If you’re a regular reader you’ll know I often bang on about hyaluronic acid. Something that occurs naturally in your skin, its one of the best hydrators on the block as it can attract and hold up to a thousand times its own weight in water. While we’re born with lots of it, we start to lose it as we get older which is one of several reasons why our skin gets drier and loses its plumpness.

It’s a common myth that those with drier skin types need a heavier or thicker moisturiser to help restore its moisture content. You don’t need to hydrate ‘heavily’, just smarter, with intensely moisturising ingredients of which hyaluronic acid, which can be used in weightless formulations, is the King Kong in terms of effectiveness. This is also great news for people like me – those who have an oily/combo skin type yet still suffer from dehydration. (Yep, you can be a total grease monkey and still have dehydrated skin. In fact, many skin types are overtly oily because they’re dehydrated and your body starts over producing oil to restore the balance.)

Anyway, I’ve tried lots of hyaluronic acid (HA) serums in the past and Skinceuticals Hydrating B5 gel is one of the better ones thanks to its HA content. But now there’s a new kid on the block and that’s Skinceuticals H.A. Intensifier (R1 550).

Much like the B5 gel, it’s star ingredient is HA but it contains a lot more of it – Skinceuticals’ highest concentration yet and promises to boost your skin’s HA level by 30-percent! On top of that, it also makes use of proxylane, something that’s proven to help your skin produce more of the molecules that improve its ability to retain its moisture. Skinceuticals then goes two steps further to include purple rice and licorice root extract that help your skin to support its own HA content, so you get to take care of what you have naturally while adding a mega-dose of ‘more’.

A little side note about the licorice root extract? It’s also a great antioxidant with super soothing properties and studies have shown it can inhibit your skin’s production of melanin, meaning it’ll help create a brighter looking complexion.

Another of H.A. Intensifier’s ingredients worth noting is capryloyl salicylic acid. While Skinceuticals isn’t openly shouting about its inclusion, it’s a great addition as it works simularly to its ‘sister’, beta hydroxy acid, by hydrating, soothing, acting as antibacterial agent and gently exfoliating deep inside your pores. Thus, if you’re concerned about blackheads you’re getting a bit of a ‘bonus’.

So, enough about the ‘tech’, what does this newbie feel like on? The short answer is ‘like nothing’, which is fabulous. A thin, watery fluid, all I have to do is apply it before my daily moisturise and Bob’s your uncle. I’ve been using it for a while now and noticed that it’s had a visible effect on the fine dehydration lines around my eyes and the marionette lines around my mouth are now less pronounced.

Another bonus of its lightweight nature is that I can layer it with a beloved antioxidant serum of mine and that’s Skinceuticals CE Ferulic (R2 225). I’ve chatted about this serum in the past (it’s an old favourite and totally worth the splurge) but it’s worth talking about again as it’s such a gem. It contains a whopping 15% pure vitamin C that’s boosted further thanks to the addition of vitamin E and ferulic acid. Separately both vitamin C and E are good collagen-encouraging antioxidants which is awesome, but when used together, along with the ferulic acid which helps to stabilise them, their potency shoots through the roof. Vitamin C, as you may know, is also a kick ass pigmentation blitzer.

I’ll be off to Thailand soon (for three whole weeks!) and this means I’ll be in the sun a lot so I’ll definitely be taking this boy along with me. Bangkok is notoriously polluted so it’s going to help me fend off any free-radicals and play a role in protecting my skin from photo-ageing and pigmentation. Again, the formulation is a lovely, lightweight liquid so I can wear it under any moisturiser and sunscreen.

Nice one Skinceuticals! Please keep churning out the hits!

Now, before I love and leave you, know you can buy Skinceuticals from selected aesthetic centres as well as online at specialist e-tailers like Dermastore. The latter is currently running a competition in which you could win your very own bottle of H.A. Intensifier for the next three Mondays – the 7th, the 14th and the 21st – at 10am sharp so if you’re in it to win it you’ll have to move fast. You can find all the details over here so consider this post your official heads up.

Love, love

Leigh