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How To Layer Your YTTP Serums for Maximum Results

04 Apr 2022

Best practice: always apply skincare from thinnest to thickest.

When you’re buying Youth To The People’s pro-grade vegan, superfood and science-backed skincare, you’re already on your way to achieving your skin goals—but how these formulas are applied makes a difference, too. There’s a right order for layering your YTTP serums for maximum results, and it all comes down to the thinness (or thickness) of a formula. 

Jacob Tomás del Rosario, Youth To The People’s Director of Field Sales + Education, refers to YTTP’s trio of serums as “the best of all worlds” due to their manifold benefits. He breaks them down below.

Your AM Skincare Staple

The 15% Vitamin C + Caffeine Energy Serum is a morning skincare staple. Packed with vitamin C and antioxidant-dense superleafs like guayusa and yerba mate, this caffeine-infused serum helps with depuffing and energizing the skin, protecting against free radicals, and setting you up to glow.  

“The Energy Serum has the three stable forms of vitamin C that are all different solubilities,” says del Rosario, sharing that he likes applying the Energy Serum around his ocular bone to help with depuffing in the morning. “All three forms are either water soluble, lipid soluble, or a mixture of both, so it allows it to permeate different levels of skin at different times.” In short, it’s a 360-degree vegan vitamin C serum.

Plumping Vegan Hydration

As for the Triple Peptide + Cactus Oasis Serum, this vegan hydration powerhouse—which boasts ingredients like firming peptides and four different types of hyaluronic acid at different molecular weights—works well when applied in the AM, too. In fact, it acts as a great makeup primer, according to del Rosario.

“It creates a really smooth surface,” he says of this skin-plumping serum. “Imagine applying foundation on glass as opposed to applying it on sandpaper.”

Looking for Hydration + an Energy Boost?

The Oasis Serum works well day and night, and it layers nicely under the Energy Serum if used concurrently—especially if firmer, smoother skin is your main goal. 

A PM-Only Product

Think of the Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum as the ultimate topical night cap. As the newest serum to join the YTTP family, this formula is known for helping to prevent and diminish signs of aging thanks to the 0.15% retinaldehyde, which is known to smooth texture and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Other key ingredients include 5% niacinamide (at the ideal dose for brightening and improving skin tone), an adaptogenic mushroom complex, ceramides, and squalene, among other hero ingredients.

“You’re setting up your skin to be more resilient with the Youth Serum,” says del Rosario, sharing that the Youth Serum was made for nighttime use only (for more on that, read here). Because retinal is known to increase sun sensitivity, it is best recommended to use retinal as part of your PM skincare routine. 

“The skin is focused on repair while we’re sleeping, whereas the skin is focused on preparing itself for the day ahead in the AM,” says del Rosario.

When You Want to Boost Hydration at Night

Looking to increase skin hydration? Consider layering your PM serum with the Oasis Serum, applying this hydrating formula first. Apply the Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum after applying the Oasis Serum, which can even help to prevent potential irritation from the active retinal while also doubling up on firming benefits for healthier, more youthful-looking skin thanks to the Oasis Serum’s peptides.

Pro tip: always, always, always wear SPF during the day, but especially when incorporating retinoids into your routine.

Why These Orders for Layering?

Best practice: always apply skincare from thinnest to thickest. That includes making note of the thinness of serum formulas, too. Why? The reason is thankfully simple. 

“It’s really all about absorption,” says del Rosario. 

The best skincare regimens always start with serums, too, which are generally thinner than moisturizers and oils.

“If you apply thinnest to thickest, the thinnest product will always absorb thickest into the skin. But if you do thickest first followed by thinnest, the thinnest won’t permeate through the thicker texture.” And you want to get the most out of every drop.

Written by Grace Gavilanes for Youth To The People

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