Serums – lightweight moisturisers that penetrate deeper to deliver high concentrations of specific active ingredients to the skin. They round out your skincare routine by targeting specific skin concerns that may not be as well-addressed by other products in your regimen.
There are good serums, there are great serums, and then there are Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair and Lancôme Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate. Both hyped for YEARS by celebrities and influencers, both focus on anti-aging. But how are they different? Which is best for you? Here’s a simple comparison of the two to help you decide on one.
SUMMARY
PRICE
Of course, the price of a product plays a big part in our purchasing decision. A 50ml Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum can set you back about S$175 on other retail sites. At VIIMART, a 50ml would cost you about S$148. Lancôme’s Youth Concentrate also retails at about S$175, but S$149 at VIIMART.
Let’s focus on VIIMART’s price range. Essentially, it’s S$2.96 per ml of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair VS S$2.98 per ml of Lancôme’s Youth Activating Concentrate.
If you’re looking to invest in a big bottle, a 100ml Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair would cost you S$ 270, compared to Lancôme’s S$230. That’s S$2.70 per ml VS S$2.30 per ml.
Of course, being more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better choice. Let’s dive into the ingredient list to determine which can better meet your skincare needs.
KEY INGREDIENTS
Estée Lauder has four main ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Bifida ferment lysate (probiotics), peptides, and antioxidants.
Lancôme also focuses on four ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Bifida ferment lysate (probiotics), Bifidus Prebiotics, and Vitamin C (which also works as an antioxidant).
As you can see, the ingredients are mostly similar, except Estée Lauder contains tripeptide-32, a type of peptide that will send signals to your cells to produce more collagen (when they are broken down) to keep your skin elastic and youthful.
Another main difference is the pre-biotics in Lancôme's Youth Activating Concentrate. Pre-biotics help preserve the existing healthy bacteria on your skin when applied and encourage the survival of probiotic microorganisms already in your skin microbiome. But that’s not all. They also improve the balance of bacteria on your skin microbiome, contributing to a healthier skin ecosystem overall.
When probiotics and pre-biotics are combined, whether that be in skin cream or in foods, they join forces to become what’s known as a synbiotic.
Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair serum delivers a high dose of antioxidants to neutralise the free radicals that damage our skin daily. Lancôme Youth Activating Concentrate also contains antioxidants, in the form of Vitamin C, which helps with brightening dull skin. But if you're looking for products with higher antioxidant content, the brand has another antioxidant serum, Génifique Sensitive to cater to your antioxidant needs.
After looking through the key ingredients, let's dive in deeper to identify the potentially harmful ones.
INGREDIENT CALLOUTS
Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair serum is free of sulfates SLS and SLES, parabens, phthalates, and mineral oil. It is also non-comedogenic and fragrance-free.
Lancôme's Youth Activating Concentrate too, is non-comedogenic and free of sulfates SLS and SLES, parabens, and phthalates. It is however not oil- or fragrance-free. So if you're sensitive these, take note!
CONCLUSION
To summarise, both Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair serum and Lancôme's Youth Activating Concentrate are extremely similar in their prices. Both contain mostly the same anti-aging ingredients, but each has other additional ingredients to target different aging concerns.
Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair serum has peptides to boost skin elasticity, while Lancôme's Youth Activating Concentrate has pre-biotics to ensure a healthy skin ecosystem, together with Vitamin C to boost its brightening effect. Ultimately, it all depends on your skin needs.
Which one would you choose?
[UPDATE]
Still can't decide? We did a poll on our Instagram Story and collated the votes from our followers. Hope this helps!
