People invariably comment on how like me my daughter is – and they have a point; we ARE unmistakably mother and daughter. But – oh sob! – how different we are too. How I long for the days when my hair was shiny and thick, when my face was smooth, firm and when it didn’t droop in an odd, Dr Seuss character, kind of way.

Collagen production, as we all know, is vital to young-looking skin – and, as we get older, our skin’s ability to produce it diminishes.  Silica, a combination of oxygen and silicon, two of the most abundant elements on our planet, is key to the production of collagen, as well as for the retention of water in the skin – crucial to that hydrated, dewy look.

The problem – and the reason why my resemblance to my daughter is not as strong as I’d love it to be – is that although we’re born with naturally high levels of silica, we lose it as we grow older at rates faster than we can replenish it through diet alone – for example, 250g of green beans contains around 6mg of silica, while our bodies excrete around 400mg daily.

Sönd skincare harnesses the power of silica directly from quartz, enabling us to benefit from its collagen-producing, youthfulness-enhancing properties. The range, which comprises capsules, an oil, a serum, a hydrating spray, and a recently launched cleanser, can be used in any combination – you’re encouraged to use the products best suited to your own skin’s needs, with the Sönd website detailing configurations best suited to conditions such as psoriasis, ageing and eczema, as well as skin types from dry, to combination, or oily.

Since I fall – oh lucky me! – into quite a few of these categories (getting old, prone to psoriasis and with skin that changes type pretty much as frequently as I change my mind about what to wear on a night out …) I’ve spent the past few months mixing and matching between products in the Sönd range and have been, without meaning to sound full of myself, quite wowed by the results.

See, this is the thing that I find slightly awkward about writing beauty reviews – my pre-selfie generation has a tendency towards diffidence, making it hard to say that you like the effects of a product you’re using without somehow implying that you think you look amazing. So, just to put it into context: throughout most of my life, I’ve had people expressing surprise when I’ve told them my age: allegedly I’ve always looked younger. Until I didn’t. Until I reached an age, a kind of late-30s, post-kids phase where I’d say my age and there’d be not so much as a flicker of surprise on the face of the person I was talking to.

But in the last few months, since using the Sönd products and taking the daily supplements, I’m all of a sudden finding that people once again comment on how much younger than my 44 years they thought I was. There’s been a noticeable improvement in the tone and fullness of my skin; it looks less drawn and sallow – definitely not the skin that I usually expect to see in the mirror after a long winter. Nobody will be mistaking my 10 year old daughter and I as twins any time soon – but at least, I think, she won’t be mortified when people comment on our likeness.

Sönd products start from £22 and are available at www.sondskin.co.uk