Dua Lipa launches Augustinus Bader-powered skincare – and it’s surprisingly affordable
The popstar, following in the footsteps of Victoria Beckham, has worked with the German stem cell expert on a high-tech new skincare line – but this one has a friendlier price-tag. Here’s our verdict
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Who doesn’t want to work with Dua Lipa? After being joined on stage by the likes of Lionel Richie, Lenny Kravitz, Gwen Stefani and Nile Rodgers (to name but a few) over the course of her Radical Optimism world tour, it’s the turn of a slightly less rock’n’roll collaborator to join forces with the superstar Londoner: the venerable Dr Augustinus Bader.
Yes, dewy-skinned Dua has just launched a skincare range called, er, Dua (that must’ve been a short marketing meeting) which is, she says, ‘powered by AB science’. Read: a modified version of the world-conquering, anti-ageing TFC8 complex, created by Bader, the German professor, biomedical scientist and leading expert in stem cell biology.
If you’re nervously checking your bank balance, don’t worry – this meeting of minds is considerably less pricey than Bader’s collaboration with Victoria Beckham (£195 for a 30ml bottle of serum) or the Augustinus Bader ‘mother’ brand, for that matter (a whopping £435 for the Elixir serum). However, the Dua line is – whisper it – very similar.
Lipa wanted ‘everyday essential’ skincare for her 30-year-old skin: the kinds of clean, effective products that maintain the resilience and beauty of young skin and safeguard it for the future. Augustinus Bader is one brand that put skin barrier care on the map as the key to non-aggressive cell-longevity boosting that works for every skin type. So it’s no wonder the singer says the Bader brand was the only one she trusted to bring her vision to life.
What’s the science?
The whole range is built around a complex called TFC5 – a ‘more measured’ version of TFC8, aimed less at tackling advanced signs of ageing and focused on minimal-to-moderate damage, the kind you’d see in skin of those in their twenties and thirties. We’re talking a complex of proteins, peptides, antioxidant vitamins and barrier heroes that reads awfully similar to TFC8, but this time the story is that it’s designed to deliver gentle renewal signals, support elasticity for the future, and build a protective barrier that’s as strong as it can be.
In short, Bader’s TFC8 complex is pitched as anti-ageing while Dua’s TFC5 complex is age-preventing.
It’s all wrapped in a capsule collection of just three essentials:
- Balancing Cream Cleanser, £32: a clarifying, balancing cream-to-foam formula.
- Supercharged Glow Complex, £65: a brightening, elasticity-promoting serum with vitamin C.
- Renewal Cream, £60: a smoothing moisturiser featuring a bio-retinol.
What’s the expert view?
Dua’s done a great job, says GP and cosmetic physician Dr Jessica Halliley. “These products certainly have sensible, credible ingredients and tech claims,” she says. She feels the barrier-repair angle is right on the nose for patients in their twenties and beyond.
But she wouldn’t recommend the Supercharged Glow Complex or Renewal Cream to anyone under the age of 18: “Simplicity is really key in pre-teen and teen skin, and more active ingredients, like bioretinoids or anti-ageing peptides, simply aren’t needed, unless there’s an underlying skin condition like acne,” she says. Because of Dua Lipa’s young fanbase, Halliley’s concern is, not unreasonably, that a much younger audience will be seeking out the range than is intended.
What do we think? The Get The Gloss verdict
These are non-aggressive, light-textured, easy-to use products that will help settle and balance sensitivity as well as oiliness. The focus on barrier health is a wise one at every age, and will help skin help itself in the long run. As this is very much what Augustinus Bader products have always been about, with Dua skincare, you can now nab those benefits at less than half the price. This is not just for Lipa’s Gen Z fans, basically.
Dua skincare is available now
