THE SKINCARMA PRODUCT OF THE YEAR : HERBIVORE BAKUCHIOL RETINOL ALTERNATIVE SERUM
A year ago, I declared the first-ever Skincarma product of the year, The Ordinary’s 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder. (I invite you to read all about it here.)
It wowed TF outta me.
Selecting The Ordinary’s five-dollar Vitamin C powder was an obvious choice. Not only was it a game-changer for my own complexion, but I loved that something so accessible could transform the complexions of just about everyone else on the planet, too.
Think about it. Five dollars for an arguably perfect, glow-boosting product that would last up to six months with daily use. Skin care doesn’t get better than that. I know it left me — and a lot of my Skincarma friends — glowing all year long!
Over the course of the last year, I’ve recommended The Ordinary’s not-so-ordinary Vitamin C powder to so many people that I lost track. People who’ve never even used a separate Vitamin C serum were suddenly mixing their own potent PM concoctions and waking up glowing.
Friends that I can’t seem to convince to wear sunscreen, convince to drop the physical scrubs, and even convince to wash their faces before bed, were oddly hooked. One friend who’d started using it even got the first compliment of his life about his suddenly radiant complexion — the very next day. And he works in beauty. Go figure!
A Vitamin C powder is not a perfect solution because it’s not very easy to use. There’s some precise measuring required and even rules against mixing it with other ingredients, including peptides. Vitamin C is notorious for not playing well with other actives; but that’s particularly so in its purest form — L-Ascorbic Acid. Mixing it may be a pain in the ass, but it’s worth the effort. Trust me! Time and again, that pot of gold proved I was onto something.
The Ordinary’s 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder was the Skincarma Product of the Year in 2018.
Which brings me to the 2019 product of the year.
All year long, I was thinking about, planning for this moment. This time wasn’t as straightforward; there was no blatantly obvious choice. Perhaps because there were so many options, so many new product discoveries. I had a list of potential candidates a mile long. (For those insights, check out my YouTube video here.)
I posted a fresh, new product review nearly every day in 2019, without missing a beat. So let’s say I tested around 350 products in all of 2019. The fact that one single product could in the end stand out from all of that is certainly saying something!
Twenty-nineteen was a year of extraordinary innovation in skin care. New brands emerged seemingly out of nowhere as both indie beauty and clean beauty caught fire.
Brands like Codex Beauty, Herbivore and Purito lead the way with clean, non-toxic, worry-free formulas. Skincare shouldn’t be scary; it should actually care for your skin!
This past year, K-beauty, no longer a mere trend, settled into the mainstream yet continued to deliver true innovation — particularly in the use of fermented actives and sunscreen filters.
Even with Korean sun care innovations, Japanese Beauty, or J-Beauty, is the true leader in sunscreen technologies with super high-tech filters that seem like alien technology to me. I’m looking at you, Rohto Skin Aqua UV Milk!
In particular, clean sun care was a legit bright spot — with brands like Solara Suncare, Coola, and Supergoop! leading the way. And, of course, the clean K-Beauty leader Purito intrigued me with their Centella Green Level Safe Sun. I’m like a kid in a candy shop with Purito — and even declared myself the first-ever #puritofanboy.
So, new, innovative technology caught my eye. Indie beauty was suddenly pervasive, begging the question: at what point does is stop being “indie”?! And, clean beauty grew up!
In addition to fermented actives, there were two stand-out ingredients in skin care that made their mark. The first is Snow Mushroom, which in addition to making an apparently bland soup in Chinese cuisine, also happens to be a potent humectant on par with the gold standard, Hyaluronic Acid.
But the real show-stopper is the retinol-alternative, Bakuchiol.
What is Bakuchiol and how could it possibly be as effective as Retinol? For the answer to that, I’ll go straight to my skincare muse, Paula Begoun:
“Bakuchiol is a natural antioxidant and anti-aging ingredient found in the seeds and leaves of the plant Psoralea corylifolia [babchi plant] Ongoing in vitro (Petri dish) and in vivo (on skin) research has shown that bakuchiol seems to have skin-restoring ability when applied twice daily, and that it may also have a brightening effect on skin. Research has also shown this plant ingredient has soothing and anti-wrinkle properties as well as helping to visibly improve skin color and tone.
“Science has revealed that bakuchiol interacts with many of the same areas in skin as retinol, sometimes by taking the same pathway, other times by going a different route but still leading to the same results, such as diminished wrinkles, improved elasticity, and smoother skin. In either case, we’re confident that bakuchiol is a promising, beneficial ingredient whose actions can complement and enhance what retinol does for skin.”
According to Paula Begoun, “bakuchiol is a promising, beneficial ingredient whose actions can complement and enhance what retinol does for skin.”
The Skincarma 2019 Product of the Year: Herbivore Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Smoothing Serum
If you’re like me, you approach Retinol products with a bit of fear in you. Skincare shouldn’t increase your anxiety; it should calm you and make you feel that every bit of selfcare you can muster is a good thing.
My own reluctance over Retinol, in addition to my preference for clean skin care, is the very reason I was so intrigued by Herbivore’s clean Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Serum in the first place.
While Herbivore’s Bakuchiol serum is my favorite product of 2019, it wasn’t actually my first Bakuchiol experience; rather, it was the best one.
My Bakuchiol journey actually began a year earlier in the fall of 2018, when the proclaimed “retinol alternative” first appeared on my radar.
The Ole Henriksen Goodnight Glow Retin-ALT Sleeping Crème was touted as “an all-in-one skin-perfecting night cream made with a natural retinol alternative to deeply hydrate and target fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.”
For me, it was an imperfect Bakuchiol experience that didn’t exactly wow me. Maybe it wowed my mother, though; she’s the one who inherited that barely used product.
Around the same time, fall of 2018, I came across an article in Allure magazine entitled, What Is Bakuchiol? Experts Explain the Benefits of the Natural Alternative to Retinol. The article’s writer declared this:
“Good news for those with sensitive skin: Finally, skin-care formulas are starting to include a less-irritating, natural alternative to retinol. Known as bakuchiol, the gentle, vegan ingredient is about to blow up the skin-care world.”
And that it did. As of this writing, I estimate that there are approximately two dozen unique Bakuchiol products available globally. There are even entire Bakuchiol collections, as with Beauty Counter’s clean beauty Countertime collection. Each of the franchise’s six products contains some degree of Bakuchiol.
Among the research that Ms. Begoun was referring to in her analysis I referenced earlier, was a 12-week clinical study of Bakuchiol published in the British Journal of Dermatology in February, 2019. (You can read a summary of the research study here.)
The study was conducted by researchers at universities in California, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania for the purpose of comparing “the efficacy and side effects of bakuchiol with the commonly-used anti-ageing ingredient retinol. 44 volunteers were asked to apply either bakuchiol 0.5% cream twice daily, or retinol 0.5% cream daily, to facial skin for 12 weeks.”
Results of the university study proved that Bakuchiol decreased the appearance of wrinkles and age spots as effectively as Retinol; however, Bakuchiol was found to be far gentler on skin without the irritation common to Retinol use — scary side effects like scaling, redness, stinging, and sun sensitivity.
Ole Henriksen’s Bakuchiol treatment would only own the budding market for about a year. Since its launch, a number of indie brands have introduced Bakuchiol products in the form of serums, facial oils, lotions, cleansers and even single-use pads.
But of all the Bakuchiol products I’ve tested, Herbivore’s is by far the best.
To begin with, Herbivore’s formulas are all clean. And like K-beauty itself, I honestly believe that clean beauty is no longer just a trend — any more than organic and natural skincare are no longer just trends. In time, clean formulas will be the standard. What happens to everything else is yet to be seen.
Declared by the Zoe Report as “The Sensitive-Skin Product You’ve Been Waiting For,” Herbivore’s Bakuchiol serum is the most potent on the market — with a 4% concentration of the babchi plant extract.
Formulators around the world are recommending 1% levels, but Herbivore pushed for something more effective. So in addition to being the best of the best, it’s also the most serious.
Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Serum is a super lightweight, silky gel formula that’s super easy to layer. It absorbs so quickly, I often don’t wait more than 30 seconds to a minute before applying what’s next in my routine — very often a Vitamin B3 or Niacinamide serum.
Herbivore’s innovative serum is now a part of both my AM and PM skincare routines. I’ve gone through three bottles of it since I first dubbed it the best Bakuchiol option of five that I reviewed in a blog article in October here.
Since then, it’s one of those products that I’m so fond of that I miss it when I’m not using it! When you know, you know. Over the holidays, I was even bummed that I hadn’t packed it for my travels.
One question that I’ve gotten dozens of times since my initial review goes something like this:
Is it a replacement for potent forms of retinoids like Tretinoin or higher concentrations of Retinol? The short answer is no — at least not the strongest forms.
If your skin has become accustomed to a Retinol treatment with little to no irritation, stick with it. But if you’re not a fan of anxiety-inducing skincare, Bakuchiol is the way to go — and particularly, the clean, 100% percent natural, plant-based retinol alternative from Herbivore.
At $54, it’s not as accessible as the Ordinary’s five-dollar Vitamin C powder, but it’s worth every penny. All 5,400 of them!
💟 SKINCARMA
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase Herbivore Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Serum for $54 here.
The Ingredient List of the Herbivore Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Smoothing Serum:
sii|h 0 0, Bakuchiol 
cci|aox|amic, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate amic|pres, Vaccinium Angustifolium (Blueberry) Fruit Extract so, Populus Tremuloides Bark Extract, Gluconolactone exf|chel, Amethyst Extract, Vaccinium Myrtillus Fruit Extract, Sodium Phytate chel, Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract aox|h, Melia Azadirachta Leaf Extract, Melia Azadirachta Flower Extract, Amino Esters-1, Coccinia Indica Fruit Extract, Solanum Melongena (Eggplant) Fruit Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Flower Extract emo, Ocimum Sanctum Leaf Extract, Curcuma Longa (Turmeric) Root Extract aox|so|sb|perf, Corallina Officinalis Extract
The Ingredient List of the The Inkey List Bakuchiol Cream:
sii|emo 0 1, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Propanediol solv|h, Plukenetia Volubilis Seed Oil (Sacha Inchi Oil) aox|emo|h, Dicaprylyl Carbonate emo, Bakuchiol cci|aox|amic, Phenoxyethanol pres, Sodium Caproyl Prolinate h|surf, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer vc, Carbomer vc 0 1, Sodium Hydroxide buff, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate emu|surf, Polysorbate 60 emu|surf, Phytic Acid chel, Glyceryl Polyacrylate, Sorbitan Isostearate emu 0 1-2, Tocopherol aox 0-3 0-3
