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Face serum help

Hello,

I am new here and trying to buy face serum for a dry skin. With all these products I got so confused. I haven’t used face serums before and I am trying to follow a healthy skin care routine. Is there any face serums you can recommend for dry skin. I have read reviews about The ordinary has good products. 
thank you. 

Re: Face serum help

@deepika247 I really adore First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair® Hydrating Serum .  Not only is it a good hydrator, but it also had lots of other skin goodies in it 🙂

Re: Face serum help

@deepika247  hi love! I’ve been using OLEHENRIKSEN Banana Bright 15% Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum 1.0 oz/ 30 mL and love it. So hydrating and great for sensitive skin. 

Re: Face serum help

Hi @deepika247 ! Hyaluronic Acid is a great ingredient that is really moisturizing. I’d suggest The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 2 oz/ 60 mL and Glow Recipe Plum Plump™ Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Serum 1.0 oz/ 30 mL , which are both hydrating serums 💧 I hope this helps! Have a great day 😊

Re: Face serum help

Hi @deepika247 and welcome to BIC! 

 

What skincare products (brand and name of product) do you currently use? I have mostly-dry combo skin. Half my dry skin problems were caused by my old cleanser which was too drying/stripping for me; and another fourth of the problems were caused by a moisturizer that wasn't occlusive enough to prevent hydration (water) loss. Sometimes, changing to a more hydrating cleanser and/or a moisturizer that actually seals in hydration can fix a lot of dry skin issues—and you might not even need a serum after making those changes. 

 

As for hydrating serums, there are some inexpensive yet effective options. If you don't live in a very dry climate, your skin might like humectants. These are ingredients that attract moisture to your skin. 

Spoiler
My skin's favorite humectant is hyaluronic acid in all its forms, including its very common salt form, sodium hyaluronate. It's already in many skincare products, but you could add a serum like The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 1 oz/ 30 mL , The Ordinary "Buffet" 1 oz/ 30 mL (Buffet's one of my favorite products ever; it contains several peptides which also help keep skin hydrated), The INKEY List Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Hydrating Face Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL , First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair® Hydrating Serum , or countless others. 

Another popular humectant is honey, something my skin has a love-hate relationship with. Farmacy is a brand known for their honey-based skincare products. I don't use their honey products so I can't personally recommend one, but you might wanna check them out. 

Something else that can help: make sure your skin is damp (but not soaking wet) before you apply moisturizer. This gives your moisturizer some hydration to seal in. 

Spoiler
You can use plain ol' water for this. If you have a very simple routine of makeup removal (at night), cleanse skin, apply moisturizer, and apply sunscreen (at morning), just apply moisturizer very soon after you've washed your face, while your skin's still damp. Or you can put water in a spray bottle, if you have one that produces a fine mist, and spritz your face throughout your routine as needed. 

Or, you can buy a hydrating mist. My 2 favorite hydrating mists are COSRX Centella Water Alcohol-Free Toner (centella asiatica, aka cica, is an anti-inflammatory ingredient my skin loves; this "toner" contains mostly cica water, comes in a spray bottle, and works great for me as a mist) and Youth To The People Adaptogen Soothe + Hydrate Activated Mist with Peptides 4 oz/ 118 mL which contains shea butter. I like to use the YTTP mist right before I apply moisturizer, since shea butter is an occlusive moisturizing ingredient itself. 

About The Ordinary: they do have some good products. Their products are usually formulated to target a specific need, like their Hyaluronic Acid 2% serum which doesn't contain much more than HA and provitamin B5 (panthenol). Their Buffet serum is one of the few formulated with a wider array of ingredients, though it lacks antioxidants. Some folks have trouble with the way many The Ordinary serums feel, in terms of texture: some are thick and viscous. But that's a very subjective thing. At their low price point, their products are at least worth trying. 

Re: Face serum help

@WinglessOne What's the best place to add The INKEY List Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL in your opinion?  I just got a bottle the other day, and started adding it under my eyes.  I wanted to try it on my whole face, so I added it after my essence and acids, but before by serum.  However, on the box is says to use after you cleanse.  TIA!  🙂

Re: Face serum help

@greeneyedgirl107  Hmm, I assume TIL says to add their HA serum after cleanser (while your face is still damp) as a way to hydrate your skin. HA will bearhug the moisture that's already on your skin, in addition to moisture from the air around you and any moisture you apply over it. So you can definitely apply it after your essence, which is basically a form of hydration; HA will lock onto the water in your essence and pull it deeper into your top skin layer, along with other ingredients from your essence. 

 

That same behavior works with actives. You can apply HA over, say, a water-based vitamin C product to improve its penetration into your skin. When I was new to using The Inkey List Retinol last year, my derm warned me not to apply any serum containing lots of HA—like, oh, The Ordinary Buffet—directly after that retinol serum because HA would draw retinol in more quickly, like a magnet, causing more irritation. (In fact, he wanted me to completely ignore TIL's retinol instructions 😄 since they call for letting skin dry down after cleansing and toning, then applying retinol, and then layering everything else on top.) 

 

Since I treat Buffet as my nighttime HA serum, my application order (on the nights I use all the following products) is cleanse, exfoliate, essence, Buffet, any other serums and/or mask, moisturizer, and retinol. I just started TIL tranexamic acid which is supposed to replace moisturizer in my routine. I'm experimenting with the best layering position of it for me. 

Re: Face serum help

@WinglessOne Thanks so much for the detailed answer!  

greeneyedgirl107_0-1602981255668.gif

 

Re: Face serum help

Hello,

My skin care routine is just washing my face with FAB cleanser and putting YTTP moisturizing Whip cream. I have never cared much for any other thing but as I am aging I noticed my skin is dry and dull. I do not have too much acne prone skin and there are one or two dark spots. but my skin is just dull and dry. Also, we live in a dry climate area.
basically I am rookie and recently I thought to put some efforts in my skin care routine. I am trying to find products which i can use in my daily skin care routine. As I was searching for The ordinary Serums, I noticed I cannot use The ordinary Toner Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution with them. There are so many products and I am kinda lost in this. 
For PM routine this is what i came up with:
1. First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Face Cleanser 5 oz/ 150 mL 
2. tarte Knockout Tingle Treatment Toner 5 oz/ 150 mL 

3. The Ordinary Multi-Peptide + Copper Peptides 1% Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL 

4. Youth To The People Superfood Air-Whip Lightweight Face Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid 2 oz / 59 m... 

Do you think I can use these products in one single routine. I am new with acids/toners and serums so I do not have much idea.

Re: Face serum help

@deepika247  I do think all 4 products can work together in a night routine. Let's see...

 

1. First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Face Cleanser - 👍


2. Tarte Knockout Tingle Treatment Toner - use no more than 3 times a week, even if the instructions call for daily use. Lactic acid (an AHA) and salicylic acid (a BHA) can over-exfoliate skin if used too frequently, especially when the AHA's at 10% or higher (though lactic acid's gentler than glycolic acid). Your skin's moisture barrier is made of dead skin cells; removing too many of them, aka over-exfoliating, wrecks your skin barrier, leaving your face wide open to acne-causing bacteria and major water loss, plus lots of irritation. When you introduce this product to your routine, start with just one night a week for a while and gradually build up to 2 or 3 nights a week, if needed. Oh, and this exfoliating toner also contains niacinamide, which is a fantastic ingredient for many reasons, including skin brightening. That should help address your dullness issue. 

 

3. The Ordinary "Buffet" + Copper Peptides 1% - I've never used the copper peptides version of Buffet, so I can't personally say whether or not it's better than the regular version. But the only major ingredient difference between both versions is copper tripeptide-1; eh, and the copper version contains no castor oil so it probably has a different texture. I'm not sure those differences are worth double the price tag, but that doesn't mean you shouldn’t try the copper version if you want to. 

 

4. Youth To The People Superfood Air-Whip Moisturizer - this is my usual AM and PM moisturizer. (Well, it was until I very recently noticed YTTP added some bad-for-me fragrance components to the end of the ingredients list. I'm now hunting for a replacement moisturizer.) Its occlusive ingredient is sunflower oil, which is great stuff. But your skin might need something more occlusive than that. Hmm... keep using this YTTP moisturizer while you add the 2 new products to your routine; give it a few weeks and see if your skin still feels too dry. If it does, you may need to switch to a new moisturizer. A CeraVe moisturizer could work wonders for you: they contain either petrolatum (the most occlusive skincare ingredient) or dimethicone (an occlusive that's typically better for oily or combo skin, but can work well for dry skin in a product that also contains something more occlusive like petrolatum or shea butter), plus moisturizing ceramides. 

 

I hope everything works out for you! 

Re: Face serum help

What else are you looking for in your serum? Are you acne-prone? Is your skin very sensitive? Any scars, discoloration, sun damage, etc? Fine lines? Anti-aging? Lots of questions I know, but it's important to invest in the right serums! I recommend using both a morning and evening serum for a truly effective skin regimen. For dry skin, a serum with hyaluronic acid is a must. Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Hyaluronic Marine Hydration Booster is the best one you'll find at Sephora. My two favorites are SkinMedica's HA% Rejuvenating Hydrator, followed by SkinCeuticals Hyaluronic Acid Intensifier, but you'll have to find those elsewhere. All three are worth every penny, and I love sticking to Sephora, so I'd go with the one by Dennis Gross 😉  HOWEVER, if you're looking for the best serum out there, the champion of all serums, you can't go wrong with Estée Lauder Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex Serum 1 oz/ 30 m... 

Estée LauderAdvanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex

Re: Face serum help

Hello,

 

Thank you for yore help. I will check these products. My skin is dry and dull, do not have much acne or dark spots. I definitely need anti aging help. I was reading found that Toners are also important before suing serums and now I am  trying to find a toner and serum.

 

Re: Face serum help

Thank you for your help.

I will check these.

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