What’s the Deal With Hyaluronic Acid?
First up, and most important, although it’s called an acid, you won’t burn your skin with it because of how the products are formulated. All of the products in Isntree Hyaluronic Acid range are designed to hydrate your skin, so you’re in a safe hands.
What makes hyaluronic acid such an amazing ingredient for skin is it’s ability to hold onto moisture. Why does this matter? Well, whilst skin loses its plumpness for numerous reasons as we age, one of those reasons is that your skin produces less hyaluronic acid when you get older. Yep, your skin has hyaluronic acid in it in the first place! And with the reduction in hyaluronic acid production, fine lines become more visible so our skin doesn’t look so plump:
So if you use products that contain this excellent ingredient, you’ll help plump up your skin and it will look more youthful – I think we can all agree that we want more youthful looking skin that’s super plump!
How Does Hyaluronic Acid Work?
Living in the UK, it’s par for the course to moan about the weather: but for our skin, humidity is a wonderful thing! It means there’s lots of water in the air so when you use hyaluronic acid in a humid climate, your skin can draw water from the air and you get hydrated, bouncy skin. Perfect!
You can use hyaluronic acid in any skincare step but I always want more hydration, so having hyaluronic acid in multiple steps is a big win. The Isntree Hyaluronic Acid range is great for this because I can dose my skin with a ton of hydration in different ways, which makes me, and my skin, very happy!
Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Water essence
This is such a unique product and it does a lot for my skin. In my experience, hyaluronic acid products, that aren’t creams, tend to be pretty watery. However, this essence is a creamy serum texture that glides onto your skin so smoothly.
It has 8 different sizes of hyaluronic acid and you’ll find this referred to as different molecular weights. Having multiple sizes of hyaluronic acid is great because the smaller ones are thought to go deeper into the layers of your skin and therefore should hydrate your skin more thoroughly.
I like a ton of hydration, in case you haven’t guessed, so I like to apply half a dropper of this but a few drops would also do get. And let’s not forget the awesome oil in this: the product is so well-formulated that the oil absorbs really well, you don’t get left with a greasy surface, even if you’ve used lots of toners or thinner essences before it (like I always do!)
Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Water Sleeping Mask
Although this is a sleeping mask, I think it’s so great that I use it in the day time too because it’s such a great base for sunscreen and make-up!
It has 5 types of acid and natural moisturising factors, like betaine and ceramide NP, so it’s not only hydrating but also very moisturising. I’m also really pleased to see beta-glucan so high up the ingredient list: it’s like hyaluronic acid in that it’s great at drawing moisture into the skin but it’s also really soothing.
I love the texture of this product, Isntree describes it as an “elastic gel type” and that makes total sense. When you squeeze it out of the generously sized 100ml tube (100ml!), it’s a thick gel but as soon as you go to smooth it across your skin, it turns into a watery texture so it spreads really easily! And then it dries down into a smooth layer so you’ve got a great base for make-up – and this is why I like to use it in the day time too. It can be a touch shiny but I find once I’ve put on the Isntree sunscreen and make-up on, there’s no trace of shine – just a perfectly moisturised slightly dewy finish, which is exactly what I want!
Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Watery Sun gel
I like my skin to be perfectly moisturised so I have a nice dewy look, but this is reasonably moisturising so some people could definitely skip cream and just use this, depending on your skin type and preferred look.
This sunscreen is so light and spreads so well on my skin – it was my first Korean sunscreen so I had no idea what to expect, although I had high hopes as I’d heard Korean sunscreens were lovely! It’s very cosmetically elegant in and of itself but compared to western sunscreens, it’s a revelation!
Isntree’s product information states this can be reapplied it and it won’t pill. I can confirm, it has not pilled on me! My cheap western sunscreen often pills, and always in my neck lines – not only does the Isntree not pill, it helps to minimise those lines (along with their other products mentioned here).
Plus, it’s great to have hyaluronic acid in your sunscreen, as I recently discovered:
“sunscreen products containing hyaluronic acid help to maintain a firmer skin, protecting it from the injurious impact of UV radiation, due to the potential antioxidant effect of HA [hyaluronic acid]” (2)
Final Word
I have so many good things to say about the Isntree Hyaluronic Acid range and the fact that it delivers really great ingredients to my skin but also gives me the perfect make-up base is just the icing on the cake!
Some products can take a bit of work to fit them into your routine but I haven’t had that issue with these from Isntree: they worked beautifully from the start and continue to do exactly what I need from them.
Note 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583886/
Note 2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8347214/