What kind of skin do you have? Dry or oily? Does it cause acne breakouts? You can choose one of several different facial serums according to your skin type. Before you spend your hard earned cash, read our guide to choosing the right face serum for your skin type.
Content of Article:
- Everything You Need To Know About Face Serum
- What Is Serum?
- Why Use a Serum?
- How do I find the right face serums for my skin type?
- Why are serums so expensive?
Everything You Need To Know About Face Serum
Think of serum as an additional tool that you can use to customize skin care routines. Serums can be used to boost the effects of your regular skincare products—and even target certain issues specific to your skin type.
When buying a serum, you want to look for products that contain ingredients that help moisturize skin, boost collagen production, and soothe redness. First, look for products that have a light color. Clear serums usually contain smaller molecules than cream ones. As a result, the lighter they are the easier they are to pass through the strata cornea, which is the outer most layer of the skin. Look for vitamin C. You need more moisture? Shop for serums with hyaluronic acid. Trying to hold off wrinkles? Choose something with peptides. Serums usually cost more than other skincare items. Serums tend to contain a lot of active ingredients which means they’re likely to be effective. Just a few drops will give you the results you want. If you want to use a serum at nighttime, you can either use it right after cleansing and toning or you can use it during the daytime just before applying sunscreen.
Read more our guide to choosing the right face serum for your skin type.
What Is Serum?
Topical products such as serums deliver active ingredients directly into your skin. Think: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acid supplements, natural plant extracts, enzymes, peptides, and more.
Serum contains ingredients designed to help your skin look younger, healthier, and clearer. It’s ideal for using them together because it allows you to use the most effective product first, before adding another one.
Moisturizers’ main job is to help keep skin hydrated, so if active ingredients are present, then they’re usually accompanied by thick creams or ointments that can inhibit their ability to penetrate.
Serums are usually water-soluble, which means they dissolve easily into the skin’s outer layer. When applied directly to the skin, the active ingredients get absorbed quickly and begin working immediately. Most importantly, serums without any emollients or occlusives contain a high percentage of active ingredients because they don’t include anything else.
According to a general rule, serums are meant to be applied after your skin has been cleansed and before moisturising.
Why Use a Serum?
Some of the benefits of using serums include:
Lightweight: Serums usually have a smooth, fluid consistency so they don’t seem like you’re applying any product to your skin.
Occlusives: Creamy products containing occlusive ingredients (like petroleum jelly) can act as barriers on top of your skin. Serum-based products, by contrast, usually comprise very small, lightweight molecular compounds that penetrate your skin quickly and profoundly.
Targeted: There’s always a product designed specifically for whatever problem you’re trying to solve.
Concentrated: The main ingredients in serum products are present in higher concentrations than they are in other products (such as face cream).
Effective: Because of their higher concentration of active ingredients and their deeper penetration into skin tissue, serums will offer you better and faster benefits compared to most other topicals.
Easy: They’re easy to layer because they contain no oil. You can easily layer them underneath any other skin care product; for example, moisturizers, face oils sunscreen and foundation.
Read more our guide to choosing the right face serum for your skin type.
How Do I Find The Right Face Serums for My Skin Type?
Serums are highly-concentrate products designed to provide targeted support. They’re not a one-size-fits-all product and I recommend getting really specific with your skin type and picking a serums that matches your skin type. If you start with one product at first, then you may want to consider incorporating two products on a regular basis, starting with just one for the first week.
Because of the concentrated nature of serum and companies trying to deliver big effects to their clients, most traditional and even serum products containing natural ingredients still contain some of the worse offenders when it comes to skin care ingredients.
Normal Skin
With normal skins, they can experiment with different face serums without worrying too much about irritation. You’re free to use different products for different purposes. For example, if you want to tackle several issues at once, feel free to mix up your products. Or, if you notice that certain products aren’t working for you anymore, you can switch them out.
Dry Skin
Hyaluronic acid is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Dry skin can greatly improve by using hydrators layered with rich moisturizers Humectant products contain moisturizing agents such as hyaluric acid, glycerin and panthenols, which help pull moisture from the surrounding environment and infuse it into your skin. You might want to look into serums containing coconut oil, ceramides, plants-based lipids, essential fatty acid, and antioxidants such as vitamin E.
Oily Skin
Niacinamide acid is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Control your oil by using a product that eliminates shine. Niacinamide and enantia chlorantha extracts are both effective at controlling excess oils, decreasing sebum production, and minimizing pores. Zinc, latic acid, and pink clay are ideal ingredients for removing oil from skin.
Read more our guide to choosing the right face serum for your skin type.
Combination Skin
Hyaluronic acid and Niacinamide acid is of the most powerful ingredients.
Combination skin can often be difficult to deal with, but facial sera are light enough to allow for some simple blending and matching. Use a moisturizing serum for the drier areas of your skin and use a mattifying agent like niacinamide to help balance out any oiliness.
Acne-Prone Skin
Salicylic is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Salicylic acids are one of the most important acne-fighting ingredients out there. This powerful cleanser unclogs pores while calming skin irritation and reducing red spots. You may want to consider looking for products containing azelaic acid, because they help to kill acne-causing bacteria and prevent future Honey, green tea extracts and willow bark extracts are some of the most common antibacterial ingredients used for acne treatment. Lemon balm helps sooth irritated and red pimples.
Mature Skin
Retinol is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Retinol is a powerful antioxidant that helps prevent damage caused by UV rays. It boosts collagen production and reduces inflammation in the dermis. Vitamin C works synergistically with retinol to help reduce signs of aging. Hyaluronic acids soften and smooth out lines and wrinkles. Peptide-rich extracts stimulate cell turnover and promote healthy cell activity. Lactic acids gently remove dead surface cells without damaging living tissue.
Sensitive Skin
Calendula is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Calendula is strong enough to heal wounds and prevent scars while being gentle enough to use on babies’ delicate skin. In other words, it’s the perfect face serum ingredient for sensitive skin types. Milk proteins and other botanical extracts like green tea can help soothe irritated skin, while lecithin is a miracle worker that can enhance your skin’s protective barrier and essentially block irritants. Also, try to steer clear of synthetic fragrances and dyes that can cause irritation.
Dullness
Vitamin C is one of the most powerful ingredients.
Vitamin C helps keep your skin healthy by boosting its own production of Collagene and by helping your body absorb other nutrients better. Other ingredients that help brighten your skin are daisy, vitamin A, licoricelike root, mulberry, arbutin, and alphahydroxyisolavone (AHA).
Hyperpigmentation & Dark Spots
Glycolic acid is one of the most powerful ingredients.
If you’re dealing with dark patches, redness, or hyperpigmented skin, use glycolic acids to gently exfoliate the skin and fade them away. You can also use niacinamide and hydroxyquinone to treat these conditions.
Why are serums so expensive?
At its core, “good” skincare nourishing products provide nutrients for healthy cells and tissues. They’re not harmful to your body, they just don’t nourish a lot of things. And because they aren’t toxic, over time, they won’t harm your body, but they won’t nourish your body either. You need both, but if you want to get rid of toxins from your body, you need to use products that help you detoxify — not just eliminate toxins.
Serums offer targeted treatment for a single problem without unnecessary filler. They’re highly concentrated on just one (or maybe two) active ingredient(s), so a tiny drop goes a long way. A bottle lasts months or years and doesn’t fill up your bathroom cabinet, but your skin will be thankful when it’s time for another round.
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