QUESTION: Can you smooth out wrinkles on your neck, just using creams and serum?
ANSWER: Not really.
However, that’s not going to stop me slapping on a shedload of creams and serum in hopes of ironing out the beginnings of crepey skin. To be fair, I’ve used a couple of products that have smoothed my neck a bit, but I want more – I need bucketfuls of skin tightening magic.
Dermatologists, beauty editors, and bloggers preach that you should apply the same cream on your neck as on your face because the skin is the same, but I prefer to take my chances with skincare specifically formulated for the delicate neck area.
WHAT I DON’T DO
I don’t ever go out without slathering my neck in SPF 50. Even when I sit out bare-faced for 15 minutes (pre-noon or post 3 pm) to suck up my vitamin D, I always make sure my neck is protected.
I don’t, well can’t, go down the invasive route, I’m scared of Botox and fillers. I’m frightened of the pain of lasers and, as much as I’m a fan of radiofrequency devices, I can’t put them anywhere near my neck because of my underactive thyroid.
I don’t apply anything to either side of my neck. The reason is fear of the horrendous hive rash I suffered from a few years back. I apply cream/serum in a straight line down the centre of my neck, which is OK because that’s exactly where my age damage is starting to show.
WHAT I DO
I have just started to use my LightStim device again. It really helped with my neck before and now (sadly), I have all the time in the world to use it regularly, which is the secret of success with these anti-ageing gadgets.
I also follow a tip from the beauty editor, Nadine Baggott. She has a fantastic YouTube channel, she’s fun, informative, and my age. Nadine regularly invites guests to discuss age-relevant topics covering skincare, makeup, hair damage and new beauty innovations etc.
There’s also a ‘Come Shopping with Me’ Segment featuring Elizabeth Hurley (for the Estee Lauder Breast Cancer Campaign) and she looks nothing short of phenomenal. It’s as if Liz is airbrushed and has a Hollywood lighting crew following her around! I’d love to know EXACTLY what skincare/makeup products she’s using, presumably all Estee Lauder, I mean, how is she looking so flawless? She also pulls off a pale pink nylon looking (silk of course) outfit that on ANYONE else would look hideous.
Anyway, here’s an unflattering still of Lizzie with huge brick layer’s hands because I’m a jealous biatch.
Oh, the tip – Nadine suggests thoroughly, but gently, cleansing the neck area which can sometimes be forgotten – makeup, dirt from city pollution, sweat, etc can sit in creases, clog pores and make skin look dull, which makes perfect sense when you come to think of it.
NECK PRODUCTS I HAVE USED IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS
PRAI Ageless Throat & Décolletage Crème 50ml £25.00 Look Fantastic *
The cheapest product I tired and one of the best.
This luxurious crème, developed specifically for the throat and décolletage attacks and fixes crepiness, double chins, droopy jowls and turkey neck using our exclusive sepilift technology for visible results in 7 days!!! Its weightless texture glides on effortlessly and absorbs with minimal blending to avoid stretching of the skin and helps to restore elasticity.
Lightly fragranced and easily absorbed. I used up the jar in 4 months and should have gone on to buy another as I was starting to see improvement. Instead, I saw some bloggers rave about a neck cream from NeoStrata (Nadine and Caroline Hirons I think), and like a sheep dropped Prai and spent twice the money on a product that just didn’t work for me.
One thing to note, I used the PRAI Neck Lift ionic device a few years ago. It works by using iontophoresis technology – in layman’s terms, it’s a way for the serum to be absorbed into the skin on a deeper level using a low electric current, innovative back then, now it’s almost the norm. The serum, which can be bought separately, is positively charged and the device emits a positive charge, used together they push the serum into the skin instead of it merely sitting on top.
Unfortunately, I was advised not to use it over my neck ie around my thyroid area so I reluctantly put it away.
What I will do though, is buy PRAI Ageless Throat & Décolletage Night Crème with Retinol when my latest cream runs out.
Next, NEOSTRATA Skin Active Triple Firming Neck Cream £50.00 for 75g Look Fantastic *
It was tricky to source, I ended up buying it from an online company called Derma Direct for £52.00. I’m always weary of buying from a company that’s new to me, but the product was legit and brand new.
This anti-aging neck cream is formulated with three clinically proven matrix building ingredients, each with a unique action to deliver optimal lifting and firming. ProAmino Acid helps stimulate procollagen production in the skin’s deep layers, while NeoCitriate™ helps promote new collagen and NeoGlucosamine® builds the surrounding support matrix.
I had high hopes for this product and I’m not sure why it didn’t work, even a little bit. I was literally willing my neck to change. Maybe I needed to buy another one and trial it for longer?
I also flirted briefly with Shiseido Benefiance Concentrated Neck Contour Treatment currently (3/5/20) £46.50 from AllBeauty * I love their eye cream.
ALL Shiseido Benefiance products are gorgeous to use. I only stopped using it because I lost it when I was having a tidy up, I’m sure we’ll be reunited one day – UPDATE I just bought another one from AllBeauty, mainly because it’s £80.00 everywhere else!
Currently, I’m using SISLEY Neck Cream 50ml – Bought for £81.30 from AllBeauty * in January 2020, but now £91.95!
If you thought £81.30 is steep, it’s selling for £116.00 everywhere else.
This new formula meets the specific needs of those wishing to firm and refine their neck, which is thickened with age, and recover more defined contouring. It combines four major actions to preserve the beauty and youthful appearance of this fragile area, lifting, firming, refining and moisturising.
Hmm, I don’t much care for the term thickened with age.
Obviously, this was going to be it, the product to give me the smooth, swan-like neck I so richly deserve. However, I’m halfway through and pleasant as it is to use, I’m not seeing any results yet.
It’s a strange product, it smells like faintly perfumed Nivea (ask your mum or nan) and the thick pink cream has crusted and gunked around the lid even though I’m very careful with it and only use a spatula to get the cream out. Still, I have to see it through to the end, you never know what miracle may occur.
CONCLUSION
I have the cleanest, most moisturised neck in the world, but it’s still crepey.
PLAN OF ACTION
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- Be consistent and continue to use LightStim 3-5 days a week
- Apply Shiseido Benefiance Concentrated Neck Contour Treatment during the day.
- Buy a jar of PRAI Ageless Throat & Décolletage Night Crème with Retinol 50ml for £35.00 Boots * for night time.
- Use up the rest of my Sisley Neck Cream.
- Finally, open a product I bought last year from DermaCareDirect called SilcSkin Collette Pad for the Neck £27.50.
Designed by two time Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, Camille Calvet Our Collette pads are specifically designed for the neck where sun exposure, ageing, and gravity wreak havoc on this area. They are very discreet to wear any time of day. Made of 100% medical grade silicone, they contain no allergy-causing latex, urethanes, or adhesives.
About 25 years ago I had a mole removed which I was told could leave a raised scar. I was given a clear gel dressing to cover it when it started to heal. It was a piece of a silicone gel sheet – originally used in hospitals on burn victims, to help flatten out their scars. I think back then it had to be kept on for 12 hours a day, so it was quite a commitment. It was only going to last 4 weeks, so I bought the one recommended from Boots, called Cica-Care Silicone Gel Sheet, it was around £20.00.
CICA-CARE SILICONE GEL SHEET
Cica-Care can be used on scars up to 20 years old. Within 2-4 months, scars you thought were permanent can be treated and their appearance improved - permanently. Cica-Care Gel Sheet occludes the skin to hydrate the scar area, helping the moisture locked into the skin around the scar. The sheet will help soften, flatten and fade red, dark or raised scars that have resulted from surgery, accidents, cuts and burns and injury to any part of the body, including the face.
It comes in a small sheet you cut to size, you can even wash the patches as I recall. I wore these patches religiously and for about 6 months and I’m happy to say the scar paled and flattened out to nothing.
I distinctly remember thinking at the time that if you had a wrinkle and used a little piece of this gel sheet on a regular basis, then it would surely soften and flatten it out? But of course, I was only 30, wrinkles were far off in the future and I completely forgot about it until I read about SilcSkin pads. I haven’t even opened it yet, but it appears to be exactly the same product. I’m going to use for a month, then buy the original Cica-Care sheet.
UPDATE
Now, this is very interesting! Katy Hill (ex Blue Peter presenter) was a guest on Nadine Baggot’s YouTube channel talking about scar repair after an accident at home. In conjunction with other things, Katy uses silicone gel sheets to flatten the scar, she buys them cheaply from Amazon. I’d love to know the one Katy buys, but the video doesn’t make it clear which one it is. Check out the video though, you can see her original scar (horrendous) and how good it looks now, the difference is amazing. It’s very inspiring if you have an unsightly looking scar, there’s a lot of helpful information on there.
So, my thinking is that this silicone sheet will surely help improve my crinkly neck. I’ll keep you updated.
Boots no longer sell Cica Care sheets, but I’ve seen them online at Chemist.co.uk for around £24.00, cheaper than anywhere else I’ve found.
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