Four of the most popular Ordinary serums

 The Ordinary has been making hate waves over the past couple of years now who are. The Ordinary and why are they so popular. The Ordinary is founded by a company D.E.C.I.E.M (Deciem) and they've been around since the year 2013 of course, when we see the bottles. They are nice they are minimalist and they speak to you directly because what. The Ordinary does is they highlight the active ingredients they are the ingredients in your skincare that give you a direct result means that if you want to reduce let's say pigmentation or you want to make your skin glow. There are certain ingredients that you look for in your skincare which gives you the result that you want so today we'll be covering.

Four of the most popular Ordinary serums

The Ordinary serums first up we'll be covering arbutin two percent with hyaluronic acid on first glance. It comes in a white color bottle beautiful packaging of course from the Ordinary and it's written that arbutin two percent with ha what is alpha arbutin and why is it at two percent alpha arbutin is a great skin lightener now the best skin lightener in the market is a medical grade product called hydroquinone. Hydroquinone has been used by dermatologists and doctors. All over the world for the past 30 to 40 years and it's been  used to reduce acne scars made to reduce pigmentation or even something as simple as an insect bite however the issue with hydroquinone is overuse of hydroquinone you actually have a lot of side effects and one of which is what we call exogenous ochronosis that means that instead of your pigmentation getting lighter . IT gets darker and this is generally due to prolonged use so to counter that what has been found is a particular property or a chemical called alpha arbutin . It's a natural derivative of hydroquinone so what it does it gives you the benefits of  hydroquinone

Benefits of Hydroquinone 

Benefits of hydroquinone without these side effects clinical  studies have studies have  shown that alpha arbutin works as well as hydroquinone when put into a clinical trial however from clinical experience. I will tell you that hydroquinone still is much better for pigmentation and for skin lightening however due to the side effects. we generally do not prescribe hydroquinone or will control the use so if you're using at home and you want to just lighten your skin or reduce that can be used log term without skin irritation or without side effects and that is definitely the alpha arbutin clinically alpha arbutin at two percent gives you roughly the same efficacy of a hydroquinone of one to two percent so right here this is all you need you need an alpha arbutin of two percent because alpha arbutin can cause little skin irritation. The Ordinary has done is they have actually diluted it in hyaluronic acid now what is ha ha is a very strong hydrator ha molecules can absorb 1000x up to it is own molecular weight means that it keeps the water content inside so one. If you apply has serums on you skin actually hydrate your skin much better than just applying regular moisturizer.

In terms of smell and in terms of texture 

It  doesn't really have much of a smell so  in terms of smell. I would give it out of 5.i'll give it a much more neutral score now in terms of texture. It's a rather thick texture due to this ha so. It's not like the other kind of serums whereby it's pretty aqueous this one is pretty thick so as you rub around it actually stays on your skin and takes a little bit of time for it to actually  absorb if you're using another serum first may be you have a  niacinamide or if any other serum apply that first then layer this over the top after a couple of minutes and once it has absorbed you can apply your moisturizer over it now in terms of texture i will give it four out of five i  actually like. This ha texture because it is really hydrating in terms of price this is a little bit more expensive than the other serums in Malaysia. It sells for roughly about 90 ringgit however it is  difficult to find a pure arbutin serum generally arbutin are mixed with regular moisturizers so in terms of price i'll give. It roughly a three out of five in terms of effectiveness it is not as great as hydroquinone definitely if if you compare it with niacinamide or vitamin c of course those are  much better skin lighteners i will give it a three out of five. If you're looking for something with a skin lightener and a hydrator definitely this is the serum for you but if you're just looking for a skin lightener and you already have good hydration or you have a good hydrator this is average and you might want to think about it over all rating three and a quarter stars out of five next up we are reviewing the retinol from.

Retinol Squalene 0.5%

 The Ordinary so what i have  here is the retinol one percent in squalene they actually have another sku or another concentration of retinol at half a percent so 0.5 and again it is in squalene now .

 what is retinol 

Retinol is a vitamin A derivative now vitamin a works very well on your skin it helps exfoliate dead skin cells it helps improve fine lines reduce skin bumpiness. It helps  reduce sebum production on top of that it stimulates more collagen so it helps with wrinkles so over all retinol is a superstar  ingredient now retinols have been in the market for again for many years there is the medical grade part which we call tretinoin however tretinoin generally have skin irritation hence most of people i would highly advise you to use retinol is oil soluble that means it must be kept in oil so . The Ordinary has done is they have suspended it in  squalane.

What is Squalane 

Squalane it is a very good hydrator for dry skin anyone with super dry skin or have an exemated skin generally i would highly advise you to use squalene because it keeps the hydration it prevents your skin from being dehydrated and it prevents the water content from escaping from your skin so right here they have combined both retinol with squalene  

In terms of smell and in terms of texture retinol 

In terms of smell well it doesn't smell too bad it has a little bit of a smell from from the squalane so i'll give it a three out of five in terms of texture because it's oil based once you have applied. It and you apply water based products over it prevents the water based products from  actually getting in to your skin so if you have anything with oil based you have to apply after your moisturizer or it is one of the last final steps of your skin care  it is pretty oily and retinol generally is a night use so this is perfect for you to use at night after you've applied your serums and your moisturizers and this goes on last before you go to sleep. I'm not a big fan of oily products so in terms of texture. I'm just going to give it two out of five in terms of price it's very affordable because it's only 75 ringgit retinol products generally are a little bit pricey because retinol products are not easy to suspend or not easy to create retinol products can denature and change it is form color or smell if kept wrongly so for price at 75 ringgit it's really worth it i'm gonna give it a four out of five overall effectiveness i like retinol and i'm a big fan of retinol and i highly suggest people use retinol even at a very young age you know even if you're in your mid 20s even. If in your teens and  you have issues with sebum production you should always use retino because retinol helps reduce sebum production it is is an ingredient that you can use from youth till an old age however for this particular retinol product from. The Ordinary because it's suspended in squalane i'm not going to encourage for normal sin people to use it on a daily basis you might want to use every alternate day if you have dry skin yes you can use it at night so for effectiveness i'm gonna give it a five because if you havve oily skin or combination skin you  should definitely avoid it overall rating three and a quarter stars out of five.

Ordinary Caffeine 5% + EGCG

 The third product that i'm going to be  reviewing caffeine solution this is one of the only serums that the ordinary has created not just for the face but for the eyes as well and it's specifically written on the bottle that it reduces appearances of eye contour pigmentation and puffiness so. The Ordinary has created a caffeine solution of five percent plus EGCG now caffeine why is it important how does it actually help your skin due to overuse of our eyes due to um screen time it means we watch a lot of tv , computers, ipads or even your phones sometimes it actually would strain the eyes and then once it strains the eyes your  eyes require more blood supply because it  requires more oxygen and more food and what happens is there is vasodilation means that your blood vessels will expand to generally allow more food or more oxygen to creep in to skin or creep in to your eyes when you have more blood going into your eye circulation you have more pulling of water content hence puffiness will happen pigmentation might happen and eventually dark eye circles occur. The Ordinary caffeine solution what caffeine does is it does totally the opposite it is a  vasoconstriction it forces your blood vessels to shrink up so it doesn't absolutely reduce the blood circulation the eyes your eyes still have blood circulation from  other places for major arteries but it reduces the peripheral circulation which then reduces puffiness and tired look caffeine generally is applied only once a day you can apply in the morning or at night so  caffeine reduces the blood circulation and as well as it's a great antioxidant now tea derivative it's an antioxidant and as well as anti inflammation so it helps reduce puffiness as well and as  it reduces the pigmentation caused by some of the blood vessels 

In terms of smell Caffeine 5% + EGCG

The green tea aspect and probably the caffeine aspect it doesn't smell great all right in malaysia we have this particular folks remedy what we call minyak angin or minyak cap   kepak so in terms of smell i'm gonna give it just a two out of five now in terms of texture it's not too bad it's in between oily and aqueous so it's roughly in between the arbutin and the retinol.

Apply Caffeine 5% + EGCG

If you're applying this please apply only after your moisturizer you can apply it under the eyes once a day or you can apply on the ice twice a day to reduce puffiness and the tight look on top of that you can actually apply on the rest of your skin if you have sensitive skin because caffeine helps vasoconstriction or helps shrink up the blood supply hence reducing the skin irritation and as well as EGCG will actually help reduce inflammation which is great  for sensitive skin you can apply it once to twice a day there's no problem in terms of price it's not that expensive because eye serums or eye creams are generally pretty pricely so in terms of price i'm gonna give it a five out of five out of five it's only 80 ringgit so. 

Ordinary niacinamide 10% with a zinc 1%

The Ordinary niacinamide 10% with a zinc 1% for those who do not know we have already reviewed this product and you can click on the link up here to actually watch our entire  review on why we love to hate the nicinamide ten percent now this is a love hate relationship between the ordinary niacinamide 10 percent of the zinc one percent now it's clearly stated that it's a high strength vitamin and mineral blemish formula now if you have a look at the other bottles it never mentions high strength the arbutin mentions is the concentrated serum and everything else just mentions what it does on the niacinamide it mentioned is a high strength vitamin number one there's that's red caution this is high strength it's not for everybody niacinamide has many benefits it generally has five different  benefits you can look at but it helps overall reduce blemish reduce acne reduce scars and gives your skin a nice glow now why is it the ordinary has decided that they're going to put a ten percent in to their formula instead of the general two to five percent highly likely there is a request form it that most people want a much better result from niacinamide may be they decided that if you do mix.