This ‘Glow Balm’ Makes My Seriously Dry Skin Look Like a Glazed Donut

The majority of my beauty routine is dedicated to making my perpetually dry skin look like a glazed donut. That means layering on brightening serums, hydrating moisturizers, and glow-inducing oils, which puts my daily regimen at a jarring 10 steps—and that’s not including the highlighters and complexion products I layer on top of it all on days deemed worthy of wearing makeup. It’s a lot, and quite frankly no one has time for that. So when I found a product that would help cut this ordeal in half, I jumped on the chance to test it out for myself.

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Yves Saint Laurent NU GLOW IN BALM Face Priming Moisturizer — $36.00

Yves Saint Laurent’s Nu Glow In Balm Face Priming Moisturizer ($36) is part moisturizer, part primer, and everything I need to get the luminous skin I’ve spent years lusting after. It’s got an ultra-lightweight, creamy texture, and leaves behind a sheen that has people constantly complimenting my skin.

The formula packs a one-two punch of hydrating ingredients. First, it’s got glycerin, which acts as a humectant to attract water into the surface of your skin. “Glycerin is not only so great at drawing water into the skin, but it’s also super gentle, which is why you’ll see it in a ton of products,” Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in Connecticut, previously told Well+Good. “I personally think that glycerin is the one ingredient that’s good for everyone. It’s no bells and whistles, we know it works, and everybody should have it.”

Next, there’s skin-conditioning shea butter, a softening-and-smoothing natural oil that acts as an occlusive to trap all that newly attracted moisture under the surface of your skin. Together, these two ingredients offer everything you need from a daily hydrating product.

What really makes the formula so great, though, is the fact that it’s infused with light-reflecting pearls and rosat extract. The pearls give skin a gleaming glow immediately after application, and the rosat extract helps to boost the skin’s natural radiance over time. The result? Glazed donut skin without a zillion steps required.

While the primer isn’t quite thick enough to replace my daily moisturizer (at least during the colder months of the year), it’s become the final step in my skin-care routine every single day—whether I’m wearing makeup or not. On no-makeup mornings, I love that it makes my complexion look brighter and more even, and when I layer it on under foundation, it makes me look lit from within and keeps the product from caking or drying out throughout the day. It sinks easily into the skin and has a subtle scent that can best be described as “similar to a rich mom’s lotion,” which makes putting it on feel like a luxury experience.

While I can’t promise that my beauty routine will ever truly be “minimalistic,” this stuff is helping me get closer than ever before.

For more tips on dealing with dry skin, check out the video below. 

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