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While the warmer and longer days ahead are welcome, letting our winter-dulled limbs see the light of day can feel daunting. The good news: Finding the best body serum for your individual needs is an ace strategy for smoother, more glowing skin. While thicker moisturizers are crucial during the colder, dryer months, summer calls for elixirs that are lighter and fast-absorbing.
“A serum is a fantastic way to get a more potent dose of your active ingredients, but without weighing yourself down using heavy products,” explains New York City dermatologist Rachel Nazarian, M.D., of Schweiger Dermatology. “Especially when it comes to hydration, using a lightweight serum-based product can allow you to apply hydration while avoiding the sticky, heavy, occlusive feel that creams and lotions often cause.” In terms of hydrating ingredients, hyaluronic acid remains a hero. “It absorbs multiple times its own weight in water and can draw hydration into skin easily,” says Nazarian. But beyond that, there are a number of different actives, like exfoliating Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAS) or brightening and firming niacinamide, that can be sought out to target different concerns.
Here, the best body serum elixirs to help you improve clarity, texture, and tone for the skin-baring months ahead.
Tata Harper Resurfacing Body Serum
Tata Harper’s just-launched milky serum addresses common aging concerns for the skin on the body, like dullness and loss of elasticity, with brightening vitamin C, revitalizing vitamin A, pore-refining white willow bark, and retexturizing AHA superfruits.
Uni 24-Hour Body Serum
With its addictive natural scent (cedar leaf, juniper, and smoked sandalwood), sustainable body care brand Uni’s 24-Hour serum melts right in and boasts unique Australian ingredients, such as exfoliating caviar lime extract and antioxidant-rich kakudu plum, as well as tried-and-true hydrators like aloe vera and seaweed.
Topicals Slather Body Serum
If you experience dryness and bumpiness by way of keratosis pilaris, trust that Topicals’s new milky-textured Slather body serum has got you. With its mix of potent hydrators and exfoliators like retinol, urea, and lactic and glycolic acids, it gently unclogs pores and exfoliates for silkier skin.
Nécessaire The Body Serum
A fast-absorbing, fragrance-free gel, Nécessaire’s hyaluronic acid-loaded formula amps up nourishment with skin barrier-supporting niacinamide and ceramide NP, which supports renewal of the skin’s natural protective layer and creates a barrier against moisture loss.
Agent Nateur holi(oil) Unisex Ageless Body Serum
Agent Nateur’s natural body serum is designed to help reduce the appearance of cellulite with a potent combination of fatty acid-rich Japanese rice bran, rosehip, and helichrysum oils that hydrate and tone with a dewy finish.
Leland Francis Body Serum
Leland Francis’s sleekly bottled, botanical-powered elixir locks in moisture while tending to skin’s overall health with a mix of natural, plant-based oils including zingy ginger and purifying pink pepper.
Renée Rouleau Smoothing Body Serum
Austin-based celebrity aesthetician Renée Rouleau’s leave-on exfoliating body treatment boasts a potent concentration of 21% glycolic, lactic, and mandelic acids, yet it’s gentle enough for sensitive skin types. (Trust this editor, who deals with KP.)
Mutha Body Contour Serum
Mutha’s tone-boosting serum has its own special M-TIGHT technology designed to hydrate and firm the skin with a mix of hyaluronic acid, fruit acids, and botanical oils, like skin-softening baobab seed.
Clarins Renew-Plus Body Serum
An editor favorite, Clarins’s ultra-concentrated body serum unveils a youthful glow with natural plant extracts including antioxidant-rich christophine, soothing water lily, and exfoliating hibiscus flower.
RéVive Supérieur Body Nightly Renewing Serum
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A favorite of Nazarian’s, RéVive Supérieur nighttime body serum is supercharged with hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, and it “smoothes easily over skin without feeling sticky,” she says.
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