A Hydrating Serum Made by a Princess
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If you're after healthy skin with a dewy, highlighted glow, this royal beauty launch might be for you. In her first collaboration with a brand, Princess Olympia of Greece joined forces with The Organic Pharmacy to create a hydrating elixir with a subtle hint of shimmer.
Although the socialite, model, and member of the Greek royal family is admittedly "obsessed" with The Organic Pharmacy's products now, she says that she didn't grow up with a passion for skin care. "There was a time when washing my face was the worst," she tells BAZAAR.com. A shift occurred when she moved to New York City and began experiencing the skin-clogging and inflammatory effects of the city's grime. "My mother was always in charge of my skin care routine when I was little," she says, recalling that there was a time when her mother, the Crown Princess of Greece and a natural beauty lover, would actually have to force her to wash her face. "But when I left the nest and moved to New York, my skin care problems all came out. I became obsessed with beauty ingredients, and finding out what works and doesn't work for my skin," she shares.
A lifelong friend mailed her a box of products from The Organic Pharmacy during quarantine, and she was hooked. The Limited Edition, Hyaluronic Acid Serum Glow x Olympia of Greece is a glistening, multipurpose serum meant to make you look effortlessly luminous and dewy. And for the record, it isn't just clean—a broad term that can mean a range of things in beauty marketing—it's specifically natural and organic.
Hence the hype surrounding this 95.5 percent organic formula, which is effectively green, vegan, and mindfully sourced to be sustainable, all in alignment with the company's ethos that healing can be found in nature. "The Organic Pharmacy is a healing brand," cofounder Margo Marrone says. "The idea is skincare that helps the skin heal." The brand's formulas make a point of excluding extraneous fillers, sensitizing preservatives, and the questionable ingredients often found in skincare.
"When I started The Organic Pharmacy 20 years ago, clean beauty was still really unusual. Everyone thought I was crazy," Marrone explains. But in the current beauty climate—and particularly with such conscious consumers to be found in the younger generations—the movement has gained mainstream momentum. "The first part of our brand's commitment to clean is using nontoxic ingredients, and I made it my mission to talk about the toxins in beauty through The Organic Pharmacy. But the other part that nobody talks about is that it is organic," she continues. "The reason is that pesticides are poisons, poisoning our bodies and our planet, breaking the cycle of nature."
The new Hyaluronic Acid Serum Glow is a combination of three different weights of hyaluronic acid, glycerin, grapefruit peel extract, and shimmering mica, within a base of witch hazel water that makes the hydrator uniquely astringent, soothing, and great for refining the appearance of pores. While all The Organic Pharmacy's skincare products are 100 percent active (meaning, filler free) by using a base of floral water, aloe is its most popular choice. The inspiration for this formula's use of witch hazel water comes directly from Princess Olympia herself, whose mother has long used witch hazel for the skin.
As for the serum's functionality, it is essentially a soothing hydrator that tightens, tones, and leaves a glowing finish. As New York–based, board-certified dermatologist Hadley King explains, "The humectants—hyaluronic acid and glycerin—make this serum hydrating, while the grapefruit peel oil and witch hazel provide antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and astringent properties, which will be particularly helpful for oily and acne-prone skin. The mica will leave a luminous glow."
King further explains that humectants work by binding water to the stratum corneum of the skin, "thereby hydrating the skin and helping it to look more plump." And because the formula utilizes three different molecular sizes of hyaluronic acid, each form penetrates the skin at different depths, as its hydrophilic properties attract water molecules, simultaneously plumping and hydrating. (To get the most out of its hydrating qualities in your regimen, she recommends following it up with a moisturizer in order to seal the moisture in. "Humectants must be used in conjunction with emollients and occlusives to retain the hydration," King says.)
As for how you use the serum, it is refreshingly versatile. It can be used morning and night, and King confirms that it should play well with other active ingredients should you layer it with daily staples like vitamin C, retinol, exfoliating toners, et cetera. Due to its barely-there highlighting effect, it possesses a refreshingly understated aesthetic effect for those moments when you're craving extra glow. Olympia loves applying it before dinner—dabbing it on her cheeks, or even mixing it with her concealer. Plus, as she points out, it fits right in your bag.
The Organic Pharmacy Hyaluronic Acid Serum Glow x Olympia of Greece is available now for $65 online at theorganicpharmacy.com.
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