Mar 25

Mar 25 PRODUCT REVIEW: AXIS-Y DARK SPOT CORRECTING GLOW SERUM - BEST BRIGHTENING SERUM. BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

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AXIS-Y | DARK SPOT CORRECTING GLOW SERUM

This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Brands I’m Into: Axis-Y - Vegan, Anti-Pollution Skincare - Best Mineral Sunscreen, Best Blemish Treatment. You can catch the full piece here.

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My one and only trip to Korea was in January, 2013 — nearly ten years ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.

Seoul in the winter is glorious, otherworldly and brutal. The air is damp and bone-chillingly cold. I remember standing in the DMZ at the border with North Korea thinking I had never been so cold in my life!

But being in Seoul was special and one of the highlights of my travels around the world. I’d already had an appreciation for Korean food, but left with a passion for its spicy, warming heat. Being there in such frigid air left me with a clearer understanding as to why Korean food is so spicy. Even so, I long to return in the spring or fall, when the temperatures are a bit more, temperate.

I loved nearly every minute of my six days in Seoul but, of course, there was nothing more exciting than hopping from beauty shop to beauty shop in the city’s famed Gangnam neighborhood. It was my first real experience with Korean skincare, or K-beauty.

The list of my favorite Korean skincare products is extensive. And I’m always excited to discover new K-beauty products and brands. My latest discover is AXIS-Y, a clean, vegan, cruelty-free brand focused on pollution and its aging effects on the skin.

The world of Korean skincare can seem overwhelming in its breadth and the seemingly infinite number of products made with unusual ingredients. K-beauty truly is a world all its own. So when a brand stands out in the pack, it’s significant. AXIS-Y is one of those brands. I’ve literally had my eye on AXIS-Y for years and was excited to finally have the chance to try several of their products for myself.

The fact that AXIS-Y is hyper-focused on pollution and its effects on the skin matters to me. A lot. Skin barrier health is a main focus of my entire skincare regimen and, I believe, one of the reasons that my skin is in such great condition today.

According to the brand, “Our skin experiences an ever-growing complex environment influenced by growing pollution, stressors, and climate change. In addition, with the rise of traveling, more people have realized the unique skin concerns arising by their climate and the need for more personalized skincare. As the first creators of climate-inspired skincare, we seek to deliver this higher level of personalized care for our global community.”

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been putting AXIS-Y products to the test. I’m excited to share my impressions of the AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum below…

AXIS-Y | Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum

The AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum is a clean, vegan brightening treatment specifically formulated to target the appearance of uneven skin tone and dark spots in the complexion. Its brightening oomph is powered by 5% Niacinamide, amplified by fruit enzymes and other gentle botanical extracts.

I know there’s a lot of hype out their in the skincare universe about Niacinamide — and much of it’s true. It’s indispensable for any serious pro-skin health routine. As I’ve shared many, many times, my favorite skincare product is the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster — IMO the best anti-aging serum on Earth. I go through a bottle of it about once a week and even featured the now iconic facial serum on my TikTok channel here.

PRODUCT REVIEW: PAULA’S CHOICE 10% NIACINAMIDE BOOSTER – BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM FOR PORES

Read Review

Straight up, if you aren’t using a Niacinamide treatment like AXIS-Y’s Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum in your daily skincare routine, you’re missing an important opportunity to up your skincare game by enhancing your skin health and illuminating your complexion.

Niacinamide is perhaps the most versatile ingredient used in skincare. At levels of 2-5%, it delivers powerful antioxidant protection, helps clear out pores, and brightens and evens out the complexion. It can even moderate oil production to help mattify the look of skin. At levels from 10-20%, Niacinamide also has the ability to smooth out a rough skin texture, much like an AHA treatment, but far more gently.

No skincare ingredient can do as much as Niacinamide can, though Vitamin C and Vitamin A (in the form of a retinoid) also have broad anti-aging benefits for the skin. I invite you to browse my product reviews of what I consider the best Niacinamide serums and treatments on the blog here.

The Best Niacinamide Serums And Treatments

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What Is Niacinamide and What Does Niacinamide Do for the Skin?

I found a comprehensive article on the form of Vitamin B3 written by the skin experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, titled simply, How Niacinamide Helps Skin. It doesn’t do it justice! They should have titled the article, Niacinamide is the Game Changer You Need to Defend Against Skin Damage and Maintain Optimal Skin Health. From the piece….

How Niacinamide Helps Skin
Niacinamide is a skin care ingredient worthy of your attention and your skin will love you for using it. Among a handful of other amazing skin care ingredients such as retinol and vitamin C, niacinamide is a standout because of its versatility for almost any skin care concern and skin type.
As many of you know about us, but for those who don’t, the conclusions we make about any ingredient are always based on what the published research has shown to be true—and the research about niacinamide unanimously demonstrates how special it is. New research keeps showing it’s one of the most exciting skin care ingredients around.
What is Niacinamide?
Also known as vitamin B3 and nicotinamide, niacinamide is a water-soluble vitamin that works with the natural substances in your skin to help visibly minimize enlarged pores, tighten lax pores, improve uneven skin tone, soften fine lines and wrinkles, diminish dullness, and strengthen a weakened surface.
Niacinamide also reduces the impact of environmental damage because of its ability to improve skin’s barrier (its first line of defense), plus it also plays a role in helping skin to repair signs of past damage. Left unchecked, this type of daily assault makes skin appear older, dull, and less radiant.
Why You Should Use Niacinamide
As you might have gathered, we’re very impressed with all that niacinamide can do for skin when applied via skin care products like toners, serums, and highly concentrated leave-on treatments. Niacinamide is uniquely compatible with any of the products in your skin care routine, including those that contain retinol, peptides, hyaluronic acid, AHAs, BHA, vitamin C, and all types of antioxidants.
You can use multiple niacinamide-containing products in your routine, and it will still be non-sensitizing as this ingenious B vitamin is well tolerated by all skin types. It’s even suitable for use by those with sensitive or rosacea-prone skin.
Other helpful benefits of niacinamide are that it helps renew and restore the surface of skin against moisture loss and dehydration by helping skin improve its natural production of skin-strengthening ceramides. When ceramides become depleted over time, skin is left vulnerable to all sorts of problems, from persistent patches of dry, flaky skin to increasingly becoming extra-sensitive.
If you struggle with dry skin, topical application of niacinamide has been shown to boost the hydrating ability of moisturizers so skin’s surface can better resist the moisture loss that leads to recurrent dry, tight, flaky skin. Niacinamide works brilliantly with common moisturizer ingredients like glycerin, non-fragrant plant oils, cholesterol, sodium PCA, and sodium hyaluronate.
How does niacinamide help pores? Great question, although the answer here isn’t certain. Simply put, research hasn’t come to a full understanding about how this B vitamin works its pore-reducing magic, but it does! It seems that niacinamide has a normalizing ability on the pore lining, and that this influence plays a role in keeping debris from getting backed up, which leads to clogs and rough, bumpy skin. As the clog forms and worsens, the pores stretch to compensate, and what you’ll see is enlarged pores. By helping things get back to normal, niacinamide use helps pores return to their normal size. Sun damage can cause pores to become stretched, too, leading to what some describe as "orange peel skin". Higher concentrations of niacinamide can help visibly tighten pores by shoring up skin’s supportive elements.

With its 5% concentration of Niacinamide, the AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum can be particularly effective at evening out skin tone and clearing pores of bacteria, pollutants and other particles that can compromise skin barrier function and lead to acne breakouts. (I recommend using it twice daily for best results.)

With its light gel-like texture, the Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum is more than just a well-formulated Niacinamide serum. It’s also infused with a handful of emollient non-fragrant plants oils that help to replenish skin’s moisture content and prevent dehydrating trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL).

Plus, for a humectant benefit that locks water in the skin, the formula contains Glycerin and Sodium Hyaluronate — the salt form of Hyaluronic Acid that’s more skin-compatible.

What I like about it: The AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum is a well-formulated brightening serum powered by 5% Niacinamide that makes a legitimate antioxidant treatment for any skincare routine. I love its blend of emollient plant oils and humectants, too! At just $21, it’s such a superb treatment for enhancing skin health.

What I don’t like about it: More Niacinamide is always a good thing. Since it’s so broadly tolerated by most skins, I’d love for the 5% level to be doubled.

Who it’s for: All skin types.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum for $21 here.

SHOP YESSTYLE FOR AXIS-Y DARK SPOT CORRECTING GLOW SERUM