Face

Environ’s Makeover

May 25, 2009

I was first introduced to Environ by a good friend, who is a flight attendant, with the most amazing skin given the wretched conditions she must subject it to constantly.

Environ is a comprehensive skincare range developed by a South African plastic surgeon, Dr Des Fernandes. He started using higher, more effective levels of vitamin A in skincare in the 1980s.

Now, Environ has undergone a reformulation resulting in its newly released Advanced Vitamin Skin Therapy (AVST). Whereas before you started using Debut (with lowest amount of Vitamin A to prepare skin) before progressing to Classic and then Ultra, now the skincare regime follows numbers 1 – 5. Ultra in the old formulation equates to 3 in the new giving two more progressions.

The creams have varying strengths of vitamin and c, gradually getting stronger. All contain antioxidants (Rooibos, Honeybush Tea Extract, Beta Carotene, Rosemary Oil Extract, Green Tea Extract), flavonoids and penetrant enhancers. AVST 3, 4 & 5 contain peptides to promote collagen and elastin formation. If you want to get really particular – in AVST 1, 2, 3 Vitamin A is in the form of Retinyl Palmitate while in AVST 4 its Retinyl Acetate and AVST 5 contains both.

Vitamin A is a skin saviour – it thickens the skin so reduces fine lines, helps to minimise sun damage and evens your skin tone.

But you must wear a sunscreen – even in winter. There’s no point in undoing all this good work just by being lazy.

Do you use a Vitamin A fortified skincare? Why/Why not?

Tamsin