Well here we are, it’s the Spring Bank Holiday weekend and as we edge into the summer months Sarah and Shabir do the lowdown on sun preparation, which comes further down this Weekend Read, but we are going to begin with a new product launch.  And actually it’s a very exciting product launch because it’s another cutting-edge formulation in the DoSe skincare range, so please allow me to introduce you to Triple Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid.

Let’s start with the back story.  Triple Vitamin C is an advanced version of one of our bestselling products, Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid, but more than that it is a fully comprehensive formulation which Shabir has been working on for several years.  It really does take time to bring new products to the fore, but in many ways this is a dream fulfilled for Shabir who wanted to bring three forms of vitamin C together in one formulation, a formulation which determines and upholds a best-in-class status, and we truly believe Triple Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid to be best-in-class in its genre, so let’s take a look.

There are seven key active ingredients in this formulation, but we’ll begin with the three forms of vitamin C which are Ascorbic Acid, 3-0 Ethyl Ascorbic Acid and Ascorbyl Glucoside.  Ascorbic Acid is the purest form of vitamin C and this form of vitamin C helps boost collagen and targets blemishes, reducing the appearance of pigmentation with regular use.  3.0 Ethyl Ascorbic Acid is an effective form of vitamin C which inhibits the formation of melanin and Ascorbyl Glucoside is a stable form of vitamin C which also promotes collagen synthesis, helping to reduce age spots over time.

Having outlined the three forms of vitamin C, there are four other key actives in this formulation, the first being Ferulic Acid which has long been known to enhance the effectiveness and stability of vitamin C, increasing efficacy and providing protection against environmental stress to help protect against premature ageing.  It is joined by Glutathione and Ergothioneine, both being powerful antioxidants which help protect the skin from oxidative stress and free radical damage, and finally Hyaluronic Acid has been included for intense hydration.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it was doubtful that Shabir would ever formulate a skincare product without Ergothioneine, mostly because we believe it is integral to skin health, yet each of the key ingredients in this formulation are also important for skin health because this is the serum which will help revitalise dull skin, improve the texture of skin and it will also fight hard to mitigate the visible signs of ageing.

So, having discussed the key active ingredients in this formulation, each of these ingredients have been included because individually they are high-performing, but most specifically they come together to create an innovative formulation optimising efficacy.  It really is an outstanding formulation, but it is also incredibly active, so please avoid using Triple Vitamin C with other active ingredients, such as AHAs and BHAs in any singular skincare regimen and if you are using Triple Vitamin C in the morning, please ensure that you end your routine with an SPF.

As with any given skincare product, there are no overnight fixes and it is important to reiterate this because it can take several weeks, if not months, to see transformative changes, but there can be no doubt that Triple Vitamin C is a transformative formulation, in full alignment with each of the DoSe formulations.  The other thing to say here is that the vitamin C skincare market is an extraordinarily over-crowded space, but as I wrote when we launched Collagen Tripeptide Complex, we would not launch a product into any space if we didn’t believe it would stand out in the crowd, and Triple Vitamin C certainly stands out in the crowd.

Marketing conditioning is extremely difficult to overturn, most specifically on pricing strategies because we are conditioned to believe that ‘high-end’ formulations offer far greater efficacy in any given genre, except I absolutely know that ‘high-end’ products, and I’m talking both supplementation and skincare here, often have nothing whatsoever to do with efficacy, but everything to do with rather expensive marketing campaigns and ‘designer’ branding, although there are of course exceptions.

I remember writing similar words when we launched Ergothioneine Serum, so being consistent in thought and process and upholding our stance, we have priced Triple Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid at £20, but we are launching at £17 across this long weekend because I feel like it and because there must always be a point of difference. The point of difference here is that this is a ‘high-end’ formulation where the pricing structure has nothing whatsoever to do with efficacy, but everything to do with the ongoing evolvement of formulations and standing in our own truth with next-generation products.
DoSe Triple Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid £17 for 30 ml (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 26 May)

I am staying with skin health, because I cannot write about skin health without writing about the importance of taking targeted supplementation to support the integrity of our skin, which in turn supports the topical products we choose to use.  And of course I am going to mention HA here because I have been writing about the importance of HA for skin health for as long as I have been writing these newsletters, and that’s a very long time, but of course HA is also crucially important to provide the cushioning between our joints and the older we get, well the older I get, the more important that becomes. 

And just perhaps it is a generational thing as far as joints are concerned, but I started taking HA a very long time ago, primarily for skin health and standing by the thousands of words I have written about HA, I still consider it to be a crucial supplement for the health and integrity of my skin.  And because I wrote two weeks ago that if I had to write every week that collagen tripeptides supersede all other forms of collagen, including collagen peptides, then that’s what I would do, except I didn’t write about collagen last weekend, it had a week off, but I also consider collagen crucial for optimising the health of our skin, as well as being important for joint health.
VH Editorials: Benefits Of Hyaluronic Acid Supplements; Is Collagen Vital For Bone Health; DoSe Hyaluronic Acid Capsules High Strength £35 for 30 Capsules; DoSe Collagen Tripeptide Complex £45 for 90 Capsules

Onwards, and last weekend I wrote about the importance of lowering our cholesterol levels and having mentioned that the liver is the primary gland which manufactures and destroys cholesterol, I want to take a closer look at this.  Milk Thistle is widely recommended to help support the detoxification of the liver, the liver being critical for the optimal function of all processes carried out in bodies, including its involvement in the digestive process and in the assimilation of nutrients, working tirelessly to maintain healthy glucose and cholesterol levels.

One of the most important facts about the liver is that it is self-healing, which means that it can regenerate and heal if it is allowed to rest and repair. Given that the liver detoxifies metabolic waste products and pollutants from the environment, we recommend that liver is cleansed periodically, say two or three times a year, although of course supplementation can be taken on an ongoing basis, most specifically because the liver is one of the most abused organs in our bodies.  Increasingly, fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, liver failure and other liver disorders have become extraordinarily common, arising as a result of liver damage.

There are many forms of Milk Thistle supplementation available, but Shabir formulated Milk Thistle Complex because although it contains the trio of well-established liver cleansing herbs, Milk Thistle, Artichoke and Dandelion, unlike most other forms it contains a therapeutic strength of Milk Thistle combined with Milk Thistle seeds.  Research has confirmed that the bioflavonoid Silymarin, which in and of itself contains several compounds, includes a compound called Silybin, which is the most active component within Silymarin, yet until very recently Silybin was shown to be poorly absorbed by the body.

Adhering to clinical evaluation in order to achieve efficacy, Milk Thistle Complex contains a therapeutic strength of Milk Thistle Extract combined with Milk Thistle Seeds.  It is the addition of Milk Thistle Seeds in this formulation that determines the point of difference as Milk Thistle extracts are often standardised to provide one of the active compounds, Silymarin, but the addition of Milk Thistle Seeds allows far greater bioavailability of Silybin, which is the key to efficacy.  Milk Thistle Complex drops in price from £20 to £17, with a note to say that Milk Thistle supplementation is often recommended for emotional balance and wellbeing.
VH Editorials: Milk Thistle For Liver Detoxification; How To Heal Your Liver; DoSe Milk Thistle Complex £17 for 30 Capsules (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 26 May)

One more thing here, the gut microbiome is crucial for liver health and being connected through the portal vein, which carries blood from the gut to the liver, the gut microbiome plays a significant role in liver function.  The gut microbiome breaks down food and produces metabolites, some of which are absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to the liver which, in turn, can affect liver function and because changes in the gut microbiome have been linked to various liver diseases, we recommend taking a broad spectrum probiotic to support the health of the liver.  That probiotic is Mega Probio which drops in price from £25 to £22.
VH Editorial: Restoring Optimal Gut Health; Mega Probio £22 for 60 Capsules (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 26 May)  

Following through, you will see that I have linked three different articles about liver health above, and although there are obvious overlaps, I felt it was important to report on differing aspects of liver health, and all of this leads me to health and beauty reporting.  I am forever reporting on health and beauty reporting, mostly because I can’t believe what I’m reading and my eyes start to roll into my head, and my eyes certainly rolled into my head when I read a report stating that the oral health market was projected to be worth over $70 billion by 2032, quoted in dollars because the report quoted in dollars.

Oral health is crucially important, we all know that, but the projected $70 billion spend anticipated that we would all be doing a twelve-step mouthcare regimen, with toothpastes and tongue cleaners hoping to take a ‘bite’ out of the oral health market.  Additionally, according to the report, we can look forward to a slew of dedicated mouthwashes (read that as being expensive) and this is where my eyes nearly disappeared completely, because the focus was thrown on ‘supermarket’ and ‘high street’ mouthwashes being detrimental to our health and wellbeing, which is something I have been writing about for several years.

However comforting it is to receive validation on long-held views, it must always be taken in context, and the context here is that Clinisept+ Mouthwash has been one of our bestselling products for several years, as have tongue cleaners, and trust me, there is a bandwagon gathering ground on hypochlorous solutions, and Clinisept+ is a hypochlorous solution, so forgive me if I sigh, but I have lived through any number of bandwagon scenarios across the years and perhaps that conversation is best left otherwise I could be tempted to list all of them, as a source of amusement.

Anyway, back to it and as we end this section, I am dropping the price of Clinisept+ Mouthwash from £7.95 to £6.95 and the Copper Tongue Cleaner from £12 to £10, but I’m not quite finished.  I am also dropping the price of each of the hypochlorous solutions listed on our site, so Clinisoothe+ Skin Purifier (250 ml) drops from £19.95 to £17, Clinisoothe Skin Purifier (100 ml) drops from £14.95 to £13 and the Hypochlorous Eyelid Spray drops from £10 to £9, which is a totally brilliant hypoallergenic eye cleansing solution and I know it’s totally brilliant because I use it myself.  Every day.
VH Editorial: The Benefits Of Tongue Scraping; Clinisept + Products; Copper Tongue Cleaner by Urban Veda £10; Clinisoothe+ Products; Hypochlorous Eyelid Spray by The Eye Doctor £9 for 100 ml (offers end at midnight BST, Monday 26 May)

Right, it’s time to talk about sun prep and although I am linking Sarah’s article below, I just want to pull out a few salient facts because it’s important to talk about them.  Actually, there are two things I want to talk about, the first being that although we are all firm believers in broad spectrum products which protect against UVA and UVB, there is little difference between SPF 30 and SPF 50, the difference being that SPF 30 blocks approximately 97% of UVB rays, while SPF 50 blocks approximately 98% of UVB rays, so although we have known this for the longest time, the marketing of SPF formulations remains somewhat questionable, if not misleading.

It should also be noted that our lips, eyelids and ears are particularly vulnerable to UV damage and are often neglected when it comes to sun protection.  The thin delicate skin of eyelids is particularly vulnerable to sun damage, and although sunglasses with UV protection will help, there is a dedicated sunscreen which gives high protection for the eyes.  That dedicated sunscreen is Ultrasun SPF30 Eye Protection and it is suitable for all skin types, including sensitive skin, and because there is a body of research which suggests a possible link between long-term sun exposure and hearing loss, I have pulled that information from Sarah’s article too.
Sun Protection Tips For Lips, Lids And Ears by Sarah Stacey; Ultrasun SPF30 Eye Protection £18 for 15 ml (drops from £20)

Let’s do an update before we head into the Saturday only treat, and it’s all about the Heritage Collection by Aromatherapy Associates which I wrote about two weeks ago.  At that time, I wrote that it was a limited edition and that I didn’t know how limited it would be, so I ordered more sets before it became unavailable, so just to reiterate the Heritage Collection celebrates the 40^th anniversary of Aromatherapy Associates and it includes four iconic products, each of which are listed on the product page.  Having a product value of £197, the Heritage Collection is available at £70, and by the time Christmas comes, nobody will remember it was £70.  Except us.
The Heritage Collection by Aromatherapy Associates £70 (whilst stock lasts)

And finally, with every order placed for £35 and above, excluding p&p, we will automatically include Fulvic Face Cream (30 ml)* which has a product value of £15.  As so many of you know, I strongly believe in celebrating and having written chapter and verse about pricing structures often having little to do with efficacy, Fulvic Face Cream is that celebration and as we celebrate, let’s also celebrate the launch of Triple Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid, which you can of course dose into Fulvic Face Cream.  Full product details below.
Fulvic Face Cream

Let’s end with a song, and I’m sure this is already on the VH Playlist, but it arrives again because it makes me happy to throw love around.  And I’m throwing.
Shiny Happy People by R.E.M; The VH Playlist

With love 

Gill x