My skin is looking and feeling great these days and while it has looked amazing in my pre-mommyhood days, I honestly feel it’s looking quite nice now. The credit for that goes to my current skincare routine which features four products from this awesome, relatively new skincare brand, The Ordinary. Don’t be misled by the name though – products from The Ordinary are anything but ordinary. In fact, I would say they are EXTRAORDINARY in their performance and efficacy.
About The Ordinary
“The Ordinary is an evolving collection of treatments offering familiar, effective clinical technologies positioned to raise pricing and communication integrity in skincare. The Ordinary is “Clinical formulations with Integrity”. All DECIEM products, across all brands including The Ordinary, are free of parabens, sulphates, mineral oil, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, animal oils, benzalkonium chloride, coal tar dyes, formaldehyde, mercury, oxybenzone. DECIEM does not test on animals and does not pay others to do so.”
The products I have been using are Buffet, Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG, Hyaluronic Acid 2% and Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%. The range of products available at The Ordinary is vast and all the scientific terms can get confusing even if you are a skincare junkie who loves to read ingredient labels but these four were the products they recommended for my skin concerns – anti-aging, dark circles, dehydrated skin, sun spots and bumpy texture.
I have spoken about all these products in my video here and the order in which I use them:
“Buffet”
Multi-technology peptide serum
Price $19.90 (≈1279 INR) / 30ml
The reason why this serum is called “Buffet” is because it has “a little bit of this and a little bit of that”. It incorporates multiple technologies to combat multiple signs of aging so if anti-aging is your main concern, then this serum is a must-have. For more information on the different peptides in this serum, you can check out the product page here.
Buffet is alcohol-free, silicone-free, vegan and has a lovely watery texture (the texture of jelly water before the jelly sets) and gets absorbed easily into the skin. It also has Hyaluronic Acid which addresses the hydration concerns of the skin (unless your skin is very dehydrated in which case you would also need Hyaluronic Acid 2%). The pH of Buffet is between 4.5 -5.5 perfect to maintain the acid mantle of the skin.
Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG
Reduces Appearance of Eye Contour Pigmentation and Puffiness
Price $10.70 (≈688 INR) / 30ml
The Ordinary Caffeine Solution has really helped in reducing my dark circles and the puffiness under my eyes! Even when I am sleep deprived, I look fresh because my dark circles have reduced so much. Of course, if, like me, you too have hollowness under the eyes because of the structure of the bone, then that shadow will not go. No product can do anything about that to be honest.
The Caffeine Solution too, has a very light, watery texture and is absorbed quickly into the skin. It hydrates my under eye area as well and helps in controlling the appearance of fine lines there.
Hyaluronic Acid 2% +B5
A Hydration Support Formula with Ultra-Pure, Vegan Hyaluronic Acid.
Price $10.90 (≈701 INR) / 30ml
The Hyaluronic Acid present in most skincare products is of a very large molecular weight that gives only superficial hydration. The Ordinary’s Hyaluronic Acid (HA) has low, medium and high molecular weight HA along with HA crosspolymer for multi-depth hydration. It also has vitamin B5 to improve surface hydration.
Like the previous two serums, this one too is very watery, very lightweight, easily absorbed and keeps my skin hydrated all day long.
Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%
Multifunctional Brightening Formula
Price $12.90 ((≈829 INR) / 30ml
If you see the video above, you will notice that my skin has become brighter and the texture has improved a lot. So the Azelaic Acid Suspension does what it claims to do. However, it is very silicony and pills when I layer any makeup over it. Because of that I apply it only when I am not going to be wearing makeup or then just at night time. The pilling issue is my only gripe with this otherwise fabulous product.
My Views
As you can tell by now, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE The Ordinary products and highly, highly recommend them. They are super affordable and, more importantly, SUPER EFFECTIVE and that is what we want from our skincare, don’t we? My only concern now, with my upcoming fortnight-long holiday, is whether I will be able to travel safely with these glass bottles. Guess I will just have to wrap them in some bubble wrap and pack them. I can’t repeat it enough, these are FABULOUS and I highly, highly recommend this brand.
amazing
wow very nice
is this available on Amazon?
Hi Im from Meghalaya n i have ordered a lot of skin care products from The Ordinary brand…u can try Klosmic.com its based in India itself..internatinally u can check it out at Lookfantastic.co.in ,depending on how much u spent u might hav to pay custom service,i ended up paying 1000 for 4 items…Beautybay.com also carries The ordinary brand…Zestbeauty is always out of stock:(….Just one word its a wow, my skin feels better already after using for only 2 days..lets c how it does in the long run but i love it right now..u can email DECEIM directly for the specific skincare regimen based on ur skin type n problems…Hope it helps…love xoxo
Hi, I checked zestbeauty and so many ordinary products are out of stock… Do they notify when product is unstick? How is the shopping experience overall from this site? Thanks!
Hi ! Just wanted to check with you what age is apt to use the buffet serum, I am
32 and can it be used as a preventive skincare or should I opt for vitamin c serum from them? Can you advise pls?
In how many days do we recieve the order from zest beauty???
Wow !!such a lovely blog with interesting information about The Ordinary product.Does it suite for any type of skin?
Hello, lively review. You have convinced me to try these . Can u plz help me with the authentic website who can ship to india?
Thanks
Hi Prachi, Zestbeauty.com stocks The Ordinary and also has free shipping to India. I have ordered from them twice when my products got over.
Hi Dollie,
Is there a minimum order?It says FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER 250.00 USD?
Can you let me know the details of the payment steps.
Thanks
Chichi
You can order them from Zestbeauty.com. They have free international shipping and I have ordered my products from there as well.
Have u ordered their niacinamide serum??? If so,What was the total cost u paid price+shipping+customs?
Hi. I recently ordered the Niacinamide, Hyaluronic Acid and Alpha Lipoic Acid from Zestbeauty.com. The total came to Rs. 1367 with free shipping. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay customs duty this time.
Hi, can you tell when does zestbeauty restock their products? I ve been checking since long yet all ordinary products are oos… Thanks..
Shopping with zest beauty is great. I keep my total bill value below ₹2000 so that I don’t face customs duty and the product reaches me within 2-3 weeks. Not sure about the restocking of oos products though.
Hello..
Tysm for reviewing these 4 products..My main concern is that they really have a pretty good range and the chemical formulations make it a bit hard to choose exactly which of these are required for an individual’s personal skin concern. Could you please help?
This review came at the right time Dollie…I just placed a online order. I ordered from Zest beauty. They have all of ‘The Ordinary’ products as well… I can’t wait to receive them…. fingers crossed…I am so waiting to receive them.. <3 <3 u hv gorgeous skin…and yes, I also have that hollow under eye area…. its hereditary
I absolutely love them. Hope they work for you too.
Hi. Shipping seems to be 38 USD in Deciem site. How do I place order and avoide shipping charges while in india?
I have been waiting to get my hands on this range. Glad to see you reviewed some of their raved about products. Yeah the scientific names do sound a li’l scary :P, but now you tell us how we can know what’s good for our skin. Nice and detailed information. Cheers!
I am in love with these products. They have really worked wonderfully for me.
Deciem
Hey really wanted to try decimetre ordinary and hyalamide products… can you plz tell which site is the best to Order The ordinary products in India? Thanks a lot n u do look a lot more radiant..
You can order the Ordinary and Hylamide products from the DECIEM website. The prices are given in Rs as well and they do ship to India.
Hey.. great reviews.. i would love to try these.
How was your shipping experience? any duties or customs?
Thanks
Yes, unfortunately, I did have to pay customs duty. I think for these four products I was charged Rs. 260 or so.
Just wanted to confirm if you paid 38 USD for shipping from Deciem?