This purchase of the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum was highly influenced by the lovely Alessandra Steinherr and a fantastic mall sale, both made me take the plunge and try this deeply loved heritage serum. The first version of this serum came to market in the early 1980s. It has since been reformulated (thank goodness) to reflect new science but still keeping a lot of the original version. 

There is a lot going on in this bottle, the ingredients it contains have been shown to decrease the sensation of stinging, transepidermal water loss and supporting barrier repair, making it a phenomenal product for sensitive skin. Likewise skin that’s freaking out from overuse of active ingredients. 

It’s marketed for night time because of its ChronoluxCBTM, which is a term for a bunch of its ingredients that help skin recovery at night time. There is research to show that the skin does recover at night, the skin has its own circadian rhythm (a sleep-wake cycle) and tends to be dryer at night time and produce less oil.

This serum supports the night time repair with a primarily humectant-rich serum, using hyaluronic acid, hydrolyzed algin and marine attract all supporting the skin. It has lesser researched but still beneficial tripeptide 32, peptides help boots your natural collagen production. All of these help increase skin hydration and overall function of the skin barrier.  Having a healthy skin barrier helps you cope with the outside environmental factors our skin faces like the sun, city pollution and smoking. 

It also has caffeine which acts as an antioxidant when in the skin, reducing the formation of free radicals. All the above is the skin hydration side of this serum 

The other part to this serum is the skin microbiome side, which it’s notably before it’s time for serum starting from the 80s. Just shows you the extensive research large companies like Estee Lauder can do. 

The second ingredient after water is Bifida Ferment Lysate, a prebiotic derived from yeast. Lysates are once live bacteria that are essentially blended up and now dead, which help signal the skin to make good bacteria, our skin is smart! Bifida Ferment Lysate has antiinflammatory response improving skin sensitivity like redness and dryness. 

You will see an improvement in wrinkles and fine lines from the intense skin hydration but only for as long as you consistently use the product. All skin types will likely see benefits from the serum and it’s perfectly safe to use in the mornings if you so wish, although with the price I keep it for night time. 

This is a good serum but by no means is it a serum you need, if you’re on a budget there are a plethora of other skin hydrating serums that will yield the same results. 

Why Estee Lauder can charge the $100 USD is because there is long-standing consumer demand for the product.

If you want to learn even more Dr Dray is a dermatologist and goes into depth on this serum here in her video.

Shopping links:

Ulta 

Sephora

Nordstrom 

Saks Fifth Avenue

Harrods