If you’re a regular reader you’ll know that I feel antioxidants are an important part of a good skin care routine if your focus is to attempt to turn back time. Along with retinol and AHAs, antioxidants are your skin’s best friends. So, I was keen to try out SkinCeutical’s new Resveratrol B E antioxidant night concentrate, a serum that promises to help improve your skin’s radiance, firmness, elasticity and density.

The big players in the mix? 1% Resveratrol, 1% alpha tocopherol (a form of vitamin E) and 0,5% baicalin (a botanical extract derived from skullcap root.)

Interestingly, the serum also contains a helluva lot of niacinimide, more of it than any of the other ingredients, but the brand’s not shouting that upfront. Niacinimide (also known as vitamin B3) is a tried and trusted pigmentation-blitzing ingredient and obviously the active they’re relying on to bring the ‘radiance’ bit to the party.

Anyway, let’s get back to the headliners shall we? Resveratrol is a potent antioxidant extracted from grapes and early studies are showing it can do a good job of protecting our skin’s collagen and elastin while serving as a good anti-inflammatory. If left unchecked, inflammation, no matter how subtle, can wreck havoc on your skin over time while speeding up the ageing process. Most antioxidants have anti-inflammatory benefits which is just another reason as to why you want them in your skin’s ‘diet’. All this is something I actually discussed at length the other day in my Beaute Pacifique Corpus Paradoxe body oil review so if you want more info on resveratrol pop on over here.

Next up, we’ve got vitamin E, another fab antioxidant that can also help stimulate collagen production. As for baicalin, I don’t really know too much about it, other than the fact that SkinCeuticals reckon it’s a good inflammation reducing antioxidant. I also found a study that showed it can protect your skin from UV damage caused by the sun but that’s not especially exciting as vitamin C and E can do the same thing.

So, what’s it like to use? As the serum contains a fair amount of silicone, it kind of glides over your skin and leaves it with a nice, velvety texture. I’ve been using it at night on nights when I don’t use my retinol serum (which is super strong so I don’t use it every single day or it would cause irritation and redness) and have found it’s yet to cause a break out. (Whenever I use most silicone-based serums I always seem to end up with blind pimple.) Obviously, I haven’t noticed my skin looking visibly brighter or firmer as I’d have to use it for a while for results like that to come to the fore, but I’m not too worried as SkinCeutical’s tech is is sound, especially on the brightening front. I’d still want to keep on using a retinol serum as my primary weapon in thickening up my skin from the inside out.

In all, if you’re looking for a good antioxidant serum this is a very nice one, but only if you can afford it. If not, know that there are other ones on the market that cost a snippet of what SkinCeutical’s are asking. They probably won’t contain resveratrol, but it’s not the penultimate ‘potent antioxidant’ your money can buy, merely a good one. Want an example? Paula’s Choice has a great range of antioxidant serums at around the R500 mark. Also, if it’s the brightening niacinimide bit that caught your eye you should check out Olay’s Regenerist Micro-Sculpting serum or POND’S Flawless Radiance Anti-Spot Intensive Even Tone serum. Both products are niacinimide bombs and as cheap as chips.

Love, love

Leigh