Skincare on a Budget – How Good Is The Inkey List

I have raved about The Inkey List for quite some time and it’s time to properly review the products I have from them.

This brand is highly affordable and is a great competitor for The Ordinary. They have a distinguished black and white packaging, and a black and white website. The Inkey List has also released a hair care line, and I have tested one of their treatments as I am a curious person.

They are cruelty-free and vegan friendly and their packaging is made of recycled plastic. They also ensure that their products are affordable but don’t cut corners on quality.

The founders of The Inkey List believe that their skincare is premium quality but at affordable prices. They have even admitted that some products don’t bring them money.

Disclaimer: all of these products were bought with my own money.

Disclaimer bis: recommendations are based on my own experiences and one product might work for me but not for you. Please do your own research to further decide if this is something you wish to try.

The Inkey List Review

As you can see from the list below, I do love The Inkey List. And I love testing all their new launches. The brand is available at look fantastic, cult beauty, Sephora, and I’m probably missing some other retailers, but these are the main channels I use to order them. And unlike other brand releases where I have to wait for months for them to be available to me, because Europe yo, TIL products are available to me immediately.

It is high time I review my The Inkey List products.

30% Vitamin C

The Inkey List Vitamin C was one of the first products I have tried from the brand. It is a 30% l-ascorbic acid silicone suspension that helps tackle hyperpigmentation and dull skin. The silicone makes the formula highly stable but also highly difficult to work with. It also has a blurring effect so they recommend using it as a makeup base. The cream comes in a 30 ml squeeze tube, which is perfect for the consistency.

They describe the serum as being creamy. For me, this Vitamin C is a thick white paste. It is difficult to use on the entire face so I resorted to using it as a spot treatment. It didn’t work well with layering either. Don’t get me wrong, it works, and I even repurchased it. But I stopped loving it.

What drew me in was a whopping 30%. But higher dosage doesn’t always mean better results. It freaking stings. I have since learned to be more patient and use a more easy formula to work with.

15% Vitamin C and EGF

Come in the 15% Vitamin C and EGF serum review. This one comes in a 30 ml bottle with a pump. This serum doesn’t use l-ascorbic acid, but rather ascorbyl glucoside, which is a stable form of vitamin c with glucose. Upon application on the skin, it transforms in ascorbic acid. It helps suppress melanin production and effectively treat and prevent hyperpigmentation.

EGF stands for Epidermal Growth Factor. The Inkey List uses 1% Epitensive. This support the skin rejuvenation, and the natural collagen and elastin in our skin.

The brand recommends using the serum separately from Retinol and AHA and letting absorb for 10 minutes. This ensures that EGF does its job.

This is by far my favourite Vitamin C serum. Despite “only” being 15% vitamin c, I find that it is gentle and effective, and I have had great results with it. This bottle is now empty but I am going to probably repurchase.

Retinol Serum

Did I rave enough about The Inkey List retinol serum? Probably not.

Retinol is the king of any skincare routine, whether you wish to find acne, hyperpigmentation or signs of ageing. The Inkey List Retinol serum is a slow-release one and also contains squalane which makes it gentle on the skin.

Key ingredients are 1% RetiSTAR™ and also 0,5 Granactive Retinoid.

If you are somebody who is only starting retinol, or if you have sensitive skin, or if you just want to keep your retinol journey low, this is for you. If you are afraid of sensitivity, apply this after your hyaluronic acid. It will act as a buffer.

I have very resilient skin, I have said it a number of times, I can use tretinoin every day, but I still enjoyed this retinol serum. I will repurchase it at some point. Currently, I am on Accutane so I don’t want to compromise my skin by using an additional topical retinoid.

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Tranexamic Acid Night Treatment

One of my favourite products from The Inkey List is their Tranexamic Acid Night Treatment. This was one of those products which I grabbed the minute it got out. After my glorious experience with the Discoloration Serum from Good Molecules, I just needed to continue with tranexamic acid.

This Tranexamic Acid Treatment has notable ingredients, such as 2% tranexamic acid, 2% acai berry extract, and 2% vitamin c. All of these work in unison to promote an even skin tone. If you want to know more information on Tranexamic Acid I have a breakdown in this post.

The con: prepare yourself for a foul smell. This treatment smells absolutely horrible. It is a transparent gel-like serum, and the brand recommends using it as the last step instead of moisturizer, or in the beginning before serums. The good news is that it delivers great results and I can overlook the smell, you can’t smell it once applied.

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These are the products I have been using for a while now and love however I have recently added 5 more, their infamous oat cleansing balm and sunscreen among them. You can read it here.

You might also be interested in : Good Molecules Review

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