Dream Land: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex

I’m a big fan of any beauty product that works while I catch some Zs. Sure, part of my reasoning is that I get to entertain my stay-under-the-bed-covers impulses (which is so incredibly hard to do in NYC, where the mantra is “I’ll sleep when I’m dead). Plus, let’s be serious: there’s no work required. I mean, it’s the same reason why I’d rather do the Sleep Diet than the South Beach Diet — the latter requires virtually no effort and is way more enjoyable. Yes, when it comes to my skincare finds, I’m all for an nighttime repair product — if I can get my beauty sleep, wake up, look in the mirror and actually feel like I look more, well, beautiful, it just adds a little pep to my step and a nice bop to my walk.

So it’s no surprise that I was beyond amped to try Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex. The product builds upon the formula for Estée Lauder’s original Night Repair serum, which was introduced in 1982, and adds new technologies that address the type of damage done at a cellular level.

Now, let’s start with the new Chronoloux Technology. EL’s team of researchers discovered that skin cells do most of their restorative work at night, a process that is guided by a family of genes that operates on a circadian cycle (they’re colloquially dubbed “clock genes”). The Chronolox Technology, then, aims to support the synchronization of these cellular skin repair activities. The secondary technology employed in the new Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex, the patented Akyl Guanine Transferase, seeks to repair any visible signs of aging caused by environmental factors such as smoke pollution.

I’m no scientist, of course, so I can only judge the product based on my personal experiences with it — but, fortunately, I have nothing but good things to say about this serum. For one, it’s extremely easy to apply. All you have to do is fill the dropper applicator and release two drops onto your hands, then apply the serum on your cleansed face, using a sweeping, circular motion. Right away, you’ll notice how lightweight it feels (as opposed to some night creams that feel like you’ve put on a Lucha Libre mask). The serum delivers a nice surge of hydration, so you don’t necessarily need to apply an evening cream on top of it. I actually have pretty dry skin and the serum delivers just enough moisture for my skin.

After utilizing the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair complex for three weeks, I could see a marked difference — my skin looked brighter and smoother. Even more amazingly, I noticed that if I had a bit of a blemish surfacing and I utilized the serum at night, when I awoke in the morning, these imperfections were much less noticeable. As you can imagine, that was an unexpected (and way welcome) surprise.

Hey, this is one genetic clock we want to keep ticking away!

Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex, $47.50 for 1 oz. and $74.50 for 1.7 oz. Available at Estée Lauder stores and esteelauder.com