Super Serums for Winter Skin Hydration

6 min read

It’s cold! October is almost here, and that means we’re definitely into the Autumn/Winter season. Time for a change of not just your clothes wardrobe, but your skincare wardrobe too. If you do one thing this season, introduce more hydration to your skin, and the easiest way to do that is with a serum.

My skin has already started to get that patchy dry way it does when the weather turns and the nights get shorter. it’s very annoying, but I know it’s a signal to look after my skin that little bit more, and to add a few extra products to my daily routine. Now is a great time to add a peel or an exfoliator to your skincare regime, a few times a week. Or treat yourself to a facial that will set your skin up for winter, from one of 5pm Spa & Beauty’s many fab salons.

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But a simple way to deal with a loss of hydration is to add a serum to your routine if you don’t already use one, and if you do, to perhaps have a look at whether it’s the right one for you.

I’ve been trying out 14 – count ’em – different hydration-boosting products over the last couple of weeks, over various price points, and most of them for hydration, anti-ageing and skin-boosting.

Guerlain’s Super Aqua Serum Intense Hydration Miracle Plumper (£77, guerlain.com) is at the luxury end of the beauty market, and was launched originally in 1987. It was reformulated in 2012 and includes the technology to reactivate the skin’s natural water purification process to relaunch the natural hydration flows and restore youthfulness. THis happens thanks to a glycoprotein called clusterin. It’s all very scientific. It basically stops pollution to the skin, which means things like the binding of hyaluronic acid, work better, and the skin is more hydrated. It feels delightful to the touch, and it smells lovely – not too perfumed, just right.
OM Miracle Serum (£68.50, Space NK) comes in some lovely packaging, so that’s a good start! OM is the brainchild of skincare expert and scientist Dr. Om Prawarisa – combining her scientific heritage and her love of Ancient Wisdom with the transformative properties of nature. Her Miracle Serum is anti-ageing and intensely hydrating. It’s enriched with extracts from the Larch Tree, Cassia Angustifolia (natural line filler), Moringa Oleifera and Tetrapeptide-11. This unique combination of Peptides and botanical extracts helpfight those fine lines.It has a a slightly too operfumed smell for me, and it is quite a liquid serum.

Katherine Daniels Urban Shield Concentrate (£35, katherinedanielscosmetics.com) is a new product, and is a super-hydrating serum that’s soothing, skin boosting and works to tackle dehydration lines and reduce open pores. Hyaluronic Acid and Alginate aid natural moisture levels within the skin and Mushroom Extract prevents moisture loss. The three ingredients form a micro mesh over the skin’s surface which forms a protective shield against environmental issues such as pollution, hence the name. I could get on board with this, but the smell is SO strong, and I just can’t deal. Sorry!

 

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The Body Shop’s Vitamin E Overnight Serum in Oil (£15) is, as it says, a night treatment. It’s lightweight, and has the power of a serum and an oil, and it recharges your skin overnight. Use before our nighttime moisturiser. It contains vitamin e and sesame seed oil, and wheatgerm oil. It feels nice on the skin, not oily at all, and in the morning skin does feel hydrated with the addition of this to my nighttime routine.

Benefit’s Moisture Prep Toning Lotion (£23.50) isn’t technically a serum, but I would add this to your routine if you want to rehydrate your skin, as a pre-moisturising product. It also contains vitamin E, as well as natural oat and meadowsweet – botanical extracts known to purify and smooth the skin and help reduce fine lines. It also contains aloe leaf and yeast extract known to clarify and soothe the skin. It’s essentially a toner, use after cleansing, but it adds moisture, and prepares your skin beautifully for your moisturiser. Or a serum!

Murad Hydro-Dynamic Quenching Essence (£59.50) is, again, not called a serum, but fills that role. It has a silky, weightless formula, and boosts hydration, by unlocking your skin’s own hydration potentual. It contains Mexican Blue Agave Leaf Extract which bonds to the skin’s surface,  to restore skin’s ability to attract and retain water. Glycolic Acid gently exfoliates to open hydration pathways and encourage cell renewal, and a  super-hydrating botanical blend of Watermelon, Apple and Lentil helps relieve dryness, leaving skin soft, plump and youthful. I really like this one, because it just made my skin feel so hydrated after just a few uses.

Givenchy Hydra Sparkling High Moisturizing Luminescence Sap Serum (£46.50, debenhams.com) is a mouthful, but this does give you fab hydration. It has a lovely texture, which glides over the skin, and leaves it feeling very soft immediately. It’s all about water, and scientific stuff. All I will say is it is very hydrating, it smells good, feels lovely, and works brilliantly for radiance as well as hydration.

 

Elizabeth Arden Superstart Skin Renewal Booster (£45) is a new product, and again, not so much a straightforward serum, but a booster. So, use it after cleansing, before any other moisurising skincare. I like the packaging, and the ease of the pump. Basically, this stuff boosts the effectiveness of your skincare products.  Maybe a wee bit expensive as an addition to your skincre regie, but if you feel your skin needs a wee boost then this works brilliantly. We all know that Asian women, in Korea and Japan, for example, have great skin because they really look after it, adding extra steps to their skincare regimes.

 

 

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Filorga Time-Zero Multi Correction wrinkles serum (£54, marksandspencer.com) looks fab in the bottle, right? All swirly, sort of like flumps. But there’s a reason for that. The innovative formula of this serum features a ground-breaking 2.0 Swirl Technology that combines an anti-wrinkle fluid for long-term anti-ageing care with an instantaneous stretch-effect gel. Get that! According to Filorga we have four types of wrinkles – oh thanks so much, Filorga!! Deep, fatigue, contraction and surface! Ouch. All sorts of anti-ageing ingredients are in here, as well as hyaluronic acid, that classic hydration-giving ingredient. So, it’s more anti-ageing than hydrating, but it does offer both.

Rituals Intense Moisture Serum (£28.50) is another that is rich in hyaluronic acid, and it also contains Blue Ginger extract, which is deeply hydrating. It feel quite thin, and it doesn’t smell too strong, and as a mid-priced serum, it’s decent.

Clarins HydraQuench Intensive Serum Bi-Phase (£44) is a serum I have used for a long time. It has a water-like consistency, and includes two types of Hyaluronic Acid. It feels so light, but it hydrates so deeply. I do love the whole HydraQuench range from Clarins – if you have dry skin, you simply MUST try it.

The Jojoba Company Absolute Serum (£45.95, luckyvitamin.com). is anti-ageing, containing ingredients Silymarin and Carnosine to decrease frown lines, crows feet and increase skin firmness. It also contains hyaluronic acid, as well as vitamin C, and is hydrating and nourishing. Its brilliant for mature skin, this one, and the brand is Australian.

 

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I have to say first glance at the Lush Full of Grace Solid Serum Bar (£8.25) and I was sceptical. First use, and I loved it. It’s so easy to use. Not heavy, not greasy, just nourishing and hydrating. It contains a blend of oils, mixed with Portobello mushrooms for their skin-protecting vitamins and minerals. It also contains chamomile blue oil and calamine powder to calm the skin. So easy to use – just warm on the fingertips or glide it across the skin like a massage bar, allowing the bar to melt and all the beautiful ingredients to soak in. You really should try this!

Emma Hardie Vitamin C Intense Daily Serum (£49) is from one of my favourite brands. I love Emma Hardie – the products and Emma herself. This is a classic serum. There’s nothing i can say about this other than it’s brilliant. Well, okay, I will say more – it’s water-based, contains Vitamin C, obviously, as well as rice starch, vitamin B3, red algae, and chamomile, rose geranium, peppermint, lavender and sweet orange oils which give it the most amazing scent, as well as providing
calming, antiseptic and purifying properties.

So, there you have it – my round-up of super serums to see your skin through the winter months. What’s your favourite, and what would you like to try?