Yusma 5 in 1 Beauty Pack

• Four steps, one sequence: Soap, serum, cream, capsule. Nothing to research, nothing to sequence, nothing used at the wrong point.
• A skin serum thin enough to layer: Water, propylene glycol and glycerin lead its list, so it absorbs before the cream goes over the top.
• Alpha arbutin does the slow work: As a hyperpigmentation serum it acts on the enzyme that makes pigment, which takes weeks rather than days.
• Sizes that finish together: Thirty grams of cream and five millilitres of serum run down at roughly the same rate, so restarting is clean.
• A sensible way to try a range: Cheaper than four full sizes, and enough of each to find out whether any of it suits you.

Three of the items carry their own ingredient lists. Two ingredients appear in more than one of them, which is worth knowing.

Alpha arbutin — In both the cream and the serum. Not a problem, but it does mean you cannot tell which one is working.

Niacinamide — Niacinamide serum benefits usually show up first as less redness and only later as tone. It is the one you are likeliest to notice.

Glycolic acid and lactic acid — An acid in the serum and a different acid in the cream, applied one directly over the other, with no strength stated for either.

L-glutathione and kojic acid dipalmitate — The supporting tone ingredients, one in each product. Both are slow, and neither works while you are not using it.

The honest limitation, and it matters more here than on a single product: there is a glycolic acid in the serum and a lactic acid in the cream, and the routine puts one straight on top of the other with no percentage stated for either. That is fine for most skin and too much for some. Start with the serum three nights a week, build up over a month, and wear a sunscreen every morning while you do — both acids make skin burn more easily.

Full ingredients (INCI), exactly as printed on the pack:

CREAM — Aqua, Cetyl Alcohol, Bees Wax, Petrolatum, Lanoline Alcohol, Argireline, Blueberry Extract, Avocado Oil, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Fragrance, Kojic Acid DP, Niacinamide, Zinc Oxide, Alpha Arbutin, Titanium Dioxide, Lactic Acid & Preservatives.

SERUM — Aqua, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Alpha Arbutin, Niacinamide, Aloe Barbadensis, Provitamin B5, Glycolic Acid, L-Glutathione, Hyaluronic Acid, Matrixyl 3000 and preservatives.

SOAP — Vegetable Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Aqua, Sodium Hydroxide, Lauric Acid, Palmitic Acid, Glycerin, PG, Calendula, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lactate, Kojic Acid Dipalmitate, Arbutin, Vitamin E, Vitamin B3 & Fragrance.

1. Wash with the soap, morning and night. Rinse fully and do not let the bar sit in water between uses.
2. At night, apply three or four drops of the serum to damp skin and let it absorb for a minute.
3. Follow with the cream while the skin still feels slightly damp. This is the step the whole box is sequenced around.
4. In the morning, soap and cream only. Leave the serum for the evening, because of the acids in it.
5. Use the vitamin E capsule on individual dry patches or marks rather than across the whole face.
6. Sunscreen every morning, without exception, for as long as you are using this routine.

Do you put serum on before moisturiser, or after?

Before, almost always, and this box is built that way. The rule that actually works is thinnest to thickest: a watery serum cannot get through a cream, but a cream goes on happily over a serum. Reverse the order and you have paid for an active ingredient that never reaches your skin.

What does serum do to your face that a cream does not?

It carries active ingredients in a thin, fast-absorbing base with very little sitting between them and your skin. A cream has to do two jobs — deliver actives and seal moisture in — so it is heavier, and heavier means slower. Neither replaces the other; they are sequential, not alternative.

Serum vs cream — if I could only keep one?

Keep the cream. A moisturiser protects the skin barrier, and a compromised barrier undoes whatever the serum was working towards. The serum is the upgrade, not the foundation. That said, the whole point of buying a set is not having to choose.

How to apply serum on face without wasting it?

Three or four drops is a full-face dose. Press it in with flat palms rather than rubbing it around with fingertips, which leaves most of it on your hands. Apply to slightly damp skin — it spreads further and absorbs faster — and wait a minute before the cream.

How long before I see anything?

Texture and comfort shift within a fortnight, mostly from the moisturising. Tone is slower: alpha arbutin and kojic acid work on pigment production rather than pigment already there, so eight to twelve weeks of consistent use is a realistic window. Photographs in the same light beat memory.

Is it safe to use the serum and the cream together every night?

For most people, once your skin is used to them. Both contain an acid, so start with the serum three nights a week and build up. Stinging that settles in a minute is normal; stinging that persists, or flaking, means you are going too fast.

Is it a good gift?

It works as one, because a set removes the need for the recipient to know anything. The two things to check first are whether they already use a retinol or an exfoliating acid, which would clash with the acids here, and whether fragrance is a problem for them. Both the cream and the soap are fragranced.

Can I buy the items separately afterwards?

Yes, and most people do once they know what they liked. The standalone Yusma sizes are larger, so the pack works out cheaper per gram than buying four full sizes to find out. Check the ingredient lists when you reorder, as pack and standalone formulas are not always identical.