The Facts of Facial Serum

It’s question and answer time!

Question: serums – are they essential or a gimmick? I was shocked, after spending a LOT on a Big Brand one, to be told by the consultant that they only work when used in conjunction WITH a moisturiser. - Jean

Answer: Your question is one very much at the forefront of people’s minds daily, especially when standing in a high end department store, card in hand, relying on the advice of your consultant, and debating whether you can go without lunch for a week in order to be able to afford this “must have” cream, or being terrified that  if the serum you have spent the last month saving for won’t work!

Yep! We have all been there. The truth is this: no product requires another one to “work” unless they are sold together.

The best thing you can do as a consumer is to make sure you are informed and educated on what it is you are getting. Understanding your products and being able to read the ingredient list is crucial for this. In a nut shell, a product doesn’t have to be expensive for it to be good, it’s more about what is in the product. The ingredients at the beginning of the ingredient list have the most presence in the actual product; so, the ones listed at the end will only be present in extremely small amounts. Legally, the product only has to have 0.001% of an ingredient in the product to market it that way

Serums will tend to have a higher percentage of active ingredients than moisturisers, as they have less bulking creams in them. But honestly, sometimes it’s the cheaper products that are the best. I always say to my clients, that the more ingredients you understand on the list, the better the product is for your skin! And here’s a bonus tip: keep your product in the fridge to make it last longer.

Find out the ingredients to look out for in your skin care creams and make up over on Beaut.ie!