I have found myself on numerous occasions scrolling through instagram or watching Youtube videos and I am constantly seeing celebrities and models using skincare products from Dr. Barbara Sturm's skincare line. With the beautiful packaging and all of these women who claim to swear by her products, I thought that I should do a little research for myself. The product that I kept seeing recommended was the hyaluronic serum so I was really curious to get my hands on it. However, when I typed it into the search bar, the first thing that hit me was the price tag. $300 for 1 oz of product?!?!?! My first thought was that there must me some unicorn blood in this product because I cannot think of another reason for the price to be so high. I scrolled down to the ingredient list and nothing out of the ordinary stood out to me so I decided to search up the price points and ingredients of other hyaluronic serums to compare ingredients and price points. The first one that popped up was from one of my favorite skincare brands, The Ordinary. They also sell a hyaluronic acid product that is $6.80 for the same 1 oz!! Because of the stark difference in prices, I thought that the best thing to do was to compare the ingredients side by side to see if I can figure out why the Dr. Barbara Sturm product is $293 more expensive.
First Ingredient: DBS: Water vs. TO: water
The first ingredient in both of these products is water which is not surprising at all as it is the first ingredient listed in most if not all skincare products. Many skincare ingredients are hydrophilic and work well with water such as plant based extracts and acids. Water is also a great factor to dilute really potent ingredients to make the concentration safe to use on the skin. Finally besides the fact that water helps hydrate the skin, it is the most pure ingredient that can be added to most products because it works for everyone and won't irritate the skin. For these reasons, it is incredibly common to find water as the main ingredient.
Second ingredient: DBS: Butylene Glycol vs. TO: Sodium Hyaluronate
So we are only in the second ingredient and we already see a big difference. Lets investigate what exactly these ingredients do.
Butylene glycol serves many purposes in skincare products, but I think that a very important thing to note is that it is not an active ingredient. The main purpose that it serves to help the active ingredients penetrate the skin better and increase the effectiveness of the product. This product also serves to help ingredients dissolve and give the product an overall thinner texture. Since this quite a liquid serum, I am assuming that those are the reasons for using this ingredient. Finally, this ingredient can be used as a humectant to draw moisture from the air or from the lower layers of the skin to the top layer of the skin. However, that is a little concerning because since hyaluronic acid is also a humectant, I don't think that they are using this ingredient for that purpose.
Sodium hyaluronate is the salt form of hyaluronic acid and it is more commonly used in skincare products than pure hyaluronic acid because it is easier to mix and dissolve with other solvents. This ingredients is also very attracted to water to it is the ultimate moisturizing ingredient because it hydrates the skin and also has humectant properties to keep drawing more water to the top layer of the skin. As this is the main source of hyaluronic acid, it increases the blood flow in the skin to keep it plump and hydrated.
Overall, I would say that sodium hyaluronate is a better second ingredient because as both are hyaluronic acid solutions, there is already more hyaluronic acid per oz in The Ordinary product. While the ingredients in the Barbara Sturm product isn't bad, but it is just not an active ingredient so it is not serving too big of a purpose.
Third Ingredient: DBS:Lactobacillus/Portulaca Oleracea Ferment Extract vs. TO:Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer
Lactobacillus/Portulaca Oleracea Ferment Extract is an extract that comes from a succulent type plant and its main benefits are that is a great antioxidant and it has a lot of skin soothing properties. It has also been found to reverse the effects of the damage done to your DNA by free radicals. The main attribute that this ingredient has is that it does wonders for anti-aging because of how strong of an antioxidant it is. I am not completely sure, but I think that this could be the cause for the high price tag. While I could not find a specific price for just this ingredient, some of the other skincare products that use this extract also have pretty high prices.
Sodium hyaluronate crosspolymer is another source of hyaluronic acid that has the same benefits as sodium hyaluronate. Pretty much the only difference is that the molecules are smaller so they penetrate deeper into the skin to hydrate even further.
Overall, I think that the Dr. Barbara Sturm serum has the better third ingredient because it is a very potent antioxidants with great properties. However, granted that both products are hyaluronic acid serums, The Ordinary product has already provided two sources of hyaluronic acid while the DBS has yet to include one.
Fourth ingredient: DBS:Phenoxyethanol vs. TO:Panthenol
Phenoxyethanol is basically one of the most popular preservatives used in skincare products because it is compatible with the most amount of formulas and pHs. However, after doing a little bit of research, I found that this product has a lot of controversy behind it. The first problem is that high concentrations of this product are not safe to use on the skin and are actually quite irritating. The second problem is that this ingredient is demonized for causing the same issues as various parabens and one of the biggest claims on the DBS website is that is it paraben-free. Granted, the studies used to support the last issue were not skin based trials and it was found that once purified, this ingredient does not put the consumer in any direct danger. So even though the grade of the product used is skin safe, I thought that it was still interesting to include the controversies surrounding this ingredient.
Panthenol is an alcohol version of vitamin B that also has a lot of great humectant properties that will further help bring moisture to the skin. It is a very popular ingredient used in skincare product because it can mix with a large variety of other ingredients. Finally this product is accredited with having anti inflammatory properties when used repeatedly on the same area.
Fifth ingredient: DBS:Sodium Hyaluronate vs. TO: Ahnfeltia Concinna Extract
The sodium hyaluronate that we see as the fifth ingredient in the DBS product is the same sodium hyaluronate that we saw as the second ingredient in the TO product. And since ingredients are listed in order of the amount in the product, it is weird that there is so much more hyaluronic acid that can be found in the cheaper product.
Ahnfeltia Concinna Extract is found in a lot of algae and its main purposes are to create a natural barrier on the skin and also increase circulation. Not only is this ingredient nutrient packed but it helps the ingredients like hyaluronic acid penetrate deeper into the skin. Finally, this ingredient can also be used to help the texture of a product be smoother. Overall I thought it was really funny that the ingredient to help with texture and penetration was the second ingredient in the DBS product and the fifth ingredient in the TO product while the source of hyaluronic acid was the second ingredient in the TO product and the fifth ingredient in the DBS product.
Sixth ingredient: DBS: Ethylhexylglycerin vs. TO:Glycerin
Ethylhexylglycerin is mainly used as a preservative for the other ingredients and is found to be a great substitute for harmful parabens when it is used in small amounts. Since it is derived from glycerin, it can have some moisturizing qualities, but overall, I think that its main purpose in this product is to be a preservative for the plant extracts.
While the DBS ingredient is derived from glycerin, TO product uses pure glycerin which acts as a really great humectant that helps moisturize the skin. Besides that, glycerin also adds a protective barrier to the skin that helps shield it from harmful environmental sources and it also helps keep the moisture in. Also, as I was browsing The Ordinary website, they do claim to be vegan and cruelty free so the glycerin is either derived from plants or it is synthetically made.
Overall, we are on the 6th ingredient and the main thing that I am noticing is that DBS has higher quantities of preservatives than of active ingredient and while the active ingredients used are great a have a lot of benefits, the TO product uses more pure ingredients rather than derivates.
Seventh ingredient: DBS: Potassium Sorbate vs. TO:Pentylene Glycol
Potassium sorbate is yet another preservative ingredient that more specifically prevents the growth of microorganisms in the product. Now don't get me wrong, preservatives are great because if you are spending a couple hundred dollars on a product, you definitely want it to last as long as possible. However, my main concern is that DBS seems to have more preservatives than actual ingredients that need preserving.
Pentylene Glycol is actually also a preservative that is synthetically made and also has properties that prevent the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria in the product. The difference is that this product also has humectant properties which makes it a really popular ingredient in skincare. The humectant properties are not as those in good as glycerin and hyaluronic acid, but considering that it serves another purpose as well, the extra moisture can't hurt.
Eighth ingredient: DBS: Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate vs. TO:Propanediol
Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate is actually the last ingredient in the DBS product and to no surprise, this is another preservative. However, this ingredient, which is derived from radishes, is found to have actual skin benefits as it does contain a small amount of salicylic acid. But considering that this is the last ingredient, there is probably not enough of it for the salicylic acid to have any effect.
Propanediol is a glycol product that can either be synthetically made or naturally derived from corn and its main benefits are that it acts as a humectant and an emollient. So basically, your skin will be getting extra moisture and protection.
Like I said this was the last ingredient in the DBS product and the TO has around 10 more, but I thought that it would get a little boring to list and describe every single one of them because a lot of them do very similar things to the ingredients already listed. There are a lot of ingredients that target dry skin and act as moisturizing factor. Some of the ingredients also have a dual purpose and serve to give the product a certain texture. I did think that it was important to mention the TO product does have citric acid which is a great AHA and will help get rid of dead skin cells while also promoting the growth of new skin and keeping the skin hydrated. Citric acid is lower on the list so I don't think that it is very concentrated, but it is still a great ingredient to have. I also thought that it was very interesting that the TO product also uses Ethylhexylglycerin and Phenoxyethanol as preservatives, but they are at the bottom of the ingredient list which means that they are used in much smaller quantities than in the DBS product.
Final thoughts:
I will make the disclaimer again that I have not tried either of the products so I can attest to the fact that one could work better than the other in real life, but when comparing the ingredients, I cannot understand why the DBS product has that high of a price tag. And yes I do understand that you are partially paying for the name as she is a very well known doctor who has had many famous clients, but if I am comparing these products solely on ingredients, I would recommend the TO product because you are getting more active and pure ingredients for a little more than 2% of the price of the DBS one. While the DBS one has some great ingredients, a lot of her ingredients seem to be preservatives while only a few of them have actual skin benefits that will help bring moisture to the skin, which is what hyaluronic acid is supposed to do.