Vichy Idealia Life Serum Review
This month Vichy expands upon its best selling Idealia range with the Vichy Idealia Life Serum, a pretty wonderful repairing product designed for women who live life at 100mph. That’ll be most of us, then!
Rather than focus on chronological or hormonal ageing, Idealia Life tackles ‘behavioural ageing’, that is, the effects of everyday excesses, which have a really negative impact on the quality of skin of all ages. This includes everything from pollution and smoke, to a lack of sleep, overexposure to the elements, stress, and an unbalanced diet. These little aggressors can chip away at the quality of our skin and can make its appearance pretty lacklustre.
To combat this, Vichy present a formula that focuses on repairing. The silky fluid aims to protect and improve all aspects of the skin’s appearance and texture to give the skin a more perfected look. Its core active ingredients freshen the complexion by evening out the skin tone, boosting radiance and refining pores.
The bottle of the Idealia Life Serum is made of lovely, weighty glass in the Idealia range’s emblematic pink colouring. It has an ergonomic pump which dispenses a nice amount of product – about two pumps is enough to cover my entire face and neck – and is topped off with a clear cap.
But enough about the aesthetics. Let’s talk about the nitty gritty of the serum’s hi-tech composition! The core of the serum is made up of LR2412, a molecule which is inspired by the jasmine flower’s ability to repair itself from the attacks of external aggressions. LR2412 is actually created from the flower’s repairing acid, extracted using green chemistry. It works to reduce the size of pores, increase the thickness of the epidermis, and reactivate the skin’s hyaluronic acid synthesis.
The partner to this molecule is LHA, a derivative of salicylic acid that stimulates cellular renewal with a gentle exfoliating action. When paired with LR2412, it corrects pigmentation and an uneven skin tone, it smoothes the skin’s surface and it improves the skin’s natural ‘bounce’. The overall effect is one of freshness, healthiness and a drastic improvement of skin quality.
As well as doing your skin a wealth of good deep down and over time, the Idealia Life Serum also works to instantly illuminate your skin and create a more even complexion. It’s made up of tiny golden and red pearls which banish greyness and sallowness, and if you look really closely at the swatch above you can pick out the almost opalescent effect that these pearls give the serum. This colour doesn’t show up really obviously on the skin – it’s more about a subtle, healthy glow which is suitable for absolutely every skin tone.
Like all Vichy products there is a big focus on the sensorial aspect of the serum, so it feels and smells pretty incredible when applied. Idealia Life has a lightweight, creamy and emulsified texture, which means that it leaves a very, very slight film on the skin that protects it from environmental factors throughout the day. This also means that it’s a brilliant makeup base, allowing foundation to glide over the skin and have something to hold on to. As for the fragrance – if you’ve ever tried the Idealia range before, you’ll know how good it smells! With a blend of green tea leaves, white flowers and woods, it’s a sweet treat which lingers very subtly with every application.
I love everything about the Idealia Life Serum. It’s fast, effective and really lovely to use – and best of all, it buys me some much-needed leeway from my naughty diet and lack of sleep.
Vichy Idealia Life Serum ‘Life Proof’ Introduction Film