You may have seen products named "serums" on the shef and read about them in beauty magazines, but what exactly are these pricey and tiny tubes and jars, and why do you need them in your beauty routine?
What Is a Beauty Serum?
Serums have long been the beauty industry's best-kept secret, used almost exclusively in spas as part of a facial treatment. Similar to a moisturizer in design and purpose, a serum is a liquid meant to treat skin ailments such as dehydration, redness and fine lines. Containing highly concentrated ingredients chemically formulated into molecules much smaller than those in a moisturizer, a serum is absorbed into the skin quickly and more deeply for a more intensive effect.
Why Should You Use a Beauty Serum?
Because serums are so readily absorbed, their high concentration of skin-benefiting ingredients deeply penetrate the skin, producing dramatic and long-lasting results. Think of a serum as a multi-vitamin for your skin – nourishing, enhancing and boosting its performance.
Common Benefits
Formulas will vary, but most serums are designed to smooth, soften and hydrate the skin, which minimizes the look of wrinkles and fine lines. Even if you're not concerned about wrinkles and fine lines, a serum will tone, even out and brighten your skin, making it look healthy and radiant. Most serums contain exfoliating ingredients that not only minimize fine lines and wrinkles, but also reduce the appearance of dark spots and discolouration.
Other benefits of beauty serums are:
- firming and lifting of skin
- boosting collagen (to reduce the signs of aging)
- reducing the appearance of dark circles and puffiness in the eye area
- boosting the skin's natural protection against the environment
- stimulating the skin's circulation (for a natural "glow")
How To Use A Beauty Serum
Apply a drop of serum to your fingertips and massage it gently into your freshly-cleaned skin in the morning and at night, then follow with your usual moisturizer. You don't need to use more than a drop or two to cover your whole face and neck.
You will likely feel an immediate change in your skin the first time you use a serum – it may feel softer, smoother and perhaps even a little tighter. But most formulas promise a visual change in four weeks, especially if you have fine lines and wrinkles, redness or large pores.
Boots No.7 Protect & Perfect
Serums are expensive and to add insult to injury, come in tiny containers. Luckily, because you need to apply so little to reap the benefits, that tiny jar or vial will last a long time. But the price tag of most serums may still make them too much of a luxury for many women to consider adding to their beauty regime.
The British skincare brand Boots No.7 changed all of that almost overnight when a BBC documentary program touted its Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum as a "wonder cream" and sales shot up by 2,000% (Serums Reign In the Pores, Belfast Telegraph). While most serums range from $70 to $100+ (for 1 oz.), Boots No.7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum (known as Boots No.7 Restore & Renew in North America) retails for around $20 (for 1 oz.) in North America. Boots No.7 products are available at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada and Target and CVS Pharmacy in the US.
Other Recommended Products
Sephora's top-selling serums include ones by:
- Caudalie
- Dior
- Philosophy
- N.V. Perricone M.D.
- Laura Mercier
