The Ultimate Skincare: Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Re-Creation Face Serum & Cream

Whenever I think of expensive high-end skincare, my mind normally conjures up jars from La Mer, La Prairie Sisley, and Naturra Bisse.

But this year, another brand has entered into the league of the thousand dollar cream market. This time, its maker is none other than Estee Lauder with its own top of the range skincare line. 

Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Re-creation Face Serum and Cream Set

Launched earlier this year (March) in the American market and making its way over to our shores in mid-April, this has got to be one of the most expensive cream of the year. The range consist of a Face cream and Night Serum duo (A$1350 for the set) and an eye balm and night serum for eyes duo(A$550).

What it Claims (edited for conciseness): 
A 24-hour anti-ageing skin care system capable of unleashing your skin's natural power to reveal skin that appears firmer, more luminous and younger thanks to a winning combination of scientific excellence, ancient wisdom and the ocean." An elixir of nourishing extract and cushion and comfort skin. It includes a selection of highly refined precious oils and lips from plants and naturally derived ingredients to infuse skin with the extra rich, vital hydration at night and precious oils provide skin with incomparable smoothness, radiance and silky comfort for a sensuous pampering experience. Skin feels more supple replenished and luxuriously comforted and receives the most exceptional care and looks more youthful than ever.

Breaking it down, it sounds like this cream and serum set delivers exceptional smoothing properties and helps with delaying the signs of ageing whilst giving you a pleasant experience at the same time. Fortunately, I got to find out first hand what exactly it can do for my skin as I was given the opportunity the try this duo over the past couple of months.

As you would expect of a high-end product, the packaging is instantaneously captivating - elegant, luxurious, extravagent and in all honesty, looked like it has a glowing halo with its dark clear acrylic casing within a gold bottle and jar, and gold trim and lids.

Let’s look at the key ingredients that it contains (as this was a sample and not the retail product, I unfortunately don't have the full ingredients listing to share with you).

The Face Serum

The night serum is a wonderful blend of light oil that skin readily drinks up. It contains

• Karanja or Honge Oil (which is cold pressed from the seed of a native tree of India), used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for its healing antiseptic, anti-inflammatory properties, high in essential fatty acids that provides excellent anti-aging benefits.
• Evening primrose oil which is again a fabulous oil that sinks into skin quickly to nourish and hydrate with its high concentration of gamma linolenic acids to renew skin. 
• Padina, an extract from the brown algae from the Mediterranean which purports to help the calcium in skin protect cells to help with prevent the premature ageing and death of cells. 

The Face Cream

The velvety luxe and light emollient face cream that can be used day or night contains

• An in-house patented protein known as Glacial BioExtract (phormidium persicinum) is extracted in the pristine Antatctic ocean that has properties to help boost skin elastin production as well as provide perfect hydration. 
• Algae extract provides skin repair properties to renew and protect. 
• Amino acid EGT and laminaria digitata extract (aka silketare) derived from a sea plant help to provide energy to skin cells to support its healthy function.

How did it perform
I’m not going to lie, I love this face cream and serum duo. It glides on like a dream and I only use the tiniest amount (trying to make my precious set last as long as possible).

At night I dispense about 3 drops to use on my entire face (one of each cheek and third on the forehead)and follow up with 3 tiny smears of the cream onto the same area.

It provides the perfect amount of hydration and despite the serum being oil based, gives my face a matte finish without that shine you normally associate with using oil based products. It's like a soft focus lens has been cast on the skin to give it that silky smooth texture.

The cream is light, silky and absorbs into skin quickly without any residue or feeling of greasiness.

Scent wise, both products has a beautiful and delicate creamy green floral blend that is made up of lotus, hyacinth, cyclamen and orchids blended with tiger lilies and warm woody sandalwood to create to sensual experience. I normally don’t like too much scent in my face products but this cream and serum is not overpowering and doesn't irritate skin (even on broken skin) so I make an exception to this.

I actually love the scent so much that I would probably buy the bottle of the fragrance if they made it available.

The next morning after using, skin is amazingly smooth – it literally gets transformed to the realms baby’s bum smoothness. And no matter how bad the texture my skin was the day before, the transformation the next day is incredible with more refine and smoother texture. To get this sort of change with a single use is incredible as it normally takes at least a week or more for other products to achieve.

Continued use of the serum and cream set leaves my skin feeling very balanced, with the right amount of hydration and is plump and firm, fine lines are softened around the eyes. All the dullness, dryness and pesky dry patches on the side of the face that seems to never go away in the winter month have all disappeared. (hello my new glowy winter skin!)

Note: make sure you use a water-based primer with the face cream during the day as it causes the product to ball up with dimethicone based primers.

I also noticed that it also helps with healing – I applied the serum on a bad blister burn on my arm and it accelerated the healing process and helped to minimised the scarring which is slowly fading after 2 months. 

With this skincare set, I had to unlearn my years of needing to layer products as my skin is happy with the serum or face cream on its own and estatic when they are used together. And there is literally no need for any other creams or serums at all (other than sunscreen during the day) as it just delivers all the right properties we all look for in the pursuit for youthful skin – hydration, plumping, smoothness, firmness and improved clarity.

I really want to say my experience was psychological and imaginary else because I was secretly hoping the product won't deliver and I don’t develop a need for it. Alas, it has surpassed my expectations and works astonishingly well - too well in fact that I'm very attached to it and think my skin now depends on it to look its best. But with its price, I’m very torn - it is hideously expensive and costs what most would have to pay for a month’s worth of mortgage interest and will last only 4-5 months (6 if you are stretching out its use like me). Sigh, if only I have won last week's lottery.

If you can afford the splurge and indulgence (lets be honest, not many of us can), you skin will never look any better. Otherwise just live in ignorant bliss and look for multiple products that could give similar effects for a less and without the guilt.

RRP A$1,350 | US$950 for the Face cream and serum set at selected Estee Lauder counters and online. If you are travelling to the US, definitely look it up there.
This featured product was provided for consideration.