Beauty review: Dermalogica’s new Pro-Collagen Banking Serum

When I was first gifted a lab sample of Dermalogica’s new Pro-Collagen Banking Serum last year, I was intrigued. The name alone was making some pretty serious claims – could collagen really be banked, and what difference would it make to my skin? SO many questions. So, I religiously used it from then on in and… wow. I am so impressed!
We all know that the key to maintaining healthy, radiant skin is to safeguard its natural collagen, but I’m often asked: what exactly is collagen? Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and literally holds everything together. It’s found in your bones, ligaments, tendons, connective tissues and skin, and plays a role in your overall health. The word collagen comes from the Greek word “kolla” meaning glue, and the more abundant the collagen, the healthier and stronger your skin looks and acts.
What’s actually in collagen? This is where I get to blind you a little with science. Collagen is composed of a series of amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins and are essential to synthesising our hormones and moving chemical messages around the body. Amino acids bind together to form procollagen, which in order to become collagen, undergoes a grouping process, forming long chains with more than a thousand amino acids. These chains arrange themselves side by side and bind together into three-dimensional helices, which then act as the foundation of body materials, whether it’s in your epidermis, gut, or anywhere else.
The bad news is that collagen production in the skin slows down significantly starting at age 25, and that’s where reaching for collagen supplements and a product that can help your body hold onto it for longer comes in very handy. Especially as while our bodies produce less collagen every year, factors like exposome and pollution can speed up collagen degradation, leading to visible signs of ageing such as sagging skin, hyperpigmentation, rough texture, and fine lines.

This is where Pro-Collagen Banking Serum comes in, a revolutionary new formula that helps to pretty much futureproof your skin by preserving its existing collagen. It helps support more resilient, visibly plumper, and more luminous skin, and reduces the appearance of future fine lines and wrinkles – what’s not to love about that?
Caroline Parker, Head of Education for Dermalogica New Zealand calls the new release “truly ground-breaking, packed with actives such as a Potent Pro-Collagen Preservation Complex, Collagen Amino Acids. This powerful serum helps protect and preserve so you have more collagen for tomorrow, and who doesn’t want that?”
It also suits a variety of ages, from those in their 20s hoping to preserve collagen, to those in their 30s, 40s and beyond who are looking to slow down the ageing process. The formula also incudes an innovative blend of Collagen Amino Acids, soothing Jojoba Ester, and Polyglutamic Acid to nourish the skin’s moisture barrier while hydrating skin to visibly plump for a firmer appearance, whilst Wild Indigo Extract and Arginine PCA help to restore skin’s radiance. Last but by no means least, Carnosine Dipeptide and Pink Carnation Flower Extract help improve skin’s softness and overall resilience.
Used once or twice daily, followed by a moisturiser, the gel-to-serum formula literally glides across skin to visibly plump it up and help slow collagen breakdown, and all you need is 2-3 pumps to cover face, neck and décolleté.
I have been amazed at the difference the addition of this beauty has made to my skin, bringing back its bounce with only one application a day, at night. I might step things up over the cooler months when aircon and heating start to rear their ugly (but necessary) heads, and can’t wait to see the results.

Pro-Collagen Banking Serum is available at authorised Dermalogica stockists and online now.