The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% Review

Hello lovely ladies,

Today’s review is on another product from the revolutionary skincare brand – The Ordinary. I have reviewed a couple of other products from the brand earlier – namely, Vitamin C Suspension 23% + HA Spheres 2% and 10% and The Ordinary 100% Organic Cold Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil. I have a host of products yet to be reviewed from this brand. I know the pace is slow but you have to understand that this is skincare. It isn’t a lipstick or blush that you would use 3-4 times and be able to form an opinion about the quality and efficacy of the product. Skincare needs time to show results and I do not like reviewing something till I am sure whether it is working or not 🙂 I will try to expedite my reviews as much as possible because I do understand that there is a lot of curiosity and demand for this brand. And also, because I do wish to address certain aspects of this brand which I will cover over this review and the others, so let us get on with it 🙂

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension Review

Product Description:
Brighten and restore an even tone and texture to your skin with this lightweight cream-gel. Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% is a lightweight cream-gel with with azelaic acid. This treatment brightens the skin, reduces the look of blemishes, and promotes an even tone and texture. It also fades hyperpigmentation and reduces the redness associated with rosacea.
Key Ingredients:
Azelaic acid: an antioxidant that is naturally produced by yeast living on healthy skin. It has brightening, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects.

How To Use:
Apply a pea-sized amount to your skin at night after toners and water-based treatments. Avoid contact with your eyes and mouth. If irritation occurs, this product can be diluted to reduce its strength. We recommend wearing sun protection during the day when this product is part of your routine. Size: 30 ml
pH: 4-5. Cruelty-free. Vegan.

Ingredients:
The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension ingredients

Price:
USD 12.90 for 30 ml.

My Experience with The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%:

My standard skin type information – I have oily to combination skin which gets dull and dehydrated very easily – due to my lousy eating habits, my horrid sleeping patterns and (let’s face it) my age!!!!). Also, I deal with periodic acne, and with the scars left over from previous ones! I discussed regarding the brand – in quite detail – in my review of their Vitamin C Suspension review. I am inserting my prior thoughts here again with the addition of some new ones:

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension open

Why is this brand supposed to be all revolutionary? Why is it supposed to be the next best thing? Here are some of the points to consider (in no particular order):

The Price Point. This I think is one of the MOST important point to consider. For example, the cost of this Vitamin C suspension is USD 9.70. Not that you don’t get skincare at that price point – you do, but you definitely don’t get targeted anti-ageing skincare at that price point. The Ordinary is just one of the lines that the parent Company Diciem has under their belt. Niod and Hylamide are some of the other web known brands under the Company’s umbrella. The packaging is as simple as it can be. How does that make a difference? All the Ordinary products come in these simple glass bottles – except the Vitamin C suspension which is in a tube. The packaging is basic and “ordinary” (pun intended). This means, there is less money wasted on the frills.

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension outer packaging

The Language: This again is the key here. The Company talks ingredients. Their products don’t have fancy names, they don’t make fancy claims, they don’t do fancy jargons, they don’t try to sell you this “uhmazing new revolutionary patent-pending ingredient!” All their packaging, descriptives, talk, website – everything is based around “tried and tested” ingredients. While this could be an issue for someone who isn’t comfortable/aware of ingredients and what role each one has to play in their skincare, it is still a welcome change for the rest of the skincare obsessed people.

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension tube

Being ingredient based, the brand allows you to pick which ingredient you want to include in your skin regime. So, you can make your own cocktail – specific to your skin’s needs. Also, in case you already have a good skin care routine going, the ingredient based approach allows you to boost the amount of any one ingredient in your regime. So, you can continue with your existing routine which say already has all that you need. But you feel that you want to augment – say the amount of Vitamin C or the amount of Niacinamide in your regime. And you can add just that one extra ingredient into your existing routine.

In terms of approach, I think it is a very unique approach. However, people need to understand each ingredient they are planning to invest in and how to use it – including what other ingredient it is okay to mix with and what could actually turn out to be counter productive. I feel it is a bit like mutual funds, please read the offer document carefully before investing.

Today’s review is on the Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%:

Quickly first – What is Azelaic Acid and what role does it play in skincare?

Azelaic acid is a naturally-occurring ingredient which is present in the skin. It can also be derived from grains like wheat and barley. Topical application of this ingredients boosts the action of the product. It is an ingredient which is fairly safe to use, by every skin type – including sensitive – unless used at a very high potency. Higher potency of the product would anyway be prescription based – and not available cosmetically or over the counter.

Azelaic Acid is a FDA0approved ingredient in skincare. It is research backed and not a new fangled hep name coined by some company which promises to give you a ride to the moon and back. Azelaic acid is known as an effective treatment for the following:

Acne – being a natural antibacterial. So, it will help with acne only for people who have acne die to bacterial infection. will not help others.
Inflammation – especially rosacea
Hyperpigmentation – due to its ability to reduce the product of melanin in specific area – enabling its use in treatment of melasma, age spots and freckles.

Finally, let us discuss the product:

Packaging: The product comes packaged in a metallic plastic tube with a flip cap. The product can be dispensed easily and there is enough control to manage the amount of product being dispensed. The tube comes packaged in a white cardboard box which has all the details about the product mentioned on top. I do appreciate the fact that the tube has a foil tamper-proof seal on the tube.

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension directions to use

Texture:  The texture of the product is creamy but it’s very lightweight and absorbs easily into the skin. There is no residue or feeling of heaviness left behind on the skin. This ensures that you can continue to layer more products on top. This is good because if azelaic acid is part of your skin care routine, it probably isn’t the only product in the routine. You may have products going in before and after this.

Application: Application is simple enough – you squeeze out a pea-sized amount and spread it all over your face or if hyperpigmentation is your only concern, you can restrict using it only to the areas which have hyperpigmentation. Considering its texture, this should ideally be applied before heavier creams and oil, but after any acid/serum. Dimethicone allows it to spread easily and it gets absorbed fairly quickly. You do not need to wait around for it to sink in.

Efficacy: Here is the thing despite azelaic acid being a researched product and known for its role in countering bacterial acne, inflammation and hyperpigmentation. The company has not made any claims to its efficacy in this regard. Instead, the claims made by the brand are that it targets uneven skin tone, dullness, and textural irregularities. So, when I discuss efficacy of the product, I have to take into account only the claims made by the brand and evaluate the product based on that.

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension swatch on hand

When I started using this product, my skin wasn’t in a very good place. It was post my summer travels which had pretty much thrown my skincare routine for a toss. After all, how many bottles and jars can you carry with you while travelling! Let us be real. So, I was pretty much sustaining on my Drunk Elephant Vitamin C in the morning and that was something I was stuck to. Rest, everything became negotiable. Without the nightly dose of proper skincare, there were tell-tale signs. The sun spots seemed visible again. I had redness on my cheeks and obviously, there was texture. I’m pretty sure that the potent Vitamin C coupled with a good sunscreen still saved my skin, else I would have been much worse off. Post coming back home, I did not instantly start with a full-on night-time skincare routine. I thought it was a good way to test individual products instead. Put together, I would not have known which product was resulting in what changes.

Back to the product in hand… post using this – even after a week (or less) – my skin felt better. There was visible decrease in the sun spots and it definitely countered inflammation of the skin because the redness on my cheeks disappeared. Over a couple of weeks, my skin started looked much better and the textured feel was reduced. But in all honesty, the impact on the texture could also be because of the oils i was using.

Overall, I am definitely impressed with the product. It lives up to its claims, it is easy to use, easy on the pocket – if only it was as easy to procure! 🙁

One point to remember, please ensure you use sunscreen while using this product (whether you use it in AM or PM).

Pros of The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%:

  • High concentration of stable azelaic acid, high enough to be effective without being so high that it could cause any side effects.
  • An excellent antioxidant.
  • A stable formulation.
  • Results visible fairly quickly.
  • Targets uneven skin tone, dullness, and texture irregularities.
  • Supple, brighter, clearer, more even toned skin.
  • Did not break me out.
  • Non-comedogenic.
  • Free from unnecessary additives like colour and fragrance.
  • Cruelty free.
  • Vegan.
  • Can be used AM or PM.
  • The tube packaging hopefully allows the antioxidant to remain stable through the shelf life of the product.
  • Safe to be used by all skin types – including sensitive.

Cons of The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%:

  • The product does have silicones, which isn’t a problem for me but just a heads-up for someone who is sensitive to silicone.

IMBB Rating:

5/5

This one is a keeper, something I would like to continue using in my skincare regime. The price point coupled with the effectiveness of the product make it a no-brainer. Totally recommend. Also, considering it is safe to be used by all skin types (including sensitive), I feel everyone should give this a shot.

Another thing – I purchased this product from an online store. Some of the previous products had been picked from another site. If you see both the sites, they provide extensive information not on the products, they went a step ahead in attempting to help customers understand each product. Because each of the products purchased online came with a leaflet that explains the product. Selling ingredient-based product is difficult in a world driven by jargon based (apparently) miracle performing products. I feel, both Diciem and online retailers are doing an amazing job of helping customers make an informed decision.

Disclaimer – All the ingredient-related information has been derived from online resources.

 

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4 thoughts on “The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% Review

  1. KK, after a recent laser treatment, I had horrible post inflammatory marks on my skin, and the doctor suggested azelaic acid based cream – if you are getting it in whole 10% concentration in this cream, that’s awesome!

  2. KK, I have their hyaluronic aid, marula oil, rose hip oil, buffet, caffeine solution, retinol 2%, the peel and a few other products. Have not used them long enough to make a comment. I like the texture of hyaluroni acid. Buffet is a bit sticky for me.

    1. I have been testing about a dozen products from their line. I feel it is a mixed bag. Some products are excellent, some probably don’t work for my skin.

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