A serum is one of the most important parts of your beauty regimen as you and your skin age. While every other step in your routine has a unique role to play such as – a cleanser gets your face squeaky clean, a moisturizer hydrates and softens – but a serum is different in the sense that it delivers important active ingredients and nutrients that your skin needs to maintain healthy looks.
What Are Active Ingredients?
Active ingredients are ingredients like Retinol, Vitamin c, Hyaluronic acid that have an actual job to do inside a product rather than just been there. These job could be to accelerate turnover, brighten dark spots, hydrate skin and so on.
There are lot of them out there so When it comes to choosing a skin serum, it’s important to recognize there are different types of serums, as well as specific ingredients to look for based on your goals.
In general, face serums fall into this 5 major categories:
- Anti-aging serums
- Skin-brightening serums
- Hydrating serums
- Acne-prone and sensitive skin serums
- Reparative/texture improvement serums
Anti-aging serums
Studies show that nutritional supplements can in fact delay skin aging. There are two main groups of anti-aging ingredients, active in many anti-aging skin serums:
- Antioxidants, such as vitamins, gold, flavonoids, reduce breadown of collagen by reducing the concentration of harmful free radicals in your skin tissues.
- Vitamins C, B3, and E are some of the most important antioxidants because of their small molecular weight, which gives them the ability to deeply penetrate the skin. Vitamin C encourages the production of collagen and boosts radiance. Vitamin B3 regulates cell regeneration. And vitamin E has anti-inflammatory effects.
- Combinations of Vitamins C and E offer more effective antioxidative protection than either C or E alone. There are also studies demonstrating that vitamins C and E combined with ferulic acid is as powerful as using sunscreen together with an antioxidant.
- Cell regulators, such as retinols, peptides, and growth factors, have direct effects on collagen metabolism and stimulate collagen production.
- Vitamin A (Retinol) and its derivatives also provide antioxidant effects. Retinol is the most common anti-aging compound for its positive effect on skin aging and collagen metabolism. It fights free radicals to increase cell turnover, and to improve skin texture, fine lines, and brown spots.
Recommended anti-aging serums include:
Skin Brightening Serums
We all know that “Wearing makeup makes us look much more attractive”
You and I know this and that's why we spend so much time applying mascara, using foundations, glitters and everything to hide dark spots, sunburn, wrinkles and all manner of blemish so to make our skin look good and get more noticed.
But what if, instead of creating that glow with makeup, you could wake up with naturally radiant skin?
Enter brightening serums, your key to getting the perfectly toned, even skin that we all dream about. These powerful products often contain potent antioxidants, like vitamin C or other brightening ingredients like kojic acid, ferulic acid, niacinamide, licorice root that can help diminish dark spots, refine skin texture, and create an overall luminous complexion. By adding this one step to your routine (after cleansing but before moisturizing), you'll never have to rely solely on makeup to hide imperfections and deliver the glow you want.
Recommended skin-brightening serums include:
To Clear discolorations and get even toned skin, then consider using a serum with Niacinamide. You can try the Neutriherbs Niacinamide serum.
Hydrating serums
A hydrated skin is young looking skin. Hydrating serums contain hyaluronic acid, a molecule that physically binds water in the skin to make it look fresh, plump, and younger.
“Kids make lots of hyaluronic acid, and it’s attached to their collagen, but as we age, we lose collagen and lose the attached acid.
Topical serums with hyaluronic acid can temporarily bind water in the superficial layers of the skin, which can make your skin appear fresher and dewier. It also has the ability to temporarily minimize the appearance of fine lines and make skin look young.
Recommended hydrating serums include:
Acne and Sensitive Skin Serums
Anti-acne serums often contain salicylic acid or similar plant-based derivatives.
Use Neutriherbs Salicylic acid serum to visibly reduce appearance of acne on your face.
For sensitive skin with acne or wrinkles, look for a serum that contains CBD oil or Hemp seed oil because of their mild, soothing, and anti-inflammatory effect that’s combined with other active ingredients including retinoic acid as found in the Neutriherbs hemp seed rescue serum to minimize irritation and soothe sensitive skin.
Reparative/Skin Texture Serums
To help boost your skin’s texture and the overall appearance of your skin, we recommend using a serum with alpha hydroxyl acid.
“Alpha hydroxy acids can penetrate the top layers of the epidermis to disrupt the intercellular bonds. It can also help shed the dulling, discolored, dead cells to reveal smoother, glowing skin with more uniform texture, tone, and color,”
Recommended skin texture serums include:
Neutriherbs AHA Serum.
How To Use a Serum
The best way to use a face serum is as a base layer under your heavier products like moisturizer, sunscreen, and makeup.
While younger skin generally doesn’t need much more than a gentle cleanser and daily broad-spectrum sunscreen, it’s helpful to get into a healthy, preventative skin care regimen.
Early maintenance is key.
Maintaining a healthy looking skin with serums may help prevent discoloration, oxidative damage, dehydration, and premature skin aging and wrinkles.
You can use a face serum once or twice a day after cleansing and toning your skin. Think of it as the step after you clean.
How often you apply a serum to your skin depends on your goals and the type of serum.
Here are a few tips below to help you determine when to apply face serum to your skin.
How Frequent Should You Apply Face Serums
- Brightening serums like Vitamin c & Niacinamide serums work best when applied in the morning. This helps protect your skin against environmental assaults and free radical production produced by light, including UV and high energy visible light.
- Anti-aging serums like Retinol are often best suited for nighttime application. This allows the ingredients to work with your body’s circadian rhythm for skin repair and turnover.
- Hydrating serums like hyaluronic acid for drier skin can be applied twice daily morning and/or night and in combination with other serums to help keep your skin dewy and moisturized.
If you’re not sure if a face serum is right for you, or which type to use for your skin, either chat on whatsapp with a Neutriherbs skin expert for more information or send a DM on instagram @neutriherbsnigeria
