REVIEW: Trader Joe's Nourish Antioxidant Facial Serum
FEEL: 5/5 - It almost feels like a dry powder on your hands, and it glosses right onto your skin and absorbs easily..
IMMEDIATE EFFECT: 5/5 - Dewy, glowy!
LONG-TERM USE: 5/5 - A couple months in, my skin is even, dewy, glowy, and my pores are smaller.
PACKAGING: 3/5 - Myeh. It’s not bad but it’s not super cute either. It looks like it was purchased at a super market, which isn’t really the aesthetic that I go for but, it’s what’s inside that counts, right…?
FRAGRANCE: 5/5 - So good. It’s a fresh, clean citrusy scent, like the spritz from an orange peel. Love love love.
PRICE: $9.99
FINAL WORD: It’s honestly my favorite part of my morning routine, and is definitely a permanent part of my beauty lineup.
I stumbled upon this randomly while grocery shopping at TJ. It was right after I opened up my First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair moisturizer from last year and noticed that it had gone bad. I’ve also been focused on paring down my product selection, and focusing on cleaner beauty - i.e. products without parabens, phthalates, endocrine disruptors, and generally yucky stuff, so I threw out everything that smelled funky, hadn’t been used in months, and was loaded with artificial fragrance and harmful ingredients. (NOTE: The fact that FAB went bad is actually a good sign - it isn’t loaded with chemical and preservatives, and I still would recommend it as a heavier moisturizer!) After spotting Nourish Antioxident Facial Serum on the shelf at Trader Joe’s, and after a quick glance at the ingredients list and a text to my aesthetician friend Elena (see her review, below), I decided to pop this into my cart, too.
My skincare routine is simple - serum or light moisturizer in the summer, and serum + heavier moisturizer in the winter. I started using this in the late fall, so before the air got dry and icy, I did get a few weeks of using just this without a moisturizer over it, and it was great - it’s light but penetrates and absorbs to provide moisturization with no oiliness. Now that it’s January, I wash my face and put this on immediately after drying, then give it a minute to soak in before applying Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream.
I just love the smell of this serum - it’s like the lightest mist of orange oil, like an angel just squeezed a peel right onto your freshly washed face. Cannot. Get. Enough. Wish I needed to apply this more than 1x a day, because I love using it that much.
It goes on very matte - it feels like a dry oil when I rub it between my hands, and it goes on very smooth. My face feels so smooth and velvety even into the evening, and never, ever oily or shiny.
THE VERDICT: Addicted. This is a staple for me, and I definitely want to explore the rest of Trader Joe’s Nourish line.
A WORD FROM A PRO:
You know I always check in with my buddy Elena K, an aesthetician in Boston (visit her at Home Beauty Spa in Newton, MA), before buying and using new face products. I texted her with a pic of this and she replied within seconds with a paragraph gushing about this.
“The face serum is amazing in winter on my super dry skin. Because I’m on Retinol, winter is pretty harsh. This saves the day. Looks great under makeup, too.”
