The Ordinary product review. Nothing ordinary about it.

I genuinely believe this is the best range I have ever tried. The carrier systems and feel of the products may not be the most sophisticated but I love them as:

 1) you know what concentration the active ingredients in (which quite frankly is the only bit of the product I care about)

2) the active ingredients are in a stable form – you can find plenty of products on the high street with active ingredients such as vitamin c (cough Aldi cough), but as soon as you mix them with water the ingredient is no longer active and effective

3) the packaging is appropriate for the product i.e. dark glass for vitamin c products to avoid UV oxidation AND mostly recyclable due to the use of glass vs plastic

4) they are mega affordable so if you skin does not agree with a certain ingredient you have only lost a fiver

I have tried A LOT of products from the range so will do a quick rundown of my favourites, and some that I have used but may not be repurchasing

Product	Pros - Why I liked it	Cons
Hyaluronic acid and B5 serum	Cheapest way to get good quality hyaluronic acid into the skin	It is a bit sticky. This is not a problem if you only layer a moisturiser over, but I have found if you layer it over niacinamide or use a vitamin c powder mixed with the moisturiser it will causing some pilling
Ascorbyl Glucoside Solution 12%  Ethylated Ascorbic Acid 15% Solution	Pleasant to use, no stinging, no grittiness so good to apply makeup over. Dark bottle to avoid oxidation	I did not really see any results from either of these products so swapped to a higher concentration
Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate Solution 20% in Vitamin F	Feels lovely to apply.	Oil base so this was donated to my mum who has a drier and non acne prone skin
Vitamin C Suspension 23% + HA Spheres 2%	Great for resurfacing and brightening	Doesn’t feel great to apply, gritty. This does go after 5/10 mins as it absorbs and warms to the skin, but you would probably want a primer if applying foundation over
100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder	This is my current form of vitamin C. You can make it as potent or diluted as you like. Minimal tingling. No gritty feeling.	I find it works better mixed with a moisturiser vs a serum as sometimes it does not dissolve fully in a serum and leaves white patches on the skin. The problem completely disappeared when I mixed with moisturiser.
Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion	Lovely product. Lovely lightweight serum, did not cause any peeling or irritation. I did not even need to use a moisturiser over this	None I prefer this formulation to the Granactive Retinoid 2% in Squalane
Granactive Retinoid 5% in Squalane	Great product, you skin feels like silk in the morning.	This caused absolutely no irritation or breakouts on my skin however I had to switch to oil free products for my comedones, so this got moved to use on my neck only. My neck cannot seem to tolerate the higher strength retinols that I use on my face, so this is perfect
AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution	This may well be my favourite product from the range. The concentration of the acids is great and is the highest performing mask of this kind that I have tried. Glass skin ahoy	It burns and tingles. Beware if a first-time user of acids. Start with leaving it on for just 2 minutes and work up slowly. When you’re mad like me, you can even run your foreo over it at the end of the 10 mins to activate it further
2% Salicylic acid serum	2% is the percentage you need for it to have a true pore cleaning effect, so this is perfect	I prefer my la roche posay effaclar duo as it provides the triple spot fighting whammy with salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide and niacinamide so I stick with this to avoid having to apply 10 different products
100% Organic Cold-Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil	Lovely texture, absorbs quite quickly but can also be layered to do a massage or for a healing boost. I had a burn from a product (too strong a retinol) on my neck and this was the only thing that solved it and stopped it being sore and itchy. If you do not have any pore blockage issues this would be great to use on the face too	Doesn’t smell great, which actually is fine by me because I do not want added fragrance in my products.
Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA	Lovely simple moisturiser. No oil, no fragrance. Great for cuticles and nails too (tip from Mr Truaxe himself)	None
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%	Great concentration of the actives. The added zinc is also great for my acne prone skin. No irritation	If you layer this under hyaluronic acid, make sure you only use a small amount of the niacinamide otherwise the hyaluronic can leave little white patches, however these disappear as soon as you layer over a moisturiser.
Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG	If you are at all prone to puffiness – going through a break up, massive Chinese food binge – slap this on the night before and again in the morning and it’ll disappear. The other wonderful benefit of this product is it can be mixed into other things. For example, when I’m on a real summer kick, after dry body brushing my legs (which I do daily) I mix a good squirt of the caffeine solution into my body cream and slather on for some skin firming action	This is drying (it’s kind of the point of the product) so I apply this onto clean, dry skin, let it absorb for a couple of minutes while I brush my teeth etc then layer my eye cream or moisturiser over the top
Lactic Acid 10% + HA	Lovely texture, easily absorbed, good resurfacing	For some reason this worsened my acne. I am lactose intolerant but that is a digestive thing so shouldn’t have affected the skin but either way, I stopped using this and donated.

In summary, my must haves are the aha bha peel, the caffeine solution, vitamin c powder and niacinamide. For beginners, I would definitely get the hyaluronic acid serum and the retinoids.