In the last few years I had become resigned to the fact that good skincare costs a lot. I had been thoroughly convinced by the beauty industry that if you want products that work you simply have to shell out.
If I had a cent for every bottle of expensive skin cream I bought that didn’t seem to really do much, well, for my own sanity I’m not going to finish that sentence.
Integrity and honesty is not something we have come to expect from beauty brands. Commonplace technologies are called revolutionary, language and new terms are simply invented and prices continue to go up. That’s why The Ordinary range of skincare is so extraordinary.
Launched only a few weeks ago, this brand has already set the beauty world alight with its no frills, very affordable skincare.
Produced by Deciem, The Ordinary skincare uses ingredients that are proven to work and strips back on everything else. There is no fancy packaging, no added scents and no superfluous ingredients.
Vitamin C
And it’s precisely because of this most of the products come in at under €10. The Ordinary range is based around the use of active ingredients like retinol for anti-ageing, hyaluronic acid for hydrating and vitamin C for brightening.
So far so what, right? Many brands claim to use ingredients like retinols and vitamins; the difference is that many will not include them in quantities that actually have an effect.
Just like we do with the food we eat, we need to start reading, and understanding, the labels on the back of the products we put on our face. Vitamin C, for example, is only effective at 20 per cent-plus concentration yet many serums advertised with it as a key ingredient do not include it at this level.
A quick google of the top five vitamin C serums available in Ireland and I came to an average price of €46.20. The Ordinary’s Vitamin C Suspension has a concentration of 23 per cent and costs €5.80.
This may all seem too good to be true, especially for those of us used to paying five times the amount for these kinds of creams.
While I have only just got my hands on one or two of The Original range, my own personal beauty guru, my mum, has tried them all and can particularly recommend the vitamin C and the ‘Buffet’ peptide cream.
