Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum Review

As you all know, I am a skincare junkie, and I love experimenting and trying out new skincare products. Not all of the gambles pay off though, as I’ve learned the hard way with a face full of acne for months. But then, there are others which make my skin look so good, that I have to have them. I had tried out a sample of the Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum and loved what it did to my skin. Then, I won the full-sized product at an event by Vellvette (now Fabbag) and Elizabeth Arden (read about that event here) but I finally came around to using it in the last week of December, when my Michael Todd True Organics Serum got over. Read on to know if the serum with the heavy price tag and space-age packaging is worth the “investment”….

Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum Review

About Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum

“Prevage Anti-Aging Serum protects and corrects the look of skin, helping shield it from environmental assaults and intercepting future aging signs to dramatically improve the look of sun-damaged skin. It is formulated with advanced Idebenone technology, which is the most powerful anti-oxidant available today and which creates a reserve within the skin to release protective and corrective benefits when and where the skin needs it most. With continued use, the skin’s natural resilience is fortified, allowing the skin to fight the effects of environmental aggression.”

Packaging

 

The packaging of Prevage is as high-tech as the technology in it. You would be forgiven for thinking that this is some sort of  a scientific instrument or a mini missile. (Well, it is actually a sort of missile though…a missile against wrinkles and aging.) Prevage Anti-Aging Serum comes in a sleek silver cylindrical tube with a transparent plastic cap. The cap again, has a silver top and the name engraved on the body of the cylinder gives it a very sci-fi look. It has a pump that squeezes out just the required quantity of product; because at this price, you wouldn’t want to waste even a drop of it! However, since it is metal, there is no way of knowing how much product is left inside and when you’re running out of it.

The metal packaging however, is a fingerprint magnet  and if you want to put it on display on your dresser, you need to clean it of fingerprints each time you use it. The highly reflective surface also made it the most difficult product to photograph! It is actually a straight cylinder, not tapered but somehow appears to be in the pictures.

Texture and Efficacy

The Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum is light yellow in colour and has the most amazing texture! It feels so smooth and moisturising and yet velvety (without feeling like a primer…if that makes sense) while applying. It gets absorbed easily into the skin and makes it feel plump, moisturised and dewy. In fact, I don’t feel the need to use a separate moisturiser after this! What is actually impressive is that it kind of adapts to my skin depending on the season. I had used the sample earlier in the hot, humid Mumbai summer and it didn’t feel heavy/greasy/oily on my skin. Now, I have been using it since the end of December and it feels adequately hydrating. I do, sometimes, use a tiny bit of the bee venom cream over it (at night) but during the day, I simply top up the serum with my sunscreen.

The best part is looking in the mirror the morning after having applied this at night. It does make my skin look lovely!!! My pores appear smaller, the texture of my skin is more refined, my fine lines on the forehead are less visible and my skin looks brighter, radiant and well rested, which is wonderful considering I am perpetually sleep deprived. However, these past few months, I have incorporated so many different products (especially Korean) into my skincare regime and switched so many around that it’s hard to give credit to one single product. Though, to be honest,  earlier, when I used the sample of this serum, I didn’t have such an elaborate skincare routine and this serum definitely made my skin look awesome!

There is no added fragrance to it so it has a very “chemical-ly” smell to it. The smell doesn’t linger but it does make me wish that they had added a wee bit of fragrance to it.

Ingredients

On the Elizabeth Arden website, the key ingredients are listed out as Idebenone Ester, Thiotaine, Bamboo Isoflavones, Lipochrome 6 and Green Tea blend, all of which are extremely potent anti-oxidant and anti-aging ingredients. A look at the complete ingredient list, however, also shows us silicones, phenxyethanol and parabens! For a product that costs as much as this one does, one would expect that these potentially harmful (debatable) ingredients would be left out. This is the only thing about the product that I disliked (along with the price, of course).

Price

Hold your breath because I’m about to tell you the price….The Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Serum costs a whopping ₹11,860 for 50ml!!! Yes, you read that right and no, it is not  a typo. That is the price of this wonder serum!!!

Final Thoughts

I love the texture of this serum as well as the packaging, not to mention the way my skin looks after using it. The ingredient list is a bit of a disappointment, but after reading loads and loads on the “potential” risks of parabens, I realised that it perhaps is not as big an issue as it is being made out to be. To each his own, though and while some people don’t mind products with parabens, there are others who won’t touch them with a barge pole. Personally, I’m thrilled if a product is paraben-free, but I’m also ok if it isn’t. What really hurts is the price, though, and having found other products that perform just as well, an international package from Korea by speed post and customs duty would still be less expensive than Prevage.

Would you spend a 5 digit figure on a skincare serum? Do let me know your thoughts in the comments below….