The skincare market is a jungle full of brightly colored berries. Some of them are poisonous, most don't do anything at all, and a select few can be incredibly nourishing. In a market like that, finding those nourishing berries can be a struggle. Mor
A good place to start is by judging the claims a brand makes about its products - especially if the claims are the thing that attracted you to the product in the first place. Claims are the main benefits that a brand promotes on the product page or i
Ideally, we want to see published studies on humans that show that a product or ingredient really does what it claims to do. So a great example would be retinaldehyde. We selected it as the star ingredient in our Enzyme-Active Retinol Serum specifica
The next step is to scan the ingredient list and try to understand what story it tells. In fact, if you’re looking for specific effects, this might even be better as your first step. The first 5 ingredients are usually the ones that’ll have the great
In general, we don’t believe there’s any good reason why a skincare product should ever cost more than $100. If you’ve done your research and discovered that a product truly offers some significant benefits, it’s worth also looking up the base cost f
Step 1: Know what you’re looking for. It’s important to know the internationally-recognized chemical name of the “hero” ingredient. For example, with vitamin C, the main format is ascorbic acid. INCI Decoder is a great resource for looking up INCI na
Learning this trick might raise a big question:. Why do some brands claim to use 10% of an ingredient, when the ingredient list reveals a different story?. That’s where those derivatives we mentioned earlier play a big role. The easiest way to claim
Your go-to AHA shouldn’t be too harsh, especially if it’s your first time using this ingredient, or if you’ve over-exfoliated with it in the past. Opt for a 5% to 10% formula, and make sure the pH is between 3.5 and 4. Any higher and it won’t be effe
Niacinamide is easy and versatile, especially compared to pickier molecules like retinol or vitamin C. That said, we still have a few suggestions on what to keep in mind when looking for your ideal niacinamide product:. Read the full blog post here
Designing a full skincare routine when so many ingredients seem like “must-haves” can be confusing. Can you use niacinamide with vitamin C or retinol? Which is better?. To quickly summarize: Niacinamide is mild enough that some would argue it’s not a