Thursday 16 February 2012

Masterclass - Serums

When I first started in the beauty industry, serums were a buzz word for the elite to the point that it wasn't until I worked for Estee Lauder and discovered Advance Night Repair that I even what a serum was. Serums are an intensive formulation that contains nurtients, vitamins, antioxidents and other ingredients, depending on the concern for the skin. They can be put onto the face, neck and even around the eye area, are easily absorbed and leave no residue behind.

These started out as something that was added to the moisturiser, then with anything within the beauty industry they discovered that they could create smaller molcules that can penetate the skin deeper (but here were only talking one or two of the layers, but sometimes that can make all the difference) which is why they are recommended to go onto clean skin first so they can maximise the benefits. Of course as the industry moved along technology means that now its gone from being elite to the mass market, the key exampe in this is Boot's No.7 Protect adn Perfect that caused mass hyistria when the BBC said that this in their scienticific test was proved to be most effective against some big names (which all released statements discrediting the research of course).

Serums are formulated to work alongside your moisturiser, not to replace it. Think of it as this the serum is a bucket and the mosturiser is the water. The serum acts as a collector for the mosituriser and acts as a effective holder. A key ingredient that does this is Hylaronic Acid (When I first training I always got this wrong and mixed it up with a poison instead, you could imagine the surprise face from customers), this is a protein that natural occurs in the skin. You will also some level of vitamin C and E that have huge benefits, vitamin C supports anti-oxident production and collegen productions, with vitamin E is an active anti-oxident.

Each formulation of serum will be diffrent depending on the needs of the customer. I find that serums fall into two catagories: Prevention and anti-aging. Prevention I have found have anti-oxidents, vitamins, and recently radiance. Anti-aging will have, as well as vitamins, collegen boosters, smoothing textures and moisturer retainers. Any company worth their salt would let you try the serum for at least a week before investment (or have a very good returns policy in place) as the best way to know if this is good for you (like moistursers and foundations) is to actually try them in your routinue. 

One final note - I know some of the best serums can be costly investments, however plesae take into that the amount you will use at a time would be tiny, about the size of a pea up to a 5p piece. There are 3 things if anything you'll need to invest time and money in because they make that much of a difference: Foundation, moisturisers and serum.

2 comments:

  1. I have never used a serum and always think it would be too heavy for my skin but might give it a go now!

    http://whatkimmididnext.blogspot.com/

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  2. great post. I am a big fan of serums. I am currently using an organic one from Jason and it made a huge difference to my skin. x

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