A water-free antioxidant serum from The Ordinary, built around pycnogenol, a pine-derived antioxidant, and designed to help protect skin from environmental stressors. It can be used alone or mixed into moisturizer.
Propanediol, Pinus Pinaster Bark Extract
Guru Score
The Guru Score: every expert's verdict on a product, in one simple number.
Under the score you'll see how many experts weighed in, or "Early verdict" while only a few have. Paid takes count for half in the score.
Guru Certified means at least 6 experts, a score of 85% or more, and almost no Nays.
How we score →Yay
6 experts · Moderate agreementWhat the gurus are saying
Pycnogenol, the pine-derived antioxidant at the heart of this serum, keeps coming up with praise for guarding against pollution and sun, and for calming the skin. Several gurus suggest mixing a couple of drops into moisturizer, as applying it straight can use up the bottle fast. Opinions on strength differ, with several calling it a potent antioxidant while one take says it isn't that powerful.
What they liked
What they flagged
The concerns the experts tie this product to, in their own words. Paid and founder takes don't count.
“If you're someone who lives in a polluted city, if you have a damaged skin barrier, if you've spent a little too much time in the sun, or you're just stressed both intrinsically internally and externally, this can really help.”
Cassandra Bankson, watch at 9:10
“so it's going to be next level when it comes to anti-aging, preventing fine lines and wrinkles.”
Mad About Skin, watch at 5:34
“And that's going to work great [...] to provide some great wrinkle-reducing, firmness-returning benefits.”
Mad About Skin, watch at 9:52
Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.
Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.
A water-free antioxidant serum from The Ordinary, built around pycnogenol, a pine-derived antioxidant, and designed to help protect skin from environmental stressors. It can be used alone or mixed into moisturizer.
Yes. All 6 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 81%.
The Ordinary Pycnogenol 5% and Ectoin Micro Emulsion holds a Guru Score of 81%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 6 expert reviewers we have collected.
In their reviews, experts say The Ordinary Pycnogenol 5% and Ectoin Micro Emulsion is good for dull skin (3 experts), irritated or reactive skin (1 expert), skin barrier support (1 expert), fine lines and wrinkles (1 expert) and loss of firmness (1 expert).
3 experts who reviewed The Ordinary Pycnogenol 5% and Ectoin Micro Emulsion say it is. Mad About Skin put it this way: “My skin feels glowy, it feels juicy.”
Lower-priced products in the same category that the experts still rate highly.
See how they stack up →Other products the same gurus have weighed in on, plus more from this brand and category.
Compare side by side →Stories where our editors dug into this product or its brand.
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