Today I have another skincare review for you as I have just used up my bottle of the Good Molecules Daily Brightening serum. I have tried quite a few Good Molecules products by now and this was one of their newer releases that I hadn’t seen them do yet. That’s why I decided to purchase it as the promises sounded like something I might like and so I rotated it into my skincare routine. Here how I feel now that I have tried it until the bottle ran out.
Skincare review: Good Molecules Daily Brightening Serum
Let’s start with the price point. The Good Molecules Daily Brightening serum is an affordable skincare product at $8 for a bottle. Sadly though, the brand isn’t for sale from an EU retailer and it is best bought through Beautylish when you decide to buy if you are in Europe or not in the US or Canada. Luckily though, Beautylish has excellent customer’s service as they already calculate your taxation costs at checkout, so there are no unexpected costs once the package arrives at your doorstep.
What does this serum have to offer?
Next we should look into the claims of this product. This product claims to be gentle on the skin and should work on sensitive skin and not cause any irritation. It should brighten and even out the complexion. It is a water based formula that uses hyaluronic acid to add moisture to the skin. Because of its lightweight texture it should work well under makeup, but I personally chose to use this as a first step in my night time skincare routine. Both properties of the product: evening out the skin and adding moisture appeal to me as I have some texture in my skin as well as redness and is mainly dry to dehydrated. So I was hoping this could act like a good initial layer for my skincare routine to build upon.
What are the ingredients like?
If we take a closer look at the ingredients list we see the following:
Water, Arbutin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Propanediol, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract, Dipropylene Glycol, Glycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol
As you can see, water comes first and then there are a bunch of other ingredients, most of which I do not understand. The ingredient list isn’t overly long, but what stands out to me most is that the hyaluronic acid comes right at the bottom. The arbutin which is the other ingredients that is listed as being most helpful in this product, is right at the top though, so that means it has a much higher concentration than the Hyaluronic Acid has.
How does this product work on my skin?
As I mentioned I used up an entire bottle of this stuff and I have to say: the texture is pleasant (but indeed a bit watery) but in the long term I feel this didn’t do much for my skin. It isn’t rich enough to add the moisture I need to my skin and my skin likes some hyaluronic acids, but not all. This is one it doesn’t love. I feel this is the kind of product that substracts moisture from my skin rather than add it, which has been the case for me with some hyaluronic acids. The serum also didn’t improve my skin in terms of it’s evenness that much either. I think the arbutin in this serum isn’t exactly providing me with what I hope a serum does.
My final thoughts
I love Good Molecules products, but their Daily Brightening serum just isn’t for me. My skin needs rich, hyper moisturizing and hydrating products that really are a drink of water for my skin. This serum does not do that. I think that it is almost too gentle of my skin. This probably sounds strange, but I have experienced this in the past that if a product is formulated for sensitive skin, it is formulated in such a way that I feel doesn’t do much for my skin. In fact, some of the worst reactions I have ever had to a product was one formulated for sensitive skin as it literally made my skin worse as it wasn’t doing enough. This product didn’t do that, but I will not be repurchasing this, that’s for sure.
Would I recommend the Good Molecules Daily Brightening serum?
I think that this is a good product, if it suits your skin type. Because I think that’s really what it is for me here. My skin needs a bit more oomph for it to really be effective and to have the outcome I am hoping for. I did a bit of a Google to find out what arbutin is and alternatives that were listed were things like Vitamin C (but which doesn’t make sense as I have sensitive skin and so it should cause huge flareups, which it only did if I used it straight onto the skin and not when I added it to my face oil) and Niacinamide which I do have good experiences with . So from now on I know that arbutin is probably not the ingredient for me.