Serums are where skincare marketing gets loudest. Encapsulated this, clinically proven that, a study of thirty people. I test each one for weeks, layered under moisturizer and alongside the rest of my actives. Then I compare the INCI against my results to see whether the star ingredient elevated my experience and delivered what it promised.
This is where I review all of it: retinoids, vitamin C, peptides, hyaluronic acid, PDRN, and whatever is trending next.
Ready for retinoids? Start with the retinal serums that actually delivered.
Dehydrated skin? Here are the best hyaluronic acid serums at every price point.
Let’s just say the day I purchased the Epicutis Lipid Serum, I had entirely different shopping plans lined up. On a recent US visit, I walked into a local spa to get a backup of the Environ Seriénce Night Serum.…
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Over the past year, azelaic acid has become one of the buzziest ingredients in skincare. It may even rival peptides, which I find intriguing. I have tried more than a handful of formulas built around it. My go-to remains a…
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I don’t like the phrase “industry disruptor.” To me it implies noise. And my Eastern European soul will always tie loudness to a poem I read in Poland, circa 1995. Its punchline, translated: “Do you know why the bell is…
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Ranavat, and How Far Back We Go I don’t often get to say my history with a brand goes back to the beginning. With Ranavat, it does. I remember the original packaging, back when there were powder masks and teas.…
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PDRN is the skincare ingredient the internet decided to call salmon sperm. Accurate enough to be funny, wrong enough to need correcting. Flip the bottle over, though, and the star ingredient is not even called PDRN. It reads as Sodium…
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Remedy makes a Face & Neck Firming Advanced Serum Stick, or what I call the Remedy Retinal Stick. You may know it as the Remedy neck stick. Because while I’m all for marketing buzzwords, after trying it, this has become…
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Mandelic acid is the most underrated acid in skincare, full stop. Quiet part out loud: glycolic acid’s reign as the default chemical exfoliant is mostly habit, not superiority. Actually, could it be notoriety? For as long as I can remember,…
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Of all the SkinCeuticals products I’ve used, P-TIOX Serum is hands down my favorite launch to date. I said as much in my older post right here, and nothing has changed my mind since. Full transparency: a couple of bottles…
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