SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED

...and a youthful look is yours for the taking! These anti-ageing essences reportedly drive active ingredients deep into the skin and may even hold the secret to a baby face, as EUGENE QUEK discovers in Siem Reap.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

...and a youthful look is yours for the taking! These anti-ageing essences reportedly drive active ingredients deep into the skin and may even hold the secret to a baby face, as EUGENE QUEK discovers in Siem Reap.

My Reading Room
My Reading Room

“Whoo-hoo, I feel like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider!” Yours truly is sun-kissed and sweaty from clambering around the ruins of Ta Prohm temple in Angkor, taking pains to avoid the craters and crevices. Yup, I’m talking about the very same temple that served as the climactic set piece in the first of the Angelina Joliehelmed blockbuster film series from the noughties.

This exotic expedition is part of my quest to find out more about the new trio of antiageing treatment essences from Clarins – and yes, I know what you’re thinking: Why Siem Reap? Well, as it turns out, the majestic monuments of the Khmer empire were sustained by a system of intricate irrigation canals, and this mastery of water distribution aligns perfectly with the objective of these essences – which is to effectively hydrate the skin and deliver anti-ageing ingredients deep into it.

The Clarins experts I speak to at the launch stress the importance of selecting skincare products that cater to the needs of your skin, which is in part affected by your age. And this is why the brand is pushing out three new essences, with each targeting different age brackets.

"The texture of each essence optimises the skin's permeability, which becomes thicker and less receptive to topical skincare as you grow older due to dead skin buildup," says Dr Olivier Courtin-Clarins, managing director of the Clarins Group.

And since skincare is much more effective when it penetrates – preferably deeply – into the skin rather than just sit on the surface of it, the brand put its effort into creating products with textures designed to optimise their absorption.

An anti-ageing trio

And so three new anti-ageing treatment essences – Multi-active Treatment Essence, Extra-firming Treatment Essence and Super Restorative Treatment Essence – are born. All are designed to soften the skin so it can better absorb the actives with anti-ageing properties, says Marie-Helene Lair, scientific communications director at Clarins.

She adds: “[The bottles are colour-coded and each product is formulated] to work synergistically with its corresponding range. For instance, the Multi-active Treatment Essence is perfect when paired with Multi-active creams.”

Even though the essences are meant to be applied before a serum, Marie-Helene tells me that they are not substitutes for your traditional toners. They don’t possess the cleansing properties of the latter, “so always use a toner beforehand to maximise the efficacy of your regime”.

Fun fact: These essences also take a leaf, so to speak, from the power of flowers. Gesturing at the greenery around us, Marie-Helene says this “bio-inspiration” is part of the brand’s commitment to beauty via botany.

To illustrate, she shares that the brand has “poured much research into the remarkable resilience of the pueraria lobata vine from China and Japan, which is often called a pioneer plant for being the first flora to bounce back from a forest fire. We’ve since harnessed the vine’s vitality and collagen-synthesising potential, [using its extracts in our] Super Restorative Treatment Essence.”

Here, more on each plant-packed essence and how they cater to the specific needs of different age groups.

Clarins Multiactive Treatment Essence, $70.
Clarins Multiactive Treatment Essence, $70.

FOR THOSE AGED 25 AND ABOVE

The skin starts to age naturally when we hit 25; what this means is that, among other things, cellular turnover slows. When this happens, the skin becomes dull, lacklustre and less penetrable, no thanks to the pile-up of surface dead skin cells that hinder the absorption of skincare, and make the skin appear tired.

This is where Clarins’ Multi-active Treatment Essence comes to the fore. It’s packed with acerola seed extract, which encourages skin oxygenation to boost radiance. Teasel extract is thrown in for good measure too. Marie-Helene informs me that this intriguing ingredient works like a botanical “battery” to recharge and reboot skin that’s showing the first signs of fatigue.

Texture-wise, this feather-light fluid sinks right into the skin and feels fantastic when worn in warm weather. The sheer (pardon the pun) pleasure of application is not without its beauty benefits – as Marie-Helene points out, its consistency was carefully calibrated “to encourage maximum absorption by the skin of the targeted age group”.

Clarins Extrafirming Treatment Essence, $83.
Clarins Extrafirming Treatment Essence, $83.

FOR THOSE AGED 35 AND ABOVE

When you move on to your mid-30s, you may notice an additional spanner thrown into the works: waning moisture levels in the skin. “Your face will start to show signs of slackening due to dehydration,” says Marie- Helene. “Cosmetic molecules require moisture to work effectively, so [this compounds the issue of anti-ageing actives reaching the layers of the skin] where they are needed most.”

For this age bracket, it’s the Extra-firming Treatment Essence to the rescue. With its cocktail of hyaluronic acid, lemon thyme, and fig and green banana extracts, it works on hydrating and plumping your dehydrated dermis. Besides slaking my skin’s thirst, the delightfully dewy finish lends my complexion a lit-from within luminescence – an entirely welcome bonus in my books.

Clarins Superrestorative Treatment Essence, $108.
Clarins Superrestorative Treatment Essence, $108.

FOR THOSE AGED 45 AND ABOVE

And when you cross over to matureskin territory in your mid-40s, Clarins experts say you can look forward to even more “gifts” from Father Time. For instance, “hormonal imbalances at this stage of life can disrupt the function of fibroblast cells responsible for maintaining youthful skin,” warns Dr Courtin-Clarins. Cellular turnover, too, is further slowed, all of which result in dull, less supple skin, wrinkles and other signs of ageing.

For help, turn to the Super Restorative Treatment Essence, which has hibiscus flower acid for non-abrasive exfoliation, and pueraria lobata extract, said to crank up collagen production for softer, smoother skin. The creamy consistency is calming without being cloying, so I can see this being of use

THREE ESSENCES, THREE WAYS OF DELIVERY

Use a cotton pad. Make a speedy sweep of things – this method will take you just 10 seconds, promise! – by pouring an appropriate amount of the essence onto a cotton pad, then swiping it all over the face, like you would with a toner.

Use your palms. Pour a few drops of essence onto your palms, then gently press into the face until the essence is fully absorbed – this will take roughly 20 seconds. The seriously soothing scent is such a pleasure!

Use it as a mask. Saturate a dry sheet mask (complimentary with purchase) with the essence, put it on, then just kick back and relax; take it off after 10 minutes. For an intense boost of radiance, do this weekly.