Biologique Recherche’s New Collagen Serum Is a Game Changer
Esteemed French brand Biologique Recherche has had a busy year. You may have already visited the U.S. Ambassade in Los Angeles for a skin-transforming treatment, but on the product front, it just launched a new regenerating serum that changes everything we know about collagen. Following its research and development team’s discovery of an ancient and previously undiscovered form of collagen, the brand developed a patented, shelf-stable active ingredient that’s the star of the new serum. Known for the cult-favorite Lotion P50 toner and the often-wait-listed Masque Vivant, fans of the luxury line can shop the new Collagène Originel today.
How Does the Serum Work?
Dr. Philippe Allouche, son of the founders and head of creation at Biologique Recherche, explains that the serum works to redensify the skin three-dimensionally by promoting the production of four types of collagen (of which there are 28 types total). That sounds like a lot of numbers, but the end result is this: smoother skin and reduced wrinkles.
As you well know, your skin’s production of collagen naturally declines with age, adversely impacting firmness, smoothness, tightness, and plumpness. Thus, this serum was designed especially for skin conditions (what the brand dubs Skin Instants) with existing lines and wrinkles.
The formula harnesses the effects of the brand’s star ingredient, Type-0 Collagen, along with botanical silene extract, soybean glycopeptides, and green microalgae, to encourage collagen types I, III, IV, and VII. Promoting types I and III (the most abundant forms of collagen in the skin) increases overall density, while types IV and VII improve the integrity of something called the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ).
“It’s the complex structure that anchors the epidermis layer to the dermis layer, and keeps skin plump and youthful. The serum lengthens and improves the DEJ while increasing the dermal layer,” Allouche tells BAZAAR.com. This encourages the cell exchanges in the DEJ that decline with age, yielding noticeably regenerated skin.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
What Is Type-0 Collagen?
This so-called “mother of all collagens” was found under the sea in a primitive marine planktonic organism, which Allouche describes as having not evolved in more than 600 million years. “It is so old that it constitutes the historical strain of all collagens,” he says. “This is why we speak of Type-0 as the original basis of collagen.”
All collagen is made up of amino acids, but this form contains amino acids threonine, serine, leucine, and tyrosine in high levels, as well as small amounts of cysteine. Among other things, topical amino acids can aid with skin health and qualities like water retention, cellular repair, the reduction of inflammation, and, of course, the production of collagen.
Due to its unique components, however, the challenge was finding a way to make the active ingredient shelf-stable at room temperature. “Like other marine collagens, [which are] generally from fish, Type-0 Collagen contains less hydroxyproline and proline than bovine collagen, hence less thermal stability. [However] it is perfectly stabilized in our formula and can be stored at room temperature,” he says.
Years of research on skin’s health led the brand to look back at the origins of collagen. “There was a certain level of epiphany during this research. All living beings on our planet are the result of complex mutations. Just like them, the collagen in our skin has evolved over the centuries, becoming increasingly differentiated into 28 types of human collagen,” Allouche says. “We decided to dig deep into the origins of collagen, [which is where we found] the historical strain of all collagen types—the original base in its raw state—and its extraordinary benefits for the skin.”
Biologique Recherche’s Collagène Originel is available to shop now at the flagship in Los Angeles or online at mybr.com.
