Boots No7 Future Renew Damage Reverse Thoughts

[unpaid/sample] I’ve spent a couple of days going through reviews – mainly magazine and newspaper – of the new Boots Future Renew. Nobody can have missed the launch of this on social media. I actually do rate No7 products – some of them – but rarely get past the marketing these days which, for this launch, is relentlessly dogged in pursuing anyone over 50 on Instagram – fashion, beauty, lifestyle – doesn’t matter.

To be frank, Boots aren’t going to be presenting a ‘world first’ product to international dermatology conferences if they aren’t completely sure their research holds up. I believe it – I believe that the peptide technology will signal proteins (collagen, fibrillin) to hop into repair mode but I don’t know if that will show on your skin any more than using any other high tech skin care. I mean, who can say?

I’m more concerned with the whole ‘damaged’ skin leader they’re using. It’s called Future Renew Damage Reversal and I hate that the notion the brand is promoting normal skin life as damage. I’ve heard a lot of opinions on this new product collection but not one that addresses the typical Boots rhetoric that in order to sell us better, we need our confidence erasing first. I can almost see the torment it took to persuade the brand not to go with ‘anti-ageing’ but really, ‘damage reverse’ isn’t better. There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ skin – all skin is different with different life styles, different continents, different levels of sun exposure, different pigment levels, different levels of pollution, different diets and so on. I’d argue that no skin is ‘damaged’ as such – not in a cosmetic way, or a convenient marketing way  – it’s just living its life with, as you’d expect, varying results.

So we have to ask ourselves who decided that lines and creases, pigmentation, lack of luminosity and lack of firmness is damage? You could argue that it doesn’t matter, and to some people, it won’t but if the word ‘Damage’ is the one that’s resonating with you as you browse the range then that’s the marketing doing it’s job. Future Renew isn’t nearly as impactful is it?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting the best skin you can have – your face is yours to do as you wish with – and a good skin day is always a great day but believing you are damaged is not good, not good at all. If you love the products, great, if you feel they’re bringing your skin to life in ways that other products can’t, that’s also great, and if they’re allowing you to feel positive about your age, your complexion and your self-perception, even better. But normal ageing skin isn’t damage. You aren’t damaged.