Facial Serums - Do you need one?

Serums – Do You Need One?

Collagen Serum from Exuviance - Lifting, Firming and Building Volume with Matrixyl 3000 peptides and Gardenia Cell Culture plus Polyhydroxy acids

Yes!

I’m a huge advocate of serums. I call them the “Green Juice” of skincare since they have so many active ingredients and in a liquid form they give your skin vital nutrients and a high quantity of actives in one little drop – penetrating deeply! It’s the equivalent of a giant platter of veggies being reduced to a glass of juice – if you have ever made your own green juice you will know exactly what I mean – You can never eat that many veggies in one sitting but you can drink that juice and you feel so good when you do and not to mention your skin will glow with health.

Serums should be applied under your moisturizers day and night. For daytime use look for antioxidant serums – such as ECGC – the active ingredient in Vitamin C that comes from green tea. Serums will protect and hydrate and give you that wonderful glow of hydrated healthy skin. For evening you can use serums that contain ingredients that exfoliate and treat such as alpha hydroxy acids as well an antioxidants. I also look for peptides like oligopeptide and Matrixyl 3000, plant stem cells, Grapeseed extract, Lilac phyto stem cell, Geranium phyto stem cell, etc. There are many wonderful skin-loving ingredients. Hylauronic acid is one of - if not my most favorite ingredient ever to look for in a serum. It holds 1000 times its’ weight in water and will really lock in your skins own moisture and attract more moisture to your skin.

There are water based serums and oil based serums. Every skin type can benefit from water based serums and if you are normal to dry you may prefer an oil based serums especially for evening. While we are sleeping our bodies dehydrate and of course our skin being our largest excretory organ is going to be dehydrated when we wake up but not if you use a hydrating serum.

Serums go deep into the skin and if you exfoliate regularly you will find your serums penetrate really well – correct exfoliation is key as well! You don’t want your wonderful and pricey serums just sitting on top of dry dead skin cells so please exfoliate properly and get yourself a serum. Your skin will love you for it.

There are many skincare companies that make excellent serums. I love NeoStrata, Exuviance, PCA Skincare, YonKa, Jan Marini, Skin Ceuticals, SkinMedica among many others. I recommend going to your Esthetician and getting recommendations and /or visiting Sephora and Ulta and checking out what they have and talking to the associates that work there as they usually try everything in the store and may have some recommendations and maybe even a sample for you to try!

What's your favorite serum?