Review: Boots No 7 Protect & Perfect Skincare

Disclosure:  these products were provided as PR samples.


For the past month, I've been slathering myself in Boots No. 7 moisturisers, having been given samples of the day cream, night cream, and of course the famous serum.  Despite having heard the rapturous praise for the original serum, I never got around to picking up a bottle, so it was lovely to be able to try the Intense version alongside its sister creams.

Firstly, the famous serum itself - it has a lovely texture.  Slippy, velvety, and very smoothing, it sinks in quickly, and leaves the skin feeling very silky.  I found that the texture was very similar to the significantly more expensive Estee Lauder Idealist serum.  I used about four pumps of the serum morning and night, and found that this was about enough to cover my entire face without resulting in an excess of product sitting on the skin.  Using it twice a day, I emptied the entire bottle within about 7 weeks.

The day cream, applied atop the serum, was rather emollient and left my face feeling a little bit slick, although after fifteen minutes or so, the residue was absorbed into the skin.  I found that I had to be very careful about the amount of product I applied to my face; a tiny bit too much and my skin felt overwhelmed by the richness of the cream.  It was a similar story with the night cream, although I don't really mind a bit of a residue overnight so long as it doesn't encourage spots by over moisturising.

And the effects?  Well, I suspect that my fine lines were a little bit softened by the regime, but I could just be subconciously justifying the hype in my own mind.  One thing's for sure, my skin definitely started to look brighter after a few weeks, and that brightness has been maintained since.  I didn't really notice that my skin looked noticeably younger - and that doesn't surprise me, given that I'm still under 30 and thus not really in the target market for these products.  I have heard colloquial evidence from my mother that the regime has had a very positive effect on some of her friends, who are more likely to appreciate the cream's richness.

So, in short - I really like the serum, and would definitely use it again.  I feel that the moisturisers are a little bit too rich for my dry/combination skin - they'd probably suit a more mature or drier skin type a bit better.  If you'd like to try these products for yourself, you can grab them from Boots.com, where the serum will set you back £20.50 for 30ml, and the day and night creams £20.50 and £21.50 for 50ml respectively.