An Honest Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum Review
As far as skincare products go, serums are hotly contested. Proponents claim that a certain hyaluronic acid serum hydrates skin or that mandelic serum can help to exfoliate skin. Its critics, myself included, say that it’s not a crucial part of any skincare routine. For me, results from serums aren’t noticeable enough to warrant their high price tags. As much as I want to say that the Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum review is worth $160… it’s not.
As a beauty and lifestyle journalist, I’ve tried hundreds of beauty products — including more than 50 serums, creams, and moisturizers. Especially with serums, I’ve found that luxury options, like this pick, work better than drugstore or budget options. Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum is a medical-grade skincare brand that’s unique in that the formulas use patented ingredients. Moreover, the company performs independent clinical studies on each product to ensure efficacy.
After seeing all the buzz on social media, we wanted to try this for ourselves. Over three weeks, I applied the Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum twice daily after toning and before moisturizing.
Keep reading to learn how my skin reacted to this product.
Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum
Before getting into the nitty gritty of the Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum, let’s talk about my typical skincare routine. It’s three basic steps — cleanse, tone, moisturize. In the morning, I’ll top everything off with a healthy layer of sunscreen. At night, I replace the SPF with a pea-sized amount of CeraVe Healing Ointment. This is part of my slugging skincare routine.
It’s pretty simple and, as you can see, doesn’t include a serum. I thought it would be cool to test this given that it’s a medical-grade, tone-correcting serum. In addition to addressing uneven skin tone, this serum targets age-related yellowing.
Below are my initial thoughts on the Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum (available on Skin Better Science).
Packaging
This serum itself comes in a cylindrical bottle that’s a dusty, coppery pink. That bottle is packaged in a matching gold-trimmed box, which makes it feel pretty luxurious. The coolest part of this packaging, though, is the dispenser. A lot of dermatologists and estheticians will tell you not to touch droppers to your face, because of cross-contamination. However, it’s all too easy to forget to do that.
The Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum pump fixes this problem. Instead of using a dropper, the dispenser is built into the bottle. To take it out and dispense the product, you just need to twist it. A pump will appear and you can give it a push or two so that you get as much serum as you want.
Price
All things being equal, I am highly unlikely to buy a serum — especially if the price point is $160, as is the case with this pick. Obviously, the packaging is nice and the brains at Skin Better thought of a superior dispenser. That said, the results (as we’ll dive deeper into later) were not as stunning as the price tag.
Ingredients
As we mentioned up top, there are bonafide skin-loving substances in this serum. There’s the patented diglucosyl gallic acid, which Skin Better says helps improve the look of uneven skin tone. You’ll also find kakadu plum extract, which has tons of vitamin C that brightens the appearance of skin. The last standout superstar here is called hexylresorcinol, which is a multi-functional ingredient that serves as an antioxidant to brighten skin. If you’ve got sensitive skin, this is also a good pick for you since it’s free of dyes, fragrance, and parabens.
SkinBetter Even Tone Correcting Serum Review
And now we get into the nitty gritty: our official SkinBetter Even Tone Correcting Serum Review. As I said, I wouldn’t spend my own hard-earned cash on this serum — and I wouldn’t recommend it to others, either.
I was really into the packaging and thoughtfulness behind the dispenser, so I was excited to try this high-end, lightweight serum. The first couple of nights I used it, the novelty of that dispenser hadn’t worn off so my hopes were still high. After the first week, though, (photographed below) I didn’t really notice much of a difference in terms of brightness.
To be fair, I did notice that my skin tone was more even. Before I used the SkinBetter Even Tone Correcting Serum, the areas under my eyes and the sides of my cheeks were kind of dull. Two weeks into my experiment, I could see that my skin was more even throughout.
All in all, it’s not that I didn’t like the SkinBetter Even Tone Correcting Serum. It’s just that the difference I saw in my skin wasn’t worth the $160. Plus, since this bottle is only 1.7 ounces, you’re really not getting much product. At the end of my three-week experiment, the bottle was halfway done.
I don’t want you to just take my word for it, though. So let’s take a gander at some of my before and after photos.
Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum Before and After
This is a before photo. As you can see, the area under my eyes is a bit dark and the apples of my cheeks are dull. I have to admit, because my skincare routine is pretty basic, I always have a small reaction period to new products. I didn’t notice that with this serum, though.
Instead, I noticed that the area under my eyes and the sides of my face were actually matching the rest of my face — which I loved! In the photo below, I had been using the serum for a couple of weeks and didn’t notice any type of reaction.
Though I do have some great things to say about the Skin Better Even Tone Correcting Serum, I ultimately must decree that I don’t think it’s worth the price. While there are certainly some differences between the first photo and the second, I think I could do without this serum. Doing so would save me time and money, and that’s a skincare routine I’m most likely to stick to.
