What is a serum? Face serum benefits

Even if you haven’t added a face serum to your daily skin care routine, you’ve probably heard of it. For those who might be serum-curious, we’re here to answer some common questions, such as how to use serum, when to apply it and what does serum do for your face?

A face serum is an important step in your skin care routine. They can address various skin concerns. Understanding what serums are and what they do will help you choose the right one for your skin.

Serums are formulated to penetrate deep into the skin’s surface layers to deliver treatment, which makes them particularly useful for targeting concerns like wrinkles. Some are also designed to target brightening, anti-aging, firming or spot correction. Certain formulas can even supercharge your skin’s moisture levels in addition to your regular moisturizer.

“Serums are the most powerful skin care formulas,” Amway Principal Research Scientist Jason Rothouse said. “They generally contain the highest concentration of ingredients, technology and efficacy.”

Pro tip: Find a skincare serum with multiple benefits

You will likely be able to find a specific face serum for each skin concern listed above. But that’s a lot of serums to add to your routine! Instead of shopping around and cluttering your bathroom counter with multiple bottles, look for serums that are formulated to have multiple benefits.

Two examples are the Artistry Skin Nutrition™ Defying Serum and the Artistry Skin Nutrition Correcting Serum. They were formulated by Rothouse and Amway Research Scientist Beth Swansegar. While the serums offer the benefits indicated by their names – addressing early and advanced signs of aging – they each provide a total of 10 different skin care benefits, ranging from hydrating and soothing to exfoliating and evening the skin tone.

“We looked at over 100 raw materials and 25 unique suppliers during a 13-month process before getting to the formulations we have today,” Rothouse said. “In all, it took 31 formula iterations for Defying and 46 for Correcting to get it right for both aesthetics, performance and stability.”

Key face serum ingredients

After experimenting with all those formulations, what are some of the key ingredients that made the list? Both serums feature two forms of white chia, grown on certified organic Nutrilite farms and partner farms, Rothouse said.

“One is our white chia liposome, which improves the skin’s barrier and locks in moisture,” he said. “Then we have the white chia peptide, which is proven to help soothe misbehaving skin. The serums are actually our first products to contain both of these ingredients together.”

Other key ingredients in the Defying Serum include amino acids to help minimize the appearance of pores, olive extract for antioxidant benefits and to diminish the appearance of fine lines and white willow bark and lactic acid complex for exfoliation, which promotes natural cell renewal.

For the Correcting Serum, the main key ingredients are cranberry biopeptide, vegan collagen and fermented oligopeptide.

“We call cranberry biopeptide nature’s retinol alternative,” Swansegar said. “Some people can’t tolerate using retinol every day, so we’re providing a great alternative. Retinol can cause redness and irritation for some users, whereas our plant-based alternative won’t.”

Vegan collagen is a blend of naturally derived plant-based proteins that helps reduce the appearance of visible signs of aging and fermented oligopeptide helps promote natural exfoliation, reduce the appearance of wrinkles and provide a youthful, elastic feel.

The end result? Two face serums formulated to address different stages of visible aging while also providing multiple skin care benefits in one bottle.

Anti-aging face serum

Artistry Skin Nutrition Defying Serum is a daily age-fighting super serum. It’s clinically proven* to help reduce the appearance of early signs of skin aging, including fine lines, enlarged pores and loss of elasticity.

“In addition, the Defying Serum instantly hydrates and locks in moisture all day, providing a 162% immediate increase in skin’s moisture level,” Rothouse said. “It also exfoliates to promote natural cell renewal, minimizes the appearance of pores in just one week, and evens the skin tone.”

The face serum also soothes and calms skin, strengthens the skin’s moisture barrier, boosts radiance and luminosity and defies the signs of sallowness and yellowness.

Age correcting face serum

Artistry Skin Nutrition Correcting Serum is a milky, rich serum that works to correct advanced signs of aging in addition to fine lines. It hydrates to firm and plump the look of skin, including deep-set wrinkles and sagging areas.

“The Correcting Serum is formulated for mature skin with signs of aging—for instance, the look of deep-set wrinkles, sagging and loss of firmness,” Swansegar said.  “So, we really focused on evening the skin tone and lift of the skin—especially with the neck and the jawline. It’s clinically shown to help reduce the appearance of advanced signs of aging and restore a healthy, youthful look.”

It also boosts facial contours and diminishes the look of crepey skin. Also, like its age-defying counterpart, it addresses sallowness and yellowness, works to boost radiance, locks in moisture, corrects and strengthens the skin’s moisture barrier and exfoliates to promote natural cell renewal.

Vitamin C serums and hyaluronic acid serums

While some serums address multiple skin care concerns, they can still be combined with others to maximize the skin care benefits. In addition to the Defying and Correcting serums, Artistry Skin Nutrition offers the Vitamin C + HA Daily Serum featuring vitamin C and hyaluronic acid.

The vitamin C helps to brighten, firm and repair the appearances of lines and wrinkles while a triple blend of hyaluronic acid gives skin a smoother, more plumped appearance. While the serum is a great addition to a skin care routine alone, combining it can provide even more benefits.

The serums can be used at the same time, layering one on another, or you can use one in the morning and one in the evening, which ever works best for your routine and skin concerns.

Serum before or after moisturizer? Where serum fits in a skin care routine

For those adding a face serum to your skin care routine for the first time, you may be wondering when to use it. Does the serum go right after cleansing? After toner? Or do you apply serum before or after moisturizer?

While skin care routines vary depending on products and skin care concerns, here are the basic steps in order: cleanse, tone, treat, moisturize. Serums are part of the treatment step. After you use toner, your skin is primed to absorb active ingredients. That makes it the ideal time to treat your skin with the serum or serums of your choice.

How to apply face serum

Instructions for how to apply face serum will vary by product, but generally speaking, a little bit goes a long way. Most will call for only 3 to 5 drops of the product to be applied to the face and neck. When applying, it’s best to use your ring fingers. They use the least amount of pressure compared to your other fingers, which means less pulling and tugging on your skin.

*In a clinical evaluation of 37 participants after 8 weeks of use.