Glow Recipe's New Pomegranate Serum Is A Skin-Firming Savior

Move aside, strawberry girls — it’s pomegranate season. Glow Recipe, everyone’s favorite fruit-forward brand, just launched a brand-new product that promises to deliver bouncy, Jell-O-esque skin featuring the benefits of this juicy, ruby-red fruit: the Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum. Like every Glow Recipe product, it spotlights a specific fruit, adds in a slew of clinically-effective skin care ingredients, and delivers some serious results. (See previous viral launches: the Avocado Ceramide Serum, to soothe, and the Plump Plump Hyaluronic Acid Serum, to hydrate skin from deep within.) The new Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum is the first serum in the Glow Recipe lineup to focus on firming the skin and restoring that bounce factor that we lose over time, which makes it a great option for anyone with mature skin or who’s noticing some sagging or loss of laxity. But does it live up to its claims? Keep reading to find out.

Fast Facts

• Price: $45
• Best For: Anyone looking for a serum to boost skin firmness
• Rating: 5/5
• What I Love: The texture — it’s water-light, milky and sinks in instantly. Plus, it’s TSA-friendly.
• What I Don’t Love: It can feel tight on the skin if you don’t follow with moisturizer.

Glow Recipe Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum

Let’s start with the formulation. When Sarah Lee and Christine Chang first started Glow Recipe, they wanted to create the Elle Woods of skin care brands — a.k.a. a brand that was playful and fun and colorful, but also backed up its claims with some serious science. The Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum is the perfect amalgamation of that vision. The packaging is a vibrant magenta and shaped like a juicy pomegranate seed, but it’s the formula inside that makes it special.

The milky, watery serum features pomegranate extract and seed oil, both rich in antioxidants and polyphenols (micronutrients that naturally occur in plants) to soothe and nourish the skin. There’s a dose of hyaluronic acid for plumping and squalane to lock in moisture. But the star of the show — the Regina George of the crew — is the polypeptide combo. Peptides are the building blocks of the proteins that make up your skin structure, and they tell your body to produce more collagen and elastin. They’re also known to improve your skin barrier, while firming and smoothing. Glow Recipe’s serum features a blend of signal peptides, which stimulate fibroblast collagen production, and copper (carrer) peptides, which deliver copper to certain enzymes that are critical for functions like collagen and elastin growth.

The results speak for themsleves: in a four-week consumer study conducted by Glow Recipe, 93% of people agreed their skin looked firm, lifted and smooth, while 100% of people agreed this product made lines and wrinkles on neck area less visible. Here’s the cincher — 94% of people agreed agreed the firming serum tightens sagging skin around the jawline, an area notorious for showing signs of aging (see: jowls).

The Review

I’ve been using Glow Recipe’s Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum for a few weeks and have enjoyed every application. Like other Glow Recipe products, it’s a true sensorial experience from start to finish. First, the satisfyingly smooth package that fits snugly in the palm of my hand. Then, the actual serum itself has a light pomegranate scent, thanks to the pomegranate extract (the brand never uses artificial fragrances in its products). It feels like treat for my skin to slather on because the formula is so light and watery, so it doesn’t feel heavy or clog my oily-combination skin. There’s no stickiness or stinging, and it’s just the right amount of viscous.

I use it morning and night and love the way it sinks in instantly. It’s one of two serums I brought with me on a trip abroad, and I swear my skin has never looked better after two weeks of consistent use. Plus, I’ve been slathering it all over my skin after beach days, and my skin drinks up the milky-light formula.

Final Verdict

At $45, Glow Recipe’s new serum isn’t exactly a steal, but it’s still more affordable than some other peptide-infused serums on the market. If you’re looking for a new serum to add to your rotation that will keep your skin looking bouncy, firm and healthy, and a sensorial serum you’ll look forward to using every morning and night, this pomegranate pick is for you.