Review: Joanna Vargas Daily Serum
Picture this: it is a bright, beautiful morning in Los Angeles. You’ve woken up naturally, neither too early nor too late, without the aid of an alarm. Sunlight is streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of your midcentury home, which just so happens to be situated in one of the quietest neighbourhoods in LA. It is your day off, or if you do have work to do, you can do it remotely. There is no real rush. You are sipping on a cup of green tea, having recently kicked a five-a-day coffee habit. You are thinking of attending a mid-morning pilates class, or going for a hike, and perhaps you’ll grab a green juice from one of those green juice places afterwards. You have no real plans today. Sunlight is streaming through the windows…
This is what using Joanna Vargas’ Daily Serum feels like, only without the long-distance airfare or the obligation to own a Toyota Prius. In fact, Vargas, a bi-coastal celebrity facialist with outposts on New York’s Fifth Avenue and in LA’s storied Sunset Tower Hotel, frequently describes this product as a ‘green juice’ for the skin, on account of its powerful plant-based ingredients and its detoxifying properties. (The green juice parallel would also explain how using Daily Serum makes me feel so LA even on a cold winter’s day here in Newcastle upon Tyne.) But, before I go completely off-topic and start comparing the merits of baobab and spirulina and god only knows what else, I’d like to discuss Daily Serum itself.
I started using Daily Serum towards the end of July, so I suppose I’ve been using it for just over three months now. As per the advice of Vargas herself, I always apply it at night time, after cleansing and toning but before moisturiser or eye cream or anything else. (During the day, I use Dr Barbara Sturm’s Anti-Pollution Drops, but more on those later.) The tube recommends using one to two pumps of the product, however I find that one is sufficient for me. It has a lightweight, non-greasy texture that simply sinks into the skin, and it doesn’t leave an uncomfortable or sticky residue, unlike many similar products on the market.
When I first started using Daily Serum, I was taken aback by the colour (a chlorophyll green), and the scent (its like liquorice!), however I quickly got used to both and find them rather pleasant now. Nothing happened overnight, nor did I expect it to, but after a few weeks I began to notice a significant improvement in the overall texture of my skin which, after a decade’s worth of acne flare-ups, can leave a lot to be desired. Its hard to explain exactly how Daily Serum has improved my complexion, but there’s no denying that it has — bar one particularly bad hormonal breakout last month, I don’t think my skin has looked this ‘normal’ in years. And that’s a good thing.
Daily Serum is not a strong, ‘targeted’ serum. That’s not to say its not effective, but, think of it this way: if certain serums are your topical treatments, your SOS oh-dear-god-I’ve-got-this-one-problem-that-I-really-need-to-fix products, then Daily Serum is your preventative medicine, the multivitamin you take every day. And, given that it contains Vitamins A, C, E and F, this isn’t merely an analogy. Like all Joanna Vargas products, Daily Serum is made from plant-based ingredients, and it is recommended for all skin types including sensitive. Some day I’ll get myself to the Sunset Tower for one of Joanna’s much-vaunted Triple Crown Facials but, for now, I’m happy to continue exploring her eponymous product range. If you’re serious about skincare, I recommend you do the same.
This piece was originally published on Part Time Beauty in 2018.