You beauty! Chantecaille Vital Essence

Sometimes you can lead your skin to water but you can’t make it drink. On goes the night cream and still, parchment. Out comes the artillery of face oils and yet, gasping. Often this ‘reflective skin’ phenomenon will happen as the weather turns mean, and can manifest as an all-over papery effect or — as I have recently found — with random patches of scratchy, coarse nonsense. Scales, if you like. Nice. Sexy.

See, this is the thing about serum; few folk understand what it actually does. They vaguely absorb the claims of Youth! Radiance! Charisma! but beyond that it’s all a bit of a mystery, a covert operation. So let me tell you what the point of serum is for me: it’s an enabler. An activator. It encourages moisturiser to penetrate and do its worthy work.

In terms of hydration, I’ve found a winner. My skin has gone from patchwork to beamingly glowing — if not overnight, then within a week. Chantecaille’s Vital Essence, which is 95.5 per cent botanical, replenishes moisture with a kind of natural collagen: bio sodium hyaluronate.

It’s perfectly doable if you have acne-prone skin — it comes in a pump dispenser, which I always think is more hygienic and less bacteria-riddled than a pipette or a pot. And it’s also sneaky at de-puffing and de-bagging under the eyes before you go nuts with your Touche Éclat. But mainly it gives you summer skin while winter rages.

Chantecaille Vital Essence, £82, at uk.spacenk.com