How To Apply A Face Serum: Follow These Expert Tips

Your skin needs constant protection from harsh environmental elements such as pollution and weather conditions, stress, smoke, you name it. Knowing how to apply a face serum can help you provide this protection and aid the absorption of the vital ingredients your skin needs from your daily skincare products.

Think of a serum as the secret weapon for treating specific concerns such as fine lines, sun spots, flare-ups, acne, scarring and loss of firmness.

We offer tips on how to apply face serum correctly.

There’s a reason we use serums in our skincare routines. This high-performance targeted treatment will help boost skin – whether for anti-wrinkle benefits or for solving pigmentation problems to treating certain skin types like dehydrated, dry, or oily.

When applied before moisturisers in the morning and evening, serums rapidly absorb into the skin. “As the serum is lighter and delivers active ingredients to the skin quickly, it goes on first, after you’ve cleansed your skin. Then, a moisturiser over the top will help seal in all those lovely activities.

How to apply face serum correctly

A hard-working serum is a combination of nature and science. These highly effective formulas are designed to reinforce the action of the creams you apply day and night. In addition, their molecules tend to be smaller, which means they can go deeper into the epidermis – and thus work harder.

Whatever your skin type, you’ll find a serum to suit you. Here’s how to apply your face serum correctly:

Step 1: Warm it up

Pump a pea-sized amount of serum into the palm of your hand. Then warm it between both hands to make it the same temperature as your skin – this is when it works best.

Step 2: Press it on

Use the natural weight of your hands to gently distribute the serum. Then, press it onto your face, using a sweeping outward motion.

Starting at the centre, down your nose and jaw and up across your cheeks and forehead. Don’t forget your neck and décolleté.

Step 3: Apply pressure

To stimulate natural circulation, give you a radiant complexion and keep skin firm, apply pressure to the cheeks three times, then to the forehead three times and finally to the neck and décolleté five times.

Expert tip: “Apply pressure faster in the morning to kick-start your day and more slowly at night before going to sleep,” says Clarins’ International Training Manager, Denise Barthe.

Different kinds of face serum

The cult serum

One bottle of this anti-ageing product is sold every six seconds globally. Double Serum is a multi-tasking, age control concentrate. It boasts 21 active plant extracts, including turmeric, whose bio-active components in scientific studies have been shown to speed up healing, help to control flare-up conditions like psoriasis, reduce acne scarring, and protect cells from damage. So a powerhouse when it comes to topical skincare products.

How to apply: Morning and evening before your moisturiser.

The pigmentation perfector

Bright Plus Advanced Dark Spot-Targeting Serum is a wonder product resulting from some significant scientific research; it corrects dark spots and pigmentation without changing the skin’s natural tone. With Vitamin C and New Organic Sea Lily, the serum helps to fight dark spots, and New Rose-Myrtle and Acerola Seeds promote cell oxygenation.

How to apply: Morning and/or evening.

The pore minimiser

This expert Pore Control Serum diminishes visible pores and leaves skin smooth and radiant. With firming Vine Flower cells and mattifying Organic Strawberry Tree fruit extracts, the serum visibly tightens and purifies enlarged pores so they appear virtually invisible.

How to apply: Before your day and night moisturisers.

The firming one

Not only does this anti-ageing Super Restorative Remodelling Serum restore youth and radiance, but it also reshapes and redefines facial contours and corrects age spots. This serum is a bit different, with a cream texture. The formulation includes organic harungana extract, a 'healing' tree from Madagascar, which reactivates hormone-depleted fibroblasts, which restores the substance of the dermis to combat the effects of gravity and help slow down skin slackening around the chin.

How to apply: Morning and/or evening, as required.

How long should face serum be left on?

Although your face serum will absorb into your skin relatively quickly, it’s a good idea to wait about five minutes before applying moisturiser.

When to apply face serum

First, cleanse and tone your face. You can use a Hydrating Gentle Foaming Cleanser to gently wash away impurities and makeup while leaving the skin soft and hydrated. A Soothing Toning Lotion will rebalance the skin and preserve the skin's microbiota.

Then, apply face serum so that its active ingredients penetrate deeply into the skin. In the morning, add sunscreen after moisturiser. In the evening, follow with night cream.

Is a moisturiser necessary as well?

Research has shown the importance of using both serum and moisturiser in your skincare regime, layering them – serum first, moisturiser second.

If you have super oily skin – you might get away with serum alone. Clarins Training Manager, Charlotte McHale reminds us: “Your skin is a very thin membrane. The serum penetrates to a slightly deeper layer of the epidermis – it doesn’t sit on the surface of the skin; it disappears. Moisturiser is denser, so it sits on the surface of the skin and forms a protective layer.” You only need to use a small amount of serum – “about one or two pumps,” she says.

And moisturiser? “Use the size of a 5p coin.”

Can you use too much serum?

Yes, you can. “Remember, the skin is a barrier,” says McHale. “Its purpose is to keep things out. It’s not a sponge that will just absorb everything you put on it; it will only take what it needs. So if you apply loads of serum, it won’t do any harm, but you will waste a lot of product.”