Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum: a Guru Score of 80%

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored

✓Yay

"I really love this one. It's for me when my skin just gets a little irritated, especially during the winter time. This is a great calming and hydrating serum that provides that nourishment that is not super heavy that I can layer on before my moisturizer. This is an antioxidant rich serum that helps to soothe and hydrate sensitive skin, reduce redness at the same time, and strengthen your skin barrier."

All 2 takes from Dr. Jenny Liu

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"I really love this one. It's for me when my skin just gets a little irritated, especially during the winter time. This is a great calming and hydrating serum that provides that nourishment that is not super heavy that I can layer on before my moisturizer. This is an antioxidant rich serum that helps to soothe and hydrate sensitive skin, reduce redness at the same time, and strengthen your skin barrier."

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"Ingredient wise it contains wonderful ingredients including plant extracts like Licorice and Feverfew that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and soothing properties, also contains ceramides and hyaluronic acid as well as beta glucan which is a great ingredient to help plump the skin. [...] This is just a great lovely serum. I love it. It's kind of that in-between where it's not like I said extra watery but still nourishing and hydrating."

Doctorly

3.59M subs

✓Yay

"I like the serum because of my skin type. The texture is going to be an issue for some. This is very high in glycerin, and it feels kind of thick, but [...] I actually don't mind the texture here. It's not tacky. The ingredients here, with the ceramides and beta glucan, are a pretty simple product, actually. It is pretty soothing. It never messes with my irritated skin. I find it's a really nice way to heal it up if it's irritated or damaged from other products."

No BS Beauty

89k subs

✓Yay

"Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum, it's $44, it's a really wonderful product. [...] What's nice about this one is it's nice for all skin types so if you have oilier skin it's really nice and hydrating without feeling greasy or sticky or anything like that. In here we've got ceramides, we've got beta glucan, Feverfew, licorice root, and then sea whip extract which is also a soothing ingredient which I don't see very often."

Dr Dray

2.69M subs

✓Mixed

"This was so-so. It was a hydrating serum with beta glucan, which I really love, it's humectant rich. This also has sodium hyaluronate and other humectants. It has ceramides, which are good for the moisture barrier. Honestly, this whole line was a bit of a letdown in my opinion coming from Paula's Choice. I just felt like the products were kind of underwhelming. [...] It was nice, but I would not purchase it."

All 3 takes from Dr Dray

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"This was so-so. It was a hydrating serum with beta glucan, which I really love, it's humectant rich. This also has sodium hyaluronate and other humectants. It has ceramides, which are good for the moisture barrier. Honestly, this whole line was a bit of a letdown in my opinion coming from Paula's Choice. I just felt like the products were kind of underwhelming. [...] It was nice, but I would not purchase it."

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"I'm doing the same three pumps to my face and neck that I was doing with the Timeless one. [...] It doesn't have that vibrant yellow color like the Timeless one did, it's more white, which has me wondering how much of the Q10 is actually in this. It is nice and hydrating, but man, some of the products in this line were such a disappointment."

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"I have to say I rather enjoy this product, in terms of consistency, feel, weight and texture it's very similar to the Aveeno Calm and Restore Oat Serum, and I find it very moisturizing. It has ubiquinone, or coenzyme Q10, ceramides, licorice root, beta glucan and sodium hyaluronate. I didn't get any product pilling when layering other products over it, [...] which is always a good thing."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Ceramides

Ceramides are part of the skin's own barrier, and moisturisers built around them have evidence for holding water in and settling the tightness and flaking that come with a damaged barrier.

Source: DermNet

Humectants and emollients

Ingredients like these draw water into the surface layers and slow how fast it leaves. The evidence is for comfort, softness and hydration rather than for changing the structure of the skin.

Source: DermNet

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, and it is often in a formula to keep the other ingredients stable rather than as the active itself. It pairs well with vitamin C, though on its own the evidence for visible change is limited.

Source: NIH, National Library of Medicine

Frequently asked.

What is Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum?

A hydrating serum designed to calm and repair the skin, formulated with ceramides, beta glucan, plant extracts, and hyaluronic acid.

Is Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum worth it?

Mostly yes. 3 of the 4 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 80%.

What is Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum's Guru Score?

Paula's Choice Calm Repairing Serum holds a Guru Score of 80%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 4 expert reviewers we have collected.