The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Review

I’ve been coming across The Ordinary brand quite a lot recently so I decided that I wanted to try and review a few of their products starting with this one, The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 review. This particular product was the first one to spark my interest because so many people were raving about it, not just because it was said to be really effective but also because it was so effective at a ridiculously cheap price much like most products in The Ordinary range.

By cheap price, I’m talking less than the average Amazon cheapy serum but what enticed me even more was the fact that it was pretty hard to get a hold of. It’s actually so popular that it pretty much sells out the minute it comes into stock so me being me, knowing this fact only made me want to get my hands on one all the more.

Good Things Are Worth Waiting For, Right?

In the end, I bought it directly from Deciem (the company that makes The Ordinary) because nobody else seemed to have it in stock but even with that, I still had to wait for more than two weeks because the stock wasn’t available. But when it did eventually arrive, I was more than excited to finally try this stuff out and see what all the fuss was about and I have to say, it was definitely worth the wait.

By the way, just to give you an idea as to how cheap The Ordinary’s products are, I had to spend over €25 to get free shipping (that might differ depending on where you are in the world) so of course, I ordered a few more products to hit the threshold. In the end, I spent around €26 which got me four different The Ordinary products.

If you really think about that, it works out at €6.50 per product and one of those products was a retinoid so regardless of whether you’re using dollars, pounds or euros, that’s pretty darn cheap in any currency.

The Benefits Of Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid is very beneficial to skin but in short, it has the ability to hold extremely large amounts of moisture and for this reason, it’s an excellent ingredient for keeping skin hydrated. In fact, it’s so good at hydrating that it can leave the skin with a plumper and fuller appearance which leads to fine lines, sagging skin and wrinkles appearing smoother and reduced.

It’s naturally produced in the skin but as we age, we struggle to maintain the moisture levels that we once could in our younger years and this is one of the reasons why our skin tends to become drier as we get older. This is also one of the reasons why hyaluronic acid has become such a popular skin care ingredient because one of its major properties is its ability to instantly boost our skin’s moisture levels.

What’s In This Serum

The two main ingredients are hyaluronic acid and vitamin B5. The vitamin B5 is said to be deeply hydrating to the skin so it’s an excellent addition to an already hydrating serum. The hyaluronic acid is actually present in three different forms ranging in molecular weight because HA is usually too large in molecular size to penetrate into the skin.

The Ordinary Hyaluronic acid serum combines low, medium and high molecular weight HA as well as an HA Crosspolymer so that it can achieve multi-layer skin hydration. The higher weight HA is excellent for surface hydration while the medium and low weight HA can penetrate into the skin to different levels to provide deeper hydration beyond the skin surface.

How It Looks And Feels

This serum is clear in colour and has a gel-like consistency to it making it a little thicker and gloppier than a water-like serum. You’ll notice this right out of the gate because as your trying to apply a few drops to your hand, the serum will continue to seep out of the dropper in a gooey fashion in between dropper squeezes.

This can make it a little tricky to judge how many drops you’re actually using but if you do your drops quickly together, you’re probably getting about a drop and a quarter with each squeeze. I use about three squeezes which is more than an ample amount for the entire face and it spreads really easily and absorbs pretty quickly too.

The Finish Is A Little Odd

It actually has a bit of a sticky, tacky feel to it once it’s on the skin but that dissipates almost completely (but not quite fully) fairly quickly within about a minute or so after application. But here’s the thing I found the most interesting about this serum and that’s the way my moisturiser went on afterward. If you’ve ever used a primer before applying your foundation then you’ll know exactly what I’m referring to with this because that’s exactly what it feels like.

My moisturiser literally glided across my skin much in the same way a foundation glides on easily over a primer and it felt as if I didn’t need half as much as what I would normally use because it spread so easily across my skin. My skin was also left feeling much smoother than normal once my moisturiser was applied, again much like the feeling you get when you’ve applied a primer under your makeup.

I’ve used numerous products over the years and many of them have contained hyaluronic acid but this is the first time I’ve ever used a concentrated hyaluronic acid only serum. So whether this is the norm for concentrated HA serums or just this particular one, I really don’t know until I test a few more but either way, I like it and if it makes my rather expensive moisturiser go further then all the better.

What About The Results

Well, there’s no denying that it provides instant moisture to the skin because it hydrates immediately upon application. Any dry areas quickly disappeared and my moisturiser didn’t have to do half the work it would normally have to. My skin also looked instantly smoother and fuller so for a cheap little bottle of ha, this stuff is pretty effective. It’s a seriously nice base for anything that goes on after it even if it is a little tacky when first applied.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there are superior products out there that probably come with a superior price tag too but for what it costs, this is a great HA serum and I can certainly see why it’s flying off the shelves so quickly. In fact, I take that back because until I actually try some of the higher end ones, this cheap bottle could well be giving them all a run for their money.

Be Careful Not To Mix Up Your Bottles

One of the reasons why The Ordinary keep their prices so low is partly to do with their simple fancy-free packaging but the downside to this is that a lot of their bottles look exactly the same. Some are in dark coloured bottles and others are in clear coloured bottles but if you’re not paying enough attention you could quite easily apply the wrong product by mistake if you have several The Ordinary products.

Why am I mentioning this, well because somehow I managed to do just that no more than a few days ago. While rushing out the other morning to get the kids to school, I grabbed what I thought was the HA serum. I applied it and thought hmm that feels a bit thicker than normal, dropped the kids to school then laid out in the (almost never seen here in Ireland) sunshine and almost 30-degree heat for an hour (don’t worry, I was wearing plenty of high factor SPF).

I’m So Glad Some Bottles Are Darker

It was only when I came back inside that I noticed my HA was still sitting with the rest of my skincare products and not on the kitchen island where I’d left the bottle of whatever I’d just put on my face still sitting before I left. It turned out that I’d actually put on their Niacinamide + Zinc serum which as you can see from the last picture above looks almost identical (as do a lot of their same coloured bottles)

All I can say is that it’s a good job the retinoid is in a dark coloured bottle otherwise that would have been a very interesting skin day to say the least :))). By the way, just so you don’t think I’m a complete scatterbrain, I’ve had these products for over two months now and I swear that’s the first time that’s ever happened, honest :).

What do you think about The Ordinary range and have you tried this particular HA serum? I’d love to know what you think about it so please free to share your thoughts in the comments below.