company Synergie, ”says Terri. “I’m not putting an ingredient in to make a claim. I’m putting it in so women and men come back in a skin cell cycle’s time – 30 days – and say ‘wow’, this has made a difference to my skin. I want to evoke a biological change.”
Terri refers a lot to ‘clean science’ as she talks about her skincare. By this she means it’s just as important to decide what ingredients to leave out of a product, as what to put in. For example, you won’t find artificial colours and fragrances, or paraben preservatives in her products.
Some products in the 5-a-day range |
Synergie is a complete skincare system. You start by choosing your essentials, products labelled as 1 of your ‘5-a-day’, a nod to the ‘5-a-day’ foods seen as essential for a healthy balanced diet. They include a cleanser and serums with potent forms of vitamins A, B and C. There are also pure vitamin C crystals and a moisturiser with a broad spectrum physical sunblock (physical sunblocks are less irritating to skin than chemical ones).
Then there is an ‘à-la-carte’ menu for those seeking skincare beyond the essentials. Here you’ll find all sorts, from eye treatments to masks, skin firming creams, peels, more serums and even a derma roller for 40x serum penetration. I’ve had a play with the roller – it is so gentle I think baby skin could tolerate it (of course I’m not suggesting anyone test that!).
It is in the ‘à-la-carte’ where much of the big envelope pushing ingredients are to be found. So what exactly are these superstar ingredients? What are they said to do?
Phycosaccharide A1 – a complex sugar that stimulates the skin’s own epidermal stem cells to rapidly restore and reconstruct the skin matrix. It is said to result in repair and subsequent smoothing of fine lines, and also capable of reducing inflammation and soothing irritated skin.
JuveFoxo – a peptide said to give cells a ‘youth code’ to help them stay younger. In vivo tests show skin cells taken from a 55 year old woman treated with JuveFoxo had the structure and function of cells that were 10 years younger in cell morphology.
Trylagen – increases collagen production, reduces its breakdown and reorganises collagen fibres
Hyanify – stimulates the skin to produce its own hyaluronic acid
Snap-8 – relaxes the muscles. Said to be more effective than Argireline, a commonly used topical that is designed to work like Botox.
All five ingredients can be found in Synergie SuperSerum.
It is easy to be dazzled by the hero products with their stellar ingredients. But I don’t want to overlook the rest of the range, which has potency and purity at the fore throughout. As Helen Ritchie points out: “These are really potent products we’re bringing to the mainstream. The Vitamin B serum for example has 13% Niacinamide [Vitamin B3]. That is massive.”
The Synergie Skin range will be available shortly from Visible, with selected high street stockists to follow. Prices start at £45 each for the Pure C crystals (3.5g) and Rejuvaderm Home Roller, and go up to £115 for the SuperSerum (30ml). More info on the Synergie Skin here.