Olay Niacinamide + AHA Serum

I was looking forward to trying this product as I use Olay moisturizer and have combination skin. This product appealed to everything I was looking for! Both the moisturizer and the serum look great, far more modern than my old Olay moisturizer and smells very good. I don’t typically use fragranced products, and while I can’t tell exactly what the smell is it certainly is very pleasant. The serum absorbs easily and isn’t too oily on the skin. You only need to use a little bit. I have been using this product for 6 weeks to really give it a chance to see if there’s some improvements but I couldn’t really see anything discernable in terms of improvement. After using it for over a week I did notice that I had a breakout that was more than anything I would usually get and I can only attribute it to this new product, so it didn’t really do what I was hoping it would. My skin was hydrated but not any better than regular Olay moisturizer. It’s a lot to put on one’s skin, twice daily, particularly with the adding an SPF product during the day. The one thing to be careful of is that because of the AHA it can increase your skin’s sensitivity to sun and increase the risk of sunburn. I personally prefer to use just a moisturizer with built in SPF and find this to be enough for me.

Bottle is same as other serum from this brand. First you unscrew it a little and there is like a cap at the top it will pop up. You push it to suck up serum into a dropper then unscrew fully the silver lid and pull out the dropper. Again you push the top of silver part to disperse serum. I wonder about pumping air into the serum by doing this if it could contribute to bacteria growth into the product. This reminded me that is the very reason why you should not be pumping your mascara wand in and out repeatedly. Serum performance: So it is white and thin viscosity compared to the cream. After washing my face it dried/absorbed quick, did not feel greasy. The claims of this product seem impressive. I liked that is supposedly penetrates up to 10 layers this implied the products don't just sit on the surface of skin. However this is confusing because it says epidermis which is actually the top layer not the dermis. The good is that as this is paraben free it will not get into the blood stream as those can get in the deep layers. What I did note with this is the box said it is formulated with Vitamin C. Using AHAs/lactic acid together with vitamin C according to a quick google search is discouraged. The ph level is altered it literally said products may as well be useless and causes damage and irritation to skin. So I do not know why they put these two acids together! it is also not advised to use retinol, Benzoyl peroxide and even exfoliating scrubs with AHAs. There is no warning on the box about what I have mentioned. It did however mention sensitivity and increased chances of sunburn may be possible due to the lactic acid/AHA. Now, over this trial I have had messed up period cycles I have PCOS, I also got sick so I was on anti biotics during some of this trial (this is about a month long trial). So, whilst I did have quite bad break outs when starting this trial which did get alot better I am just putting it out there as a disclosure because antibiotics can sometimes clear up acne. So as far as having improved skin now verses the start of the trial yes I think the product helped. I have used some serious acne medications in the past as it had been a problem for years. In my mid 30s now and not on acne medicine but I did happen to be having a bad round of acne - worst I had since before children. It is much better now so If it really was cleared all from this product then it is worth giving a try but be very aware of what is in your other skin products as using together could be bad. In terms of dark areas freckles sun spots etc I have not noticed change. I did note that my wrinkles came back so I really wanted to use my usual anti aging serum again for that reason. I do not use my anti aging serum on my whole face just certain areas and initially stopped to only use this serum and its cream. I will keep using this on acne areas and that will determine If I purchase it.

I really wanted to like this serum, but it's just not for me. I've used Niacinimide & AHAs seperately so I was really excited at the prospect of them being combined into one super serum, but I just didn't find it all that effective. It didn't do anything for the hormonal acne on my chin, and more than anything I found the smell so overwhelming. It is so sweet, and so strong - I felt like I was rubbing an Ariana Grande perfume into my face. The formulation was nice and it did absorb nicely into my skin, but I just can't get past the smell personally, so won't be repurchasing.

I was super excited to try this serum but I must say I think there are definitely better Olay products on the market. I did find it made my skin feel lovely and it has a nice scent but I really didn't notice much of a difference after 4 weeks of use. Possibly with a few more weeks of use I may notice a difference.

So when it comes to my skincare, I do it all. Toner, serum, moisturiser, retinol, face oil. I don't really have a favourite serum, I pretty much go through all the samples I receive when I buy makeup. So when I was given the opportunity to try out this serum, I was quite excited to give an actual full size product a go.

The first thing I want to mention is what I found to be extremely awkward instructions to actually get any of the product out - it stated to twist and turn the cap to automatically draw out the serum. Sounded simple enough. Not for me. After I while I gave up as it didn't always draw out any of the product by following the method on the box. Potentially could had been user error, however I found easy enough just to tip out the amount I serum I needed.

Speaking of the box, the instructions on the box needed to be in a bolder font like the font on the moisturiser box as I did find it a little difficult to read. The scent. There isn't really one, so if you like your skincare to smell "clean" then you may like this one.

Now onto more about the product. To me it seemed like every other serum. Being that I was using it in conjunction with the moisturiser, it is hard to say whether it was the serum alone that helped my skin look clearer and the pigmentation fade more than it had in the past, but after the 7 weeks of using this product (and the moisturiser) things are starting to look better on the/my face front. I'm still not fully ready to give up my foundation quite yet, however potentially using this product longer may make me one day.

Just an FYI, the serum doesn't last as long as the moisturiser. The serum finished for me at the end of week 7 of using it however I still have a lot of the moisturiser left. Potentially may had run out of the serum quicker because of the way I was dispersing it out of the bottle but being that I never really used a lot of serum (there was no need to), bear in mind your moisturiser may last longer than your serum.

...I'm yet to find my Holy Grail face serum!