- Hello.
Welcome back to the Adore Beauty YouTube channel.
My name is Amy Clark.
Today, we are talking about affordable serums.
Not everyone has $200 to spend on a serum
and skincare should be accessible
no matter what your budget is
or what price point you're looking at.
So I wanna round up some of the best affordable serums
under $60 stocked on Adore Beauty.
It would be a fair question to ask,
why is this one under 20 bucks
and then why is one
with very similar ingredients over $200?
You are paying for first the formulation, so how much money,
how much clinical research has gone into that product,
the concentration of the ingredients
and the way that the ingredients
have been formulated together.
What other things are in the serum to make the formula
or the texture, more elegant, more silky,
more enjoyable to put on the skin
and then there's just plain old marketing.
So the brand, is there a prestige
when it comes to that brand?
Yes, I love cosmeceuticals skincare
and some of my favourite serums are really expensive
but that's not to say,
that you can't get similar results at a lower price point,
if that's what you need from your skincare.
A bit of a disclaimer as well
when we're talking about affordable,
price is always very subjective.
What's affordable to me might not be affordable to you
and so on and so forth.
So today's range of serums actually ranges
from about $12 up to $60.
So a really nice range and a few different brands.
Might as well start with the serum that I'm holding
and probably one that's quite right recognisable to you,
if you are into your affordable skincare
is The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% plus B5.
This is probably, I'm gonna say one
of the most popular hydrating serums
that we stock at Adore.
It's a best seller, it's also $12.90.
The name kind of says it all
and that's the thing with The Ordinary serums
is that it literally tells you
what's in it on the front of the bottle.
So there's a couple of different molecular weights
of hyaluronic acid in this serum,
it's also got B5 also known as panthenol,
it's also got glycerin,
basically it's just your all rounder,
really affordable hydrating serum.
Personally, I don't find too much difference
when it comes to hyaluronic acid serums
and the cheap ones and the expensive ones.
So you do, you do what works for your budget
and this one is a winner.
Still talking about hydrating serums.
The next one is Buffet from The Ordinary or Buffet.
I've actually done a whole video
on The Ordinary Buffet serums,
so I'm gonna direct you to that around here, wherever it is.
This one is actually the supersize,
so it comes in two different sizes.
For the supersize you're looking at $47.30.
This is a hydrating and anti-aging serum,
it's got peptides, it's got hyaluronic acid.
What's the other thing that it has?
Please hold.
And amino acids, again under 50 bucks
can't go wrong with this if you're looking
for a very entry-level, anti-aging serum
don't know where to start, low commitment.
One more hydrating serum that I wanna talk about,
just because we haven't talked enough hydrating serums
is the L'Oreal Paris,
Revitalift Filler plus Hyaluronic Acid.
It's a nice big bottle.
And you've probably seen a lot of commercials for this one,
celebrities and you're worth it.
It's 44.95, so again under 50 bucks.
It's got 1.5% hyaluronic acid.
it's actually again got two different forms
of hyaluronic acid in it.
Like I said, you can't really go wrong
with your hydrating serums in the affordable space.
So really it's about personal preference
and which one you liked the best.
Now, let's talk about affordable vitamin C
because this one is a little bit tricky.
Vitamin C is one of those ingredients
that is quite unstable.
It does a lot of wonderful things for our skin
but a lot of people use vitamin C to get that glow,
but it is also an antioxidant that can protect your skin
from free radical damage.
But the tricky thing about vitamin C
is that it is an notoriously unstable ingredient.
And what that means is it's really hard
to get a potent effective form of vitamin C
and in the right concentration
to actually give you those glowy skin results,
without irritating the skin.
But we're on a budget here,
and so I've come up with two affordable options
for you for vitamin C.
The first one comes from Innisfree,
which is a Korean skincare brand,
and it's called the Brightening Pore Serum.
So this serum is actually,
when you have a look at the ingredients,
it's a bit of a hydrating and brightening serum in one,
which is great.
It's $58.
You could just use this
and you wouldn't need a hydrating serum as well
because the ingredients are niacinamide, so vitamin B3,
it's essentially the most underrated
active skincare ingredient ever.
It also contains vitamin B5 or panthenol
which we already just spoke about before,
which is another hydrating common ingredient.
And then the vitamin C element of this serum
is ethyl ascorbic acid.
There's a bit of a scale of vitamin C derivatives.
We've got the gentle ones down here,
which is ethyl ascorbic acid,
which aren't very irritating, they're very well tolerated
and easy to formulate into an affordable serum,
but you're not gonna get results
as quickly as say an L-ascorbic acid serum
which is kind of the gold standard,
up here very expensive vitamin C derivative ingredient.
Then we've got this other affordable vitamin C serum,
which I do say the packaging is very adorable.
It's the Alpha-H of vitamin C.
And this actually contains the same form of vitamin C,
so the ethyl ascorbic acid, non-irritating
and excellent entry-level beginner vitamin C serum
and it's got hyaluronic acid.
And this is an excellent segue
to actually talk about a really cool affordable serum kit,
which is the Alpha-H vitamin profiling kit.
So vitamin H, Alpha-H,
ah, hair in my face!
Makeup, help me!
So when I was thinking about what affordable serums
actually talk about in this video,
I was thinking about all the Alpha-H vitamin serums
'cause they all come under $60
but you can actually buy them in a profiling kit together.
If you don't know where to start,
a great option is to buy them in the little set
because it's just cheaper
than if you bought them separately.
So you're welcome.
So it's 99 bucks and you get four serums.
So if my math serves me correct
that's 24:95 per serum, which is affordable.
And in the set,
you get all the main active ingredient players.
So you get your vitamin C, your vitamin B or niacinamide,
your vitamin A or retinol and vitamin E.
So this is a great beginner option.
Speaking of vitamin A,
have you met The Ordinary's
Granactive Retinoid 2% in Squalane.
The Ordinary do very excellent affordable vitamin A serums.
In short vitamin A is an anti-aging ingredient
that assists with cell turnover
and may help to reduce the appearance
of fine lines and wrinkles,
just all those fun things that happened to us as we age.
Vitamin A comes in a whole different bunch of derivatives.
And again, it's that sliding scale of mild and gentle
versus hardcore, might burn your face off.
So this one's got granactive retinoid,
which is a new derivative of vitamin A,
it's very gentle and well tolerated by most skin types.
And just to be even more well tolerated,
it's formulated in squalene,
which is a hydrating ingredient.
So basically think of it like an anti-aging serum in a hug.
So this one is 18.30, so under 20 bucks.
The Ordinary also do a bunch of other vitamin A serums,
and they kind of go in different percentages.
Another one of my favourite affordable skincare brands
is Skinstitut.
And that's because it's the cosmeceuticals skincare brands,
so it's got lots of active ingredients
but the price point is very, very lovely.
This one is a retinol serum and it's 34.30.
As the name suggests, this serum contains retinol
which is another derivative of vitamin A.
So if we've got our granactive retinoid down here
mild and gentle, retinol is kind of edging up
towards the higher end, so more effective,
but also more irritating.
So this one's formulated with 0.25% retinol.
So even though it's using
that more hardcore form of vitamin A,
it's still in quite a low percentage.
So you can use this pretty safely
without burning your face off.
But I would recommend like
with all vitamin A serums start slow,
but yeah, another really great bang for buck retinol serum.
Now let's move into a blemish serum that's affordable
because I don't know about you,
but my jaw line has been breaking out
like a mother at the moment
and so I have been using this new serum on my chin
like nothing else.
It's the La Roche-Posay Effaclar serum.
If the name Effaclar sounds familiar,
that's because this is the newest serum
in the La Roche-Posay Effaclar range.
And that whole range is targeted
to treating blemishes and pimples and fun things like that.
But it's actually just a good affordable exfoliating serum
because it contains AHS so alpha hydroxy acids,
the main one is glycolic acid.
And so what that one's gonna do
is just (indistinct) away at the dead skin cells
on the surface layers of your skin for that immediate glow.
Then it also contains BHAs or beta hydroxy acids
and the main one is salycilic acid.
And salycilic acid is your best friend
if you have oily or acne prone skin
because it kind of let scuba dives into your pores,
cleanse them all out, gets rid of any gunk
and built up oil in there.
And it's just really affordable, it's 59.95.
Almost anyone can use this serum
if you have sensitised skin or super dry skin,
I probably wouldn't recommend using
this one all over your face.
I have dry skin and I like to apply it
just where I get blemishes.
(indistinct) if you have oily or acne prone skin
you can suck this all over, going over the top
with a hydrating serum or a moisturiser.
Finally, we can't talk about affordable serums
without talking about this guy.
It's the BOOST LAB Supercharged Skincare Set,
seven serums for the price of one,
not really, it's seven serums for 150 bucks.
So it's still very affordable.
This brand actually only does serums
and each serum on its own costs, $30.
So a set like this is great
if you don't know where to start,
but if you don't need seven serums,
probably the AHA Glow Resurfacing Serum is my favourite,
mostly because it contains lactic acid,
So that's another alpha hydroxy acid.
It's a little bit gentler than it's mate glycolic acid
and I have a baby face that gets easily irritated
likes to throw a tantrum when it hasn't had enough sleep,
it's a whole thing.
This is just a really great serum
that lays beautifully onto other serums
and I find that gives my skin an instant radiance
which I love.
And then last but not least
is the BOOST LAB 2D-Hyaluronic Acid Hydro Boost Serum,
which is just another excellent affordable hydrating serum.
We may or may not have a video coming
on all seven of these that you can get at Adore Beauty.
So stay tuned for that.
But for now that wraps up affordable serums.
If there's one thing
that I want you to take away from this video,
it's that you don't need
to spend a lot of money on skincare,
especially if that's outside your means.
Skincare should be accessible to everyone,
no matter your budget.
If you have an affordable serum that you love,
please tell me about it in the comments below
but otherwise, I'll see you next time.