It’s about time for me to share my experience using one of the most famous holy grail from Lancôme Advanced Génifique. I’ve finally decided to also give my piece of opinion after I’ve written an in-depth review of Guerlain L’Essentiel Pore Minimizer Shine-Control Primer that’s densely packed with skincare benefits ingredients which one of it is the Prebiotics and Probiotics.

Those that know me or have started to follow my blog know that my current holy grail would be Decorté, Japanese high-end skincare. I’m still raving about this brand till now. But if some of you noticed, in my early post, where I mentioned how’s my skincare regime with Decorté and ONE by KOSÉ (OBK) Melanoshot White Brightening Serum, I did slip in Lancôme Advanced Génifique into my regime but I did not talk about or mention further into it. I’ve started to integrate Lancôme Advanced Génifique into my Decorté regime after 5 to 6 months using Decorté. While I’m already extremely satisfied with what Decorté delivers to me but I’m still in the hunt for an anti-aging product especially a serum. And since Decorté anti-aging range, AQ MELIORITY is out of my budget, I’ve decided to give Lancôme a try. Can you imagine, I can get Lancôme Advanced Génifique if I were just to purchase Decorté anti-aging emulsion, it’s still not even the whole product range from Decorté AQ MELIORITY range that targeted at anti-aging, so it’s really out of my league.

• 

• 

Everything happened fast, it was during Christmas last year 2019 when I saw Lancôme is having their Holiday Set where they packaged and merchandised Lancôme iconic products where Advanced Geneqifue was one of it, despite getting the sample trial for 7 days, with just a leap of faith after seeing many good reviews, I got myself the Holiday set that comes with 20ml of Advanced Génifique, it was a steal because there are several other full-size items and I was only paying like a fraction of the full retail amount it’s almost like 70-80% discount. I did end up selling the rest of the items since my main mission was to try on the Advanced Génifique. I tried their UV EXPERT Tone Up Milk Rosy Bloom as well which is in full retail size as well (Will do a review on this too). The Holiday set is a great steal, so I’m on the lookout for such a deal again.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I did get advice from Decorté BA on how to integrate Advanced Génifique in my current regime, as usual, it should be used right after toner/lotion. For Decorté skincare regime, it should be used right after lotion but before other special care. So it’s something like this:-

Moisture Liposome > Emulsion > Lotion > Advanced Génifique > Facial Oil (Night) > OBK > Moisture Liposome Eye Cream > Moisturizer (Night).

✵✵ Notable Ingredients ✵✵

Enough about my long introduction, coming back to Advanced Génifique, it’s a reformulated ingredient that enriched with a new complex of 3 prebiotics and 4 probiotic to deliver essential nutrients to the skin and its Microbiome. In simple layman term, Microbiome is the ecosystem of bacteria living on every layer of our skin and in our body while Prebiotics is food for Probiotics the good bacteria. Lancome claimed that the main function is to helps strengthen the skin’s fundamental youthful functions: defense and recovery.

Going through the list of ingredients, the main star would be Bifida Ferment Lysate, a probiotic that’s derived from a yeast obtained by the fermentation of Bifida bacteria. It’s also used in Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. It can help reactive skin become less sensitive to environmental aggressors by strengthening its microbiome with the skin able to repair itself.

Adenosine is a yeast-derived ingredient that functions as a good soothing and skin-restoring agent. It can help with wound healing and a good anti-inflammatory agent. It has proven anti-wrinkle benefits due to its ability to help with skin’s collagen production and improve skin firmness and elasticity to looks smoother and younger.

Faex Extract/Yeast Extract/Extrait De Levure is a type of yeast that is a great soothing ingredient and also a mild antioxidant. It has great moisturizing, skin protecting, and film-forming properties.

Similar to Guerlain L’Essentiel Pore Minimizer Shine-Control Primer, it also contained Lactobacillus a species of probiotics, that has a function of strengthening the skin’s barrier by acting as a shield to safeguard our skin from bad bacteria. Another similar ingredients, are Polymnia Sonchifolia Root Juice which contained prebiotic derived from Yacon/Jicama Juice and Alpha-Glucan Oligosaccharide which derived from natural sugars sucrose and maltose also rich in prebiotics. Prebiotics can supports the skin’s natural balance and strengthening the skin barrier. It does so by increasing the healthy bacteria on our skin while decreasing the bad bacteria.

Mannose is also a type of prebiotic that helps reinforce the skin’s moisture barrier to prevent water loss. Thus in turn helps smooth out fine lines and wrinkles. Sorbitol and Maltodextrin is another type of a prebiotic as it has sugar component that can feed the probiotics. They can be further breakdown by certain probiotics to create beta-glucan, a skin-calming antioxidant.

Aside from the prebiotics and probiotics, other notable ingredients would be Sodium Hyaluronate, a salt form of skin-replenishing ingredient famously known as Hyaluronic Acid, which is considered more effective for skin than pure Hyaluronic Acid due to its greater compatibility with our skin. Salicyloyl Phytosphingosine is a water binding agent and preservative that can smooth the appearance and reduces deep wrinkles. While Ascorbyl Glucoside is similar to Vitamin C with anti-aging properties that have antioxidant protection, collagen boosting, fading hyperpigmentation. And lastly, Rosa Gallica Flower Extract can be used to soothe and calm irritated skin, reduce wrinkles, heal bruises faster.

While having quite many beneficial ingredients, it does contain some controversial ingredients, like HEPES that a buffering agent that can generate free radical damage in the presence of oxygen but there is yet study being done on how this directly impacts the skin. There’s also almost half of the ingredients are mainly stabilizers, enhancers, thickener, additives, and preservatives.

✵✵ Product ✵✵

It’s still in the iconic semi-transparent black glass bottle with a very chic dropper mechanic. The Chinese even have a nickname for it literally known as “The Little Black Bottle”. Although the texture is lightweight and it feels very concentrated upon application but absorbs effortlessly too. However, I don’t like the scent as it smells something fermented. As it does contain fragrance I’m not sure whether is this the way or them to make you think that hows prebiotics and probiotics smell like.

The application is easy, it comes with a mechanism where the dropper picks up an equal amount for every usage. Do note that this automated dropper only available from 30ml onwards. The 20ml that I’ve gotten did not have this feature.

• 

• 

It comes in the regular retail size of 30ml, 50ml and 75ml, sometimes in 20ml and limited edition 100ml or 115ml.

✵✵ Result ✵✵

I’ve started with 20ml then 75ml and I’m currently on my third bottle 100ml. A total of 195ml which would last me for more than 6 months usage. However, I might stop using it as I’ve reached the stage where the said benefits no longer working on me. This indicates that I should be on the hunt to look for a new anti-aging serum.

I sometimes faced this issue where a certain product becomes less effective after a while. The ingredients in your skin-care products can become weaker over time through tachyphylaxis, which is when a product loses its efficacy over time as your skin adjusts to it. It can be a good or bad or so-so depending on the yield result.

When I first started using this serum, the most effective result after using the first 20ml, was the ability to calm excessive inflammation and reduced fine lines, especially on my laugh lines. My skin also recovers and repair very fast especially from signs of fatigue and uneven skin tone. That’s all from the anti-aging perspective.

I’m not sure about the radiance, suppleness, and smoothness as I did get these from using Decorté Moisture Liposome Pre-Serum, Decorté AQ Infusion Oil and other Decorté products. So I’m not sure if it’s a double effect or what.

✵✵ Overall Rating ✵✵

All in all, it does deliver what it claimed to be. As I did experience all the changes, just unfortunately it has become less effective over time. So I might re-purchase it again when it’s the time. For now, I might be switching over to another anti-aging serum.