All about: Dermalogica’s new Smart Response Serum

I have long been a fan of the philosophy “Situational Skincare,” which means using the right products that depend on your skin's current situation. Each individual's skin has different needs depending on that day, the time of day, environmental stressors, geography, climate, and life changes. It's about taking care of your skin's needs as they come up, and they can change daily so you should tailor your routine accordingly.
It's good to have serums, moisturisers, and a wardrobe of cleansers on hand with different properties, strengths, benefits, and consistencies to benefit your skin’s health, remembering the skin is an organ that needs different ingredients to thrive at different times. Having a one-and-done routine or product for your skin definitely doesn't work anymore, so you have to make the call as to what it needs based on what you’re doing in it at the time.

A fresh new arrival from Dermalogica is most definitely in line with this way of thinking, and comes in the form of the very next-gen beauty known as Smart Response Serum. Acknowledging that our skin is constantly sending out signals that we best not ignore, it sees what we can’t – and micromanages your skin’s changing needs, so you don’t have to.
But back to those signals. On a macro level, we experience these as the likes of redness, fine lines, dark spots, and dehydration. But if we could zoom in for a closer view, we’d see that these skin conditions may actually be caused by damage that happens on a microscopic level. When skin is harmed, it tends to change in structure and chemical make-up – either as a result of damage, or as a form of self defense. By the time we have puzzled out what might have been going wrong, the damage may already be done.

This is where Smart Response Serum comes in. Three years in the works, the advanced formula actually recognises and addresses micro-changes in the skin before they’re even visible to the naked eye. And as different zones or areas of skin can be predisposed to different concerns, we can find ourselves needing to choose what to address on a daily basis, or throw on a bunch of stuff in the hope that something works! Amazingly, this serum is able to target four concerns in one product through what the legendary skin specialists call ‘SmartResponse Technology’, turning on exactly what is needed, when it is needed, and where it is needed throughout the day.
Bespoke to everyone who uses this serum, the four key concerns that it detects and intervenes are hydration, brightening, soothing and firming. And the combination of four targeted active ingredients in the formula that come to the rescue? They are…
• HYDRATION Oligosaccharides from hydrolyzed Beta Glucan that reaches even the smallest cracks in skin’s lipid barrier, then responds where it detects dehydration – helping skin to maintain optimal hydration levels.

• BRIGHTENING Hydrolyzed Wheat Flour that activates when it detects too much of a key enzyme involved in melanin production, then responds by brightening skin and helping to reduce the appearance of dark spots.
• SOOTHING Antioxidant-rich Japanese Cornelia Cherry that senses skin’s inflammatory response and activates to help soothe and reduce the appearance of redness.
• FIRMING Plant-based Mannose-6-Phosphate that detects collagen weakness, which can lead to fine lines and wrinkles – responding to the first signs of visible skin ageing to help smooth and firm the skin.

Caroline Parker, Dermalogica New Zealand’s Head of Education, says: “Your skin is constantly communicating with you, but you may not always know what it’s saying from the signs it is displaying.
“Smart Response Serum is a next-gen serum with SmartResponse Technology that helps stop skin damage before it starts – using four smart actives which, when triggered, hydrate, brighten, soothe, and address the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in response to skin’s changing needs.”
Sold on this beauty yet? I definitely am! And luckily, Smart Response Serum (RRP $255 for 30ml) is available now at authorised Dermalogica Skin Centres, department stores, Life Pharmacies and online at Dermalogica.co.nz.