The cold weather can make skin more dry, sensitive or unbalanced than usual, something that I’ve certainly experienced. So when I heard of a new product from popular skincare brand The INKEY List that claims to not only hydrate but also strengthen the skin, I had to try it out – and, even better, it has even been on primetime TV.
In a recent segment on ITV’s This Morning with Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, beauty expert and influencer Nadine Baggott talked through some of her 2025 skincare trends and recommended products, and amongst them was The INKEY List’s new Ectoin Hydro-Barrier Serum. Priced at £15, it claims to hydrate the skin up to 10 layers deep, while also including trending ingredient ectoin to support and strengthen the skin barrier.
Keen to try it, I swapped my pricey professional serum for this affordable formula…
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My skin has been playing up in lots of ways this winter – I’ve had breakouts, patches of dry skin and inflammation all at once – and on the advice of a skin expert I’ve taken every active ingredient out of my skincare routine and stripped it back to basics, which seems to be working. To try out this INKEY List serum, I swapped out my usual serum for this new formula but kept the rest of my products the same.
The texture of this is lovely – lightweight and quickly absorbed but more nourishing that a typical hyaluronic acid serum yet not as thick as a moisturiser, like there’s ‘more’ in the formula. It leaves a slight glow, and other products sit really well on top of it – no pilling or sliding around.
After just a couple of uses I could already notice a difference: dry patches, especially around blemishes, were lessened, my skin had more of a glow, and make-up sat better over the top.
The INKEY List handily explain on their packaging at which stage in your skincare routine to use Ectoin Hydro-Barrier Serum (after cleansing and before any other serum or treatment). If you usually like a hyaluronic serum but find that it’s not quite ‘enough’ in winter, this is for you.
Other skincare products recommended by Nadine in this clip include the new L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Laser Tripeptides Age-Correcting Serum, available at Boots for £31.99, and The Skin Diary Night Repair Therapy, £135, with claims that it’s ’20 times more powerful that retinol’.
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