Beauty

The New Glow Recipe Guava Serum Is Packed With Brightening Ingredients That Target Dark Spots and Dullness

This serum is a bright, juicy addition to your skin-care routine.
Glow Recipe's new guava serum.
Eve J. Liu/Courtesy of Glow Recipe

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Sure, it may be pumpkin spice season to some, but others are still trying to cling to the last bit of summer. And the new Glow Recipe serum delivers that sunny, tropical goodness plus brightening and hydrating benefits to help bring your summer shine into fall and beyond.

The brand's latest fruity offering, the Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum, aims to lighten dark spots and dullness with a combination of antioxidants and tranexamic acid, a relatively new ingredient in over-the-counter products. But the guava serum doesn't just contain one form of vitamin C (a notoriously unstable ingredient), it has five, including both water- and oil-soluble formulas. While vitamin C is a go-to ingredient for brightening skin, different forms work best for different types of skin and some are easier to keep stabilized than others, so this product is covering all its bases here. 

Glow Recipe paired all that vitamin C (including some derived from guava-seed oil and guava-fruit extract) with antioxidants vitamin E and ferulic acid. That's an all-star combination of ingredients often seen in much pricier products. Glow Recipe's previous vitamin C serum, the Pineapple-C Bright Serum, contains exfoliating ingredients as well as the star antioxidant. In turn, the guava serum doubles down on gentle brightening ingredients. 

The serum also contains 1.1% tranexamic acid, which has been studied extensively over the past several years in oral formulations in the treatment of hyperpigmentation, including melasma. There's generally more evidence showing that tranexamic acid can help reduce melasma when taken orally than when used topically. But a growing body of evidence suggests that topical formulations could have some benefits too. With the addition of glycerin and hyaluronic acid, the formula will also help keep skin feeling hydrated and plump.

Glow Recipe's new guava serum, with a light gel texture and bright pink color, absorbs into the skin easily. As of today, it's available on the brand's site and at Sephora

Glow Recipe Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum

This juicy serum contains a combination of antioxidants and powerful brightening ingredients to target dark spots and hyperpigmentation.

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