As is common with so many skincare products we’ve tried and tested over the years, the results rarely fully live up to their promises. Sadly, the Boots No7 Retinol serum appears to follow suit.
It did improve a number of our skin concerns, and we’re delighted it made a dent in our fine lines. We also bought the serum at its introductory price of £25, so we originally got it for cheaper than what Boots thinks it’s worth. Yet, the danger of waitlists, product teasers and hyped-up marketing only ended up setting our expectations higher than the product lived up to.
All that said, if you have mature skin or skin that is more visibly showing the signs of ageing than ours, we’d imagine this No7 Retinol Serum will make a big difference. We’re also planning to put the No7 Retinol Serum to the test alongside the wider No7 Pure Retinol collection to see how much of a difference the full range makes. Stay tuned!
| Boots | £37.95 |
In our No7 Retinol serum review, we put the brand’s claims to the test to see if it can really help with our wrinkles, dark spots, and redness
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How we tested the No7 Retinol serum
How to use the No7 Retinol Serum
No7 Retinol Serum review: Performance
No7 Retinol Serum review: Verdict
When Boots first teased its anti-ageing skincare breakthrough – the No7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate – the hype it created resulted in a staggering 100,040 people signing up for its waitlist.
We were one of them.
This earned it the title of Boots’ largest-ever waiting list.
According to Boots, the Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate is the first clinically proven concentration from its No7 to come with ten skin benefits, promising “maximum results with minimal irritation.”
Exactly what those 10 specific benefits are is not entirely clear but Boots does promise that the concentrate “actively targets the visible sign of ageing and dullness to kick start surface skin renewal from the very first application, working night after night to deliver visibly younger-looking skin.”
FURTHER READING: What is retinol and what does retinol do for your skin? | Retinol for beginners
The No7 Advanced Retinol Concentrate was the first product to launch in the No7 Retinol range and since its release, it’s been joined by a growing number of complementary products. The range has also had a package redesign since we first tested this serum.
The rest of the No7 Retinol range includes:
For ease of use, we’re going to refer to the No7 Advanced Retinol 1.5% Complex Night Concentrate as the No7 Retinol serum from this point on in our review.
In a bid to cut through the marketing nonsense that often surrounds beauty products, we test skincare using a smart mirror. Before we start reviewing any product, we take a makeup-free photo in front of a ring light on its highest setting, first thing in the morning, and have our skin analysed by this mirror. You can learn more about how we test skincare in our guide.
It provides a percentage score for a number of skin concerns including the appearance of our pores, fine lines, wrinkles, redness, dark spots, roughness and dark circles.
For our No7 Retinol serum review, we scanned our face and then spent the next six weeks applying the concentrate every night as part of our regular skincare routine.
At the end of the trial period, we took exactly the same type of photo as we did at the start and we then compared the percentage decreases or increases.
This allows us to quantify any changes that we notice in our skin over this time, and in the below Boots No7 Retinol review, we reveal how the serum fared in these tests while also explaining a little more about why retinol is marketed as such as a wonder ingredient.
FURTHER READING: We’ve ranked Boots No7 foundations from worst to best, from Stay Perfect to Beautifully Matte
According to Boots, the No7 Retinol concentrate has been created to form the first stage of your evening Age-Defying Regime
Before we get into our No7 Retinol serum review, we want to explain what retinol is and what it does because it matters when it comes to using the No7 range.
First developed in the 1970s as treatments for skin problems, retinoids – also known as retinol, retinoid or retinoic acid – are a derivative of Vitamin A and promise a number of science-based benefits.
These include unclogging pores, and as an effective treatment against the signs of ageing – including reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Products that contain retinoids will, typically, be accompanied by a percentage which refers to the concentration level of retinol found in that particular skincare range. For example, The Ordinary sells retinoids from concentrations of 0.2% up to 2%.
It has, for a long time, been assumed that the higher the percentage of retinol in a product, the more effective it is. And when introducing any new acid to your skincare routine, we’re constantly being advised to start with a lower concentration and build up to this higher level.
It’s now thought that this may not be necessary. Many brands have been looking for ways to offer maximum impact with lower concentrations.
Avon, for instance, recently released its Anew Skin Reset Plumping Shots using a breakthrough formula called Protinol. This promises to offer all the benefits of retinol – such as restoring seven days of collagen in seven days – without irritation. You can see whether it succeeds or not in our Avon Plumping Shots review.
With the No7 Retinol Serum, Boots promises similar. “Our breakthrough scientific research with our partners at the University of Manchester has found that 0.3% retinol delivers virtually the same age-defying benefits as a higher concentration retinol but with minimum irritation,” explained Dr Mike Bell, No7 Skincare Scientific Advisor.
It should be noted that the use of retinoids can cause skin problems from redness to increased sensitivity, particularly to the sun. This means wearing SPF is even more crucial than it is normally.
You can read more about the benefits of retinoids in our guide to the acids in your skincare and if you’re new to retinol, we highly recommend checking out our retinol for beginners guide.
According to Boots, the No7 Retinol Serum concentrate has been created to form the first stage of your evening Age-Defying Regime.
The company advises applying two pumps evenly onto a cleansed face – avoiding the eye, outer eye and lip area – and allowing the product to completely absorb into the skin before applying your usual serum, followed by a night cream.
Unsurprisingly, Boots recommends the best results come if you use other No7 products before and after, namely the new No7 Pure Retinol collection. In fact, Boots suggests that you use the No7 Retinol Serum as follows:
For best results, Boots suggests doing this skincare routine every evening, massaging in small upward circles, or tapping into the under-eye area. You then need to allow the product to completely absorb before applying any other product.
If you don’t want to shell out for the full No7 Pure Retinol Boots collection, we recommend the Wishful Skin Clean Genie cleansing balm, a personalised serum from Dermatica (if you haven’t checked out this service, it’s brilliant!), followed by the PRAI 24K Night Creme.
Despite the claims made by Dr Bell regarding minimum irritation, No7 still suggests limiting the initial use of its No7 Retinol concentrate to once or twice a week, on non-consecutive nights, before gradually increasing the frequency to every other night. It can then be used every night as tolerated. As a guide, Boots claims it will normally take at least four weeks to reach nightly use.
The No7 Retinol concentrate has a thin, but not runny consistency that absorbs quickly; almost melting into the skin as your massage it in
As our skin is used to higher concentrations of retinol, we went straight in and used it nightly and we didn’t experience any sensitivity. However, if your skin is prone to sensitivity normally, or you don’t currently use retinoid products, we recommend you gradually up your dosage, as advised.
The No7 Retinol serum has a thin, but not runny consistency that absorbs quickly; almost melting into the skin as your massage it in.
We found that two pumps wasn’t quite enough to feel like it was really covering our face, neck and décolletage (the skin on your chest and on your boobs) so we upped the dose to three pumps from day three. This is in comparison to Avon’s Plumping Shots where there was almost too much serum in each tiny individual capsule!
This is a minor complaint, though. If you’re only concentrating on your face, two pumps should be more than enough.
What’s more, even by increasing the amount of concentrate we used, we’ve only used what appears to be around 75% of the small, 30ml tube – if that – meaning we’d expect it to last for at least another couple of weeks minimum.
FURTHER READING: Worried about saggy boobs? Experts reveal how to beat the ‘boob drop’ or at least delay it
If we were ranking the No7 Retinol concentrate based purely on how our skin looked and felt, we’d rate it as good. Not a huge, noticeable improvement but our skin does feel softer since using it, and it feels plumper to the touch.
We didn’t see a significant difference in our wrinkles – although we’re fortunate to not have any deep-set wrinkles yet – and our fine lines look about the same. Not quite the “visibly younger looking skin” as promised by No7.
These results were also confirmed by the smart mirror analysis. For there to be a positive improvement in any of the measured skin conditions, the number in the Difference column needs to be positive, rather than negative. A negative number in this column suggests that particular concern got worse during the four-week period.
Any percentage difference is significant, but the higher the number the greater the difference. As a guide, these readings rarely move up or down by more than 1% with any product we test.
As you can see in the table below, using the Boots No7 Retinol serum for four weeks improved the appearance of dark circles, red spots, pores, fine lines, and roughness. The latter improvement is incredibly high at 1.38%.
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Boots No7 Retinol
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| Before % | After % | Difference | |
| Dark circles | 12.97 | 12.57 | 0.4 |
| Red spots | 2.06 | 1.82 | 0.24 |
| Pores | 2.13 | 2.02 | 0.11 |
| Dark spots | 3.35 | 3.37 | -0.02 |
| Wrinkles | 0.57 | 0.68 | -0.11 |
| Fine Lines | 5.59 | 5.31 | 0.28 |
| Roughness | 23.86 | 22.48 | 1.38 |
As we explained in our Charlotte Tilbury Magic Serum Crystal Elixir review, the issue with any skincare review is that it’s not possible to qualify, let alone quantify, whether or not our wrinkles would have become even more apparent if we hadn’t used the serum or moisturiser at all.
This suggests that instead of the No7 Retinol serum improving our wrinkles, it may have simply stemmed the tide and they’re not as bad as they could have been.
We can’t imagine – and we’d like to assume that – a product formulated to improve our skin wouldn’t make it worse so we’re giving Boots the benefit of the doubt, but we can’t completely rule it out.
It would also be interesting to see the results on someone whose wrinkles, fine lines or other skin conditions are more pressing or more noticeable than ours.
READ NEXT: Serum vs moisturiser: Which one do I need?
As is common with so many skincare products we’ve tried and tested over the years, the results rarely fully live up to their promises. Sadly, the Boots No7 Retinol serum appears to follow suit.
It did improve a number of our skin concerns, and we’re delighted it made a dent in our fine lines. Having since tested a lot of other products, this is the one skin concern that barely changes so the fact the No7 Retinol Serum achieved this is impressive.
We also bought the serum at its introductory price of £25, so we originally got it for cheaper than what Boots thinks it’s worth. Yet, the danger of waitlists, product teasers, and hyped-up marketing only ended up setting our expectations higher than the product lived up to.
All that said, if you have mature skin or skin that is more visibly showing the signs of ageing than ours, we’d imagine this No7 Retinol Serum will make a big difference. We’re also planning to put the No7 Retinol Serum to the test alongside the wider No7 Pure Retinol collection to see how much of a difference the full range makes. Stay tuned!
The following ingredients list comes from the INCI Decoder website. It can give you an idea of what’s inside the formula of the No7 Retinol serum but the overall formulation is what determines its irritation and comedogenic rating, rather than the individual ingredients.
sii|h 0 0, Butylene Glycol h|solv 0 1, Dimethicone emo 0 1, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride emo, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate emo|amic, Phenoxyethanol pres, Polysorbate 20 emu|surf 0 0, Xanthan Gum vc, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer vc, Dimethiconol emo|h, Retinol* cci, Bisabolol 
so, Inulin Lauryl Carbamate surf|emu, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Sorbitan Laurate emu 1–2 1–2, Potassium Hydroxide buff, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Carbomer vc 0 1, Tetrasodium EDTA chel, Behentrimonium Chloride pres, Sucrose Laurate emo|emu|surf, Hydroxyethylcellulose vc, Acetyl Dipeptide-1 Cetyl Ester cci|so, Benzoic Acid pres, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 cci, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 cciHover the mouse / tap over an ingredient for short explanation. Read more on INCIDecoder.
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
