Ah, Winter, thou have arrived! Not only do you make us wear 50+ layers of clothing on top of another 50+ layers, you decide that we must also suffer through bright red noses, lips that are sucked of all moisture, and skin that is so dry you could make it into a fine powder (gross but true).
As you already know your skincare has to be adjusted according to the seasons—if you don’t, what are you doing and where have you been?
While Summer calls for a routine that tames all that oiliness to only leave a nice glow ready for golden hour, Winter requires a regime with even more hydration than normal.
But hold your horses! Don’t throw all your products out just yet (especially if you invest in the expensive stuff—money doesn’t grow on trees you know, unless you have a sugar daddy/momma, because if that’s the case, then be my guest). For those of us not fortunate to have the skills required to capture such a person, all you really have to do is add something for that lil bit of extra hydration.
You may have seen these particular words pop up a lot recently, what with every beauty guru and their mother talking about it. And so, I present to you, the current lifesaver of my own patchy dry face: Hyaluronic acid—saviour of skin living under the threat of fine lines, wrinkles and dry skin! I’ve definitely been sleeping on this bottle of magic, and wish I had listened to my shopper cravings earlier. (I hadn’t listened to them before either when I was picking up Nip+Fab’s glycolic acid exfoliating pads which were DEFINITELY a no-no for me, but that’s a story for another day).
To break it down, this miracle in a bottle is what the beauty chemists refer to as a large sugar molecule, that is actually already found in our skin tissues. It’s the reason for skin that is soft and supple as is abundant in supply when we’re young (I’m referring to baby young here by the way). Unfortunately, as we age, our skin reduces how much hyaluronic acid we can produce, which explains why we develop the threats mentioned above. That’s right. I just threw in a bit of science for you there, bet you weren’t expecting that.
But it’s true, beauty and skincare is a science—mixing together all these different ingredients, experimenting (and possibly reacting horrendously), and then analysing the results. It’s simply put but you understand what I mean.
The reason I jumped on the HA train was that my friend recently started using one she bought on Amazon. Let me just tell you, it did AMAZING things to her skin. I’ve never seen it look so bright, clear, and supple. Adding a hint of cream blush to her cheeks and she was glowing, and I decided I wanted needed that for myself.
The delightful formula she’s been using is the pure hyaluronic acid serum by Cosmedica Skincare, that comes in a dropper bottle and retails at £19.54, which I’ll admit is slightly on the higher end of the price spectrum compared to other alternatives that are also available on Amazon, as well as The Ordinary’s which retails at £6. Because of the many choices available, I decided to try Cosmedica’s and a vitamin C serum that contained the HA (because I like to live my life on the edge and subject my poor face to an immense amount of—often unsuccessful—experimentation).
I’ve been using Cosmedica’s serum for a couple of weeks now and it has done wonders for my skin. I noticed a difference on the first day, particularly in regards to the dry areas of my face. Applying some of this before my normal moisturiser, my skin has definitely looked brighter and clearer, completely removing dry patches on my face from added moisture without being greasy. 10/10 would recommend. I especially liked the watery consistency it had, as most other HA serums often have a tacky feel to them, and I tend to avoid products that feel sticky. However, while it has proven to be a miracle moisturiser so far, I do believe I should warn you that it does come with a slightly unappealing scent.
OK, OK, it’s not that bad, and the smell quickly disappears after application, so you don’t have to worry about it too much. Those with a sensitive nose shouldn’t be too concerned as it’s not that strong a smell either.
Now the second serum I tried was great on the first day, my bathroom mirror showed me that the serum provided me with a lovely glowy look to my complexion. I later realised why.
It’s because it’s orange. It gave me an orange tint. An orange tint. And I’m brown, so think about how strange that must be. Fortunately, I’m vain enough to admire myself in the mirror once more (alright, a couple more times) before I leave my house, so I noticed that while my bathroom mirror may sell me lies about how my skin looks, my bedroom mirror was, on the other hand, entirely too honest.
Ended up looking like an Oompa Loompa to be perfectly frank. Secondly, it broke me out. So you know where that went. Straight into the back of my cabinet so I could find another use for it later, cause I hate to waste money and product. However, this is definitely one for the ‘never again to touch the canvas that is my face’ pile.
Moral of the story? No matter how much you’ve become addicted to Amazon Prime, don’t buy everything that seems to have great reviews (which should be obvious but sometimes you just can’t help it OK, so stop judging).
Don’t let that second one deter you from looking into Cosmedica’s serum or the other ones available (literally the internet is exploding with HA serums), you’ll definitely find the perfect match for yourself. I’ll finish by confirming this, Hyaluronic acid is definitely here to stay.
