The serum that’s getting me through winter

Winter does cruel things to our faces. If you find you look older and more tired the more the degrees dip, you’re not imagining things — it’s scientifically proven. One study concluded women looked almost five years older during the colder months. Something about a decrease in vitamins D and K, coupled with more translucent skin, meant 82 per cent of subjects suffered from dark circles compared to just 38 per cent in the summer.

But it’s not just our eye area that’s affected. There’s also a general dullness that takes over as skin becomes drier and rougher. It starts sucking all the light like a vortex instead of bouncing it back the way a happily hydrated visage would.

Finally there’s what’s known as dehydration wrinkles, creases that form not as a result of time, but dryness — like cracks in the earth after months of drought. A couple years back, a study conducted by Olay showed that the look of lines actually worsens when temperatures drop. The scariest part is that skin doesn’t fully recover come spring and summer. Instead, we just collect more lines with every passing winter. As if the 4 p.m. sunsets weren’t depressing enough.

So what are we to do? We hydrate. We hydrate until we can hydrate no more. Only, we have to do it right. My skin, for instance, erupts into zits at the mere mention of the words “rich” or “extra-moisturizing.” So I usually find myself teetering on a tightrope between parched and pimply.

Enter my balancing act: Biossance’s latest launch, a gel-like serum the colour of the Caribbean Sea. It feels fresh and light like it would never dare clog a pore and as soon as I smooth it on, it sinks right in, getting to work where it really matters: under the skin.

There, hyaluronic acid and glycerin, two humectants, begin drawing water from the air to hydrate from within. Picture balloons filling with water: chock full of moisture, yes, but oh so plump, too. Dehydration lines are ironed out and my face starts looking as juicy as a perfectly ripened mango.

Fun fact: The product was actually inspired by Biossance learning some consumers were using the brand’s eye cream all over their face. “We wanted to take some of the elements of these treatment products to be able to create an intense all-over face serum that would make skin feel its healthiest and bounciest,” says Ramya Viswanathan, director of new product development at Biossance.

Mission accomplished. There’s also some sugarcane-derived squalane, the brand’s hero ingredient, mixed in to keep that hydration from seeping out. Finally, copper peptides (they’re actually what give the serum its blue hue) play the long game, supporting collagen and elastin to promote elasticity. Translation? Even more bounce.

It makes my face look the way it would if I were eating mangoes by that Caribbean Sea (under a hat and a slather of SPF, natch). The humid air making me all plump and dewy, dullness and dehydration lines nowhere to be found. Call it summer in a bottle.

Biossance Squalane + Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum, $88, sephora.ca SHOP HERE

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Katherine Lalancette is the beauty director of The Kit, based in Toronto. She writes about beauty and trends. Reach her on email at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter: @kik_tweets