Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair has been a best-seller of the company for over twenty years. The company website claims that the product “soothes daily irritation and builds a rich reserve of anti-oxidants and lipids to help replenish skin’s natural protectants.” In 2006, the company premiered Advanced Night Repair Concentrate, with 5 times the concentration of the patented recovery complex found in the original. The company suggests using Advanced Night Repair every night, and then substituting with Advanced Night Repair Concentrate for a period of 3 weeks every 3-4 months, or after excess sun/environmental exposures or cosmetic procedures.
Based on ingredients, is Advanced Night Repair Concentrate better than the original?
The original Advanced Night Repair is extremely hydrating, soothing, and contains fair amounts of antioxidants and even a fair amount of sunscreen as a non-quantified bonus (in the form of octyl methoxycinnamate). The original Advanced Night Repair contains very high concentrations of ingredients that make it extremely hydrating: glycoprotein/polysaccharides (found naturally in the stabilizing intracellular matrix of the skin), dimethicone, pantethine (also called panthothenic acid or vitamin B5), sodium hyaluronate (an excellent natural moisturizing factor), lecithin, and squalane. The soothing ingredients include chamomile, which is disguised on the ingredients list in its proper name, matricaria (anthemis nobilis); bisabolol (derived from chamomile), and allantoin (an anti-irritant derived from uric acid). Antioxidants include vitamin E (tocopheryl acetate) and retinyl palmitate (a derivative of vitamin A which must be converted to retinaldehyde and then all-trans retinoic acid within the skin in order to be effective. However, when present in sufficiently high concentrations, retinyl palmitate displays anti-aging and antioxidant benefits similar to that of retinol.)
The new formula, Advanced Night Repair Concentrate, contains higher concentrations of the original ingredients, plus linoleic acid, cholesterol, bifidus, bifiderm, and RNA fragments. Unfortunately, linoleic acid, an emollient, is the only of these ingredients to have long-term anti-aging benefits, as it functions as an antioxidant and has been shown by Elias et. al (amongst others) to demonstrate healing and barrier function restoration activity. Cholesterol is another emollient. Bifidus and bifiderm have been shown to suppress the growth of certain pathogenic bacteria, and stimulates the growth of Lactobacillus bifidus bacteria, a type of bacteria that undergo lactic acid fermentation. According to Sone Toshiro, lactic acid fermentation of raw plant materials may have some beneficial skin care benefits (for instance, another Esteé Lauder-owned product, Creme de la Mer, undergoes a rigorous three-to-four month fermentation process). The reason for the benefit for lactic acid fermentation in skin care may simply be the production of lactic acid, an alpha-hydroxy acid, although this has not been demonstrated as of yet in research.
The sodium RNA contained in the new Advanced Night Repair Concentrate has no known anti-aging benefits. Within most of your body cells, including that of the skin, during transcription, an enzyme called RNA transcriptase recognizes and reads DNA, copying it to form a product called messenger RNA (mRNA). During translation, mRNA is translated by the ribosomes, which in turn produce proteins from the messages encoded in mRNA. However, topically applying the sodium RNA found in Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate to your skin does not that the sodium RNA diffuses into your cells, that your ribosomes can even recognize the RNA, or, if both of these events did somehow occur, that your skin cells even benefit from the proteins encoded by sodium RNA. A general side note: Although the Human Genome Project made science more exciting, it did nothing as of yet for the world of beauty products, so please do not be duped by any fancy terminology of genetics when buying your skin care.
Is either product really worth the money?
The company does not lie when it claims that the product “soothes daily irritation and builds a rich reserve of anti-oxidants and lipids to help replenish skin’s natural protectants.” For soothing and hydration alone, there are not many products better than the original Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair. The product contains very high concentrations of soothing and hydrating ingredients, and the formulation provides a texture many women find appealing. For the $46.50 price for 1 oz., if irritation and dry skin are primary main concerns, then this is an excellent product for you. However, for the reasons addressed above, the new ingredients in Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate do not seem effective enough to make it worth nearly twice the price of the original, with an MSRP of $85.00 for 1 oz.
For both products, the term “advanced” is rather misleading. Unlike the anti-aging potential of sirtuins available in Avon Anew Ultimate Age Repair Elixir Serum and Night Cream or the potential long-term glycoaminoglycan production that may be stimulated by L’Oréal Skin Genesis and Lancôme Absolue Premium Bx, Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair contains nothing that is particularly technologically advanced in skincare. And with the exception of linoleic acid, Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate is no more revolutionary than the original. Although both products contain a fair amount of network antioxidants, more potent antioxidants are available, and certainly higher concentrations of retinyl palmitate.
So, overall, to buy or not to buy?
If dryness and irritation are primary concerns, then Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair is a wonderful product. And if you are severely dry or prone to irritation, Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate may be somewhat more hydrating and soothing, although no data have been produced to verify this. and the concentrate does cost nearly twice as much as the original.
If anti-aging is the primary concern, then better results would most likely be produced from a nightly retinoid (such as Retin-A), a daily combination of network antioxidants (such as that found in Skinceuticals CE Ferulic), or a more potent antioxidant (such as the coffee berry found in Revalé Skin). Overall, a good hydrating/soothing product, but not an advanced anti-aging product. 7.5/10.
Ingredients of Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair
water (aqua purificata) purified, polysaccharides/glycoprotein, methyl gluceth-20, peg-75, butylene glycol, dimethicone copolyol, octyl methoxycinnamate, pantethine, sodium hyaluronate, kola (cola acuminata) extract, hydrogenated lecithin, glycereth-26, matricaria (anthemis nobilis), retinyl palmitate, tocopheryl acetate, bisabolol, oleth-3, oleth-5, squalane, oleth-3 phosphate, choleth-24, cetheth-25, xanthan gum, allatoin, tea-carbomer, trisodium edta, bht, benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, yellow no. 5 (CI 19140), red no. 4 (CI 14700), green no. 5 (CI 61570))
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