If you’re still in the new year headspace considering things you want to change in 2020 and looking at your skincare routine, I’d like to advocate for including serum in your regimen.
While I appreciate a simple routine and recommend this as a starting point for those just getting into skincare, if you feel like your skin needs something more, a serum may be just what you need. Serums are a great way to add specific ingredients to your routine to address particular issues. Whether you’re trying to slow the ageing process, hydrate your skin or brighten your skin while reducing dark spots, there’s a serum for you.
Anti-ageing
If your goal is to minimise the development of fine lines and help prevent ageing as best you can, a serum with peptides is the way to go. Peptides are critical for building collagen, which starts to decrease in our late 20s.
My favourite is the Environ Tri-Peptide Complex Avance. No 7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Serum contains some of the same ingredients as the Environ serum, at lower concentration, which means it will take longer to see results. I also love the Line Smooth Antioxidant Serum and Collagen Triple Boost Serum, both from Exuviance.
Hydration
If your skin is feeling dry, a hydrating serum can be just the boost your moisturiser and skin need. A few that I reach for are the Environ Hydrating Serum, Exuviance Vespera Bionic Serum, Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair and Indeed Labs Hydraluron. Depending on how dry your skin is, you can use your chosen serum in the morning, at night or both.
Brightening / Reduce pigmentation
If you feel your skin is dull and / or if you have pigmentation, I recommend adding a vitamin C-based serum to your morning routine. This will brighten your skin and help to reduce dark spots. Some of my favourites are Endocare C-Ferulic Edafence, Tatcha Violet-C Brightening Serum and Garden of Wisdom C Ferulic Serum.
If you are using vitamin C to reduce pigmentation, be sure you are using sunscreen every day because sun exposure without protection will cause the spot to return, even if you’ve used vit C to get rid of it.
Application
Wondering where to add serum into your routine? It goes on the skin after it’s cleansed and before moisturising. You don’t need to allow lots of time between the two and if you’re feeling hyper-economical with your time, you can cocktail them together and apply in one go.
If you get to the stage where you’re using multiple serums under your moisturiser, I recommend applying each individually. But to intro your serum, particularly if it cements your routine, mixing with your moisturiser is just fine.
Last Sunday, I shared my current morning serum selection on Instagram and also posted more detail about one of them in my Stories. Since I’ve got a few in my cabinet, I'm planning to talk about one each week for the next few Sundays so as not to overwhelm you with information. More to come on #serumsunday.
Do you have a favourite serum?