This pressed serum is pricey but absolutely worth the money

Discovering Maya Chia’s “The Super Blend” ($105) was a happy accident. After forgetting my usual moisturizer on a trip home to see my family, my mother handed me the pressed serum with a ceremonious flourish and said: “Here, try this.” Since then, the sherbert-hued skin-care product has a forever-home on my face.

The beauty brand describes the product as a “multi-correctional moisture concentrate using our most complex ingredient deck to date in a high-performance, luxurious formula” and I’d like to second that. The formula includes botanicals, pressed seed oils, and butters—all of which are great. But personally, I’m most invested in how all these components come together in a rich, non-greasy balm that turns my skin from dull to luminescent overnight. In short: It has set a new standard for how I expect all my beauty products to work.

Now, I know the triple-digit price tag may seem like a bit of a deterrent, but please allow me to explain why my Maya Chia mainstay is worth the extravagance. To get the full, glorious benefits of the product, you really only need a teeny-tiny bit (I’m talking the amount you can fit on the tip of your pinky finger). The jar that I purchased last Christmas ran out a few days ago and some very warped, self-indulgent math tells me that means I only paid about 29 cents per application.

There’s something else, too. Whenever I feel the slightest bit comfier in my own acne-prone, dramatic skin, I find myself skipping out on foundation and concealer. As we learned in the last decade, good skin care makes makeup work better—and might just make you feel better without it. Maya Chia accomplishes both feats and frankly, I say bravo.

A dermatologist’s skin-care routine, right this way:

Other beauty items to add to your 2020 cosmetic bag? This transformative lipstick and this curly hair gel.