We’ve got a new player in the skincare game, and they’re making a splash already! The Inkey List is a British skincare brand whose aim is to break down the confusing jargon that is the skincare industry. Their prices are affordable, packaging clean, and ingredients simple. Remind you of another brand on the market? I was lucky enough to get a few products to try out. How does The Inkey List compare to The Ordinary?
Price and Accessibility
A refreshing part of The Inkey List is the great price point. A lot of skincare products out there are priced out of the average consumer’s budget. No product exceeds $15 with the average product around $10. The products can be found at Shoppers Drug Mart which makes it super accessible.
The Ordinary has a pretty similar price point with the average price point around $8. Just a tad cheaper than The Inkey List, but not by much. You can get The Ordinary at Sephora, and at the actual brand stores.
Packaging
Both The Inkey List and The Ordinary have pretty simple packaging which match the ethos of the brands. The big difference though is that The Inkey List does not use any droppers whereas The Ordinary almost exclusively use droppers or liquid products. Also, The Inkey List products are in plastic containers versus glass bottles with the Ordinary.
For me personally this was neither here nor there. I would say The Inkey List would be easier to travel with just because of the plastic bottles. Otherwise, both work fine just being used at home.
Ease of Use
Both companies have the goal of breaking down the complications of skincare to the base and worthwhile ingredients. I would say that The Inkey List does a bit better job of this. Their packaging explains in laments terms of what the product will add to your routine, and how best to use it. The Ordinary does this as well, but can get a bit technical at times. If you want something just quick and dirty, The Inkey List might be best.
Integration into Routine?
Now that I’ve tried both brands, (and for some significant amount of time) how did I actually use them and did I like them?
You can see some of the products I have in The Ordinary in my old blog post here. In general they were pretty easy to integrate. The Ordinary products usually integrate different solutions and suspensions (from what I know of). The Inkey List may do this too, but it solely focuses on the main product. For example, The Inkey List has Vitamin C. The Ordinary has many different types of Vitamin C with different spheres and other suspensions.
I didn’t really notice one being more effective than the other and they integrated into my routine similarly. I would say for both though, for the regular consumer, there’s quite a bit of work in mixing serums, toners, and more. All of these products in my opinion are best in a wholesome skin care routine. For example, when I would use the Glycolic Acid then the Hyaluronic Acid I needed a good cleanser and moisturizer outside of the pure and simple ingredients.
The pull for both of these brands is that they are simple and easy to integrate. For me personally, I’m pretty lazy with my skincare. My preference is to use a single serum versus many at once to achieve the same results.
So all in all, I would say The Inkey List and The Ordinary are pretty similar. Currently you’ll get a lot more variety with The Ordinary, but true to it’s name, The Inkey List has a focused look with products to integrate into your routine.
Just to end off this versus, here are a quick review of some items I’ve been trying out from The Inkey List
Hyaluronic Acid: I would highly recommend this product, it was a fav of mine out of everything I tried. It gives my skin a clean and refreshed feeling. I think this would probably work for all skin types. It’s used as a hydrator for the skin.
Vitamin C: This did work to brighten my skin, but I noticed it would actually have an oxidizing smell when I used this. The scent would stay on my face and I ended up being able to smell it throughout the day. This Vitamin C is a creamy serum so it doesn’t have the particular stickiness that a lot of other Vitamin C has. Due to the scent though, I don’t know if I’d continue using it.
Retinol: This was definitely one of the nicer retinols I’ve used. Retinol in general feels a bit heavy on the skin, but this one did sink into my skin nicely. I’m not able to test really the anti-aging claims, but this did provide my skin great moisture
Glycolic Acid: Another nice product. I didn’t notice a huge difference in my skin, but I liked using this after I have a particularly heavy makeup day. It did make my face feel refreshed, but definitely felt the need for moisture right after use.
And there we have my little breakdown of the two brands! Hope that was helpful!
Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
*Sent for Review