Nu Skin Review – The Dermatology Review

Founded in 1984, Nu Skin is a multilevel-marketing company that distributes more than 200 anti-aging products in both the personal care and nutritional supplements categories. 

Nu Skin is a brand that leads with science, which is demonstrated through their comprehensive product portfolio and the scientific research that has been conducted on their products and published in scientific journals. 

We also lead with science here at The Derm Review, which is why we’ve evaluated the Nu Skin product formulations through a scientific lens. Below we’ll discuss the research that supports (or doesn’t support) the ingredients that you’ll find in these products. 

We’ll also share Nu Skin reviews so that you can get an idea of what customers really think of these products.

What Are The Top 10 Best Nu Skin Products?

Nu Skin offers an extensive collection of skin care products, including facial cleansers, moisturizers, serums, exfoliators, body care, skin care devices, and more. Interestingly, the Nu Skin Tanner is the brand’s most popular product. We’ll give you the details on this self tanner and the other best selling Nu Skin products below.

Nu Skin Tanner

• The Nu Skin Tanner is called Sunright Insta Glow Tinted Self-Tanning Gel
• This self-tanning gel is said to help you achieve a luxurious bronze finish while providing moisturizing benefits 
• Formulated for face and body
• Key ingredient is dihydroxyacetone
• Fragrance free

Nu Skin ageLOC Dermatic Effects

• This Nu Skin cellulite cream is said to help visibly smooth the appearance of fat and cellulite and visibly firm skin
• Key ingredients include honey, silicones, hibiscus extract, chia seed extract, palmitoyl oligopeptide, echinacea extract, and algae extract
• Contains a synthetic fragrance blend

Nu Skin 180 Face Wash

• A rich, creamy face wash with 10% vitamin C that is said to target age spots and discoloration while also helping to diminish the appearance of wrinkles and firm the skin
• Key ingredients include 10% ascorbic acid, sesame seed oil, sunflower seed oil, and surfactants
• Contains a synthetic fragrance blend

Nu Skin Face Lift

• Nu Skin Face Lift is said to work immediately to temporarily lift and tighten the face and neck for a firmer, more youthful appearance
• The key ingredient is albumen, derived from egg whites, which is said to tighten and firm the skin
• Fragrance free
• Formula contains methylparaben as the preservative

Nu Skin ageLOC Future Serum

• An anti-aging facial serum that is said to reveal younger looking skin in eight ways, combining the benefits of many different anti-aging products into a single product
• Key ingredients include humectants (glycerin, butylene glycol, etc.), silicones (cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, etc.), glucosamine, lemon peel extract, lysolecithin, pea extract, and daffodil extract
• Contains a synthetic fragrance blend

Nu Skin ageLOC Body Shaping Gel

• This Nu Skin cellulite cream is said to target the appearance of fat and cellulite to smooth, refresh, and purify while reducing the visible signs of aging
• Key ingredients include butylene glycol, hydroxypropyl cellulose, laminaria digitata extract, chamomile extract, and cocoa extract
• Contains a synthetic fragrance blend

Nu Skin Intensive Eye Complex

• This Nu Skin eye cream is said to boost the skin’s moisture barrier for a brighter under eye while forming a light, protective barrier to stop pollution, free radicals, and stress damage
• Key ingredients include aloe vera leaf juice, emollients, and glycerin
• Also includes a “Bioadaptive Botanical Blend” (Rhodiola, Maral Root, Siberian Ginseng, Chaga Mushroom, and Resurrection Plant)—a blend of botanical extracts from plants that thrive in extreme climates and can help your skin bounce back from stressors
• Fragrance free

Nu Skin ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra

• An anti-aging face cream that is said to deliver visibly firmer, more contoured, lifted, and defined skin
• Key ingredients include silicones, squalane, olive oil, safflower seed oil, dunaliella salina extract, jojoba seed extract, vitamin C, and retinyl palmitate
• Fragrance free

Nu Skin ageLOC Power Mask

• A biocellulose mask that is said to give you instantly refreshed, plumped, and visibly renewed skin
• Key ingredients include humectants and PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil
• The rest of the “key” ingredients — like daffodil extract, sodium hyaluronate, caffeine, etc. — are all used in concentrations of less than 1%. We know this because they are all listed after xanthan gum on the ingredient list (which is in order of descending concentrations).  Xanthan gum is a thickener that is generally used at a concentration of 1%, but as little as 0.1% can be used in many applications. This means you’re getting less than 1% of the key ingredients! 
• Contains a synthetic fragrance blend

Nu Skin 180 AHA Facial Peel and Neutralizer

• A two-step facial peel that is said to reduce the appearance of aging and sun damage without the recovery time required by aggressive clinical peels
• Step 1 AHA Facial peel contains 10% lactic acid, a type of alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that promotes youthful skin cell turnover and breaks apart dead cell buildup. Chemical exfoliation works to reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles, improve texture, and reduce the appearance of pores
• Step 2 AHA Facial Peel Neutralizer contains oat kernel extract, which exhibits exceptional calming properties that soothe the skin and reduce topical sensitivity

What Are The Key Ingredients in Nu Skin Products?

After evaluating the best Nu Skin products, we noticed that the products are formulated with a mix of commonly used skincare ingredients along with some proprietary ingredients. 

For example, the brand uses common ingredients like vitamin C, vitamin E, sodium hyaluronate, alpha hydroxy acids, silicones, and emollients in their products. 

In addition to these commonly used skincare ingredients, the Nu Skin products contain proprietary blends.

 For example, the Nu Skin ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra contains the “ageLOC Proprietary Blend” and “Tru Face FirmPlex”. The brand does not disclose the ingredients that make up these blends, so we cannot comment on how the ingredients will affect your skin.

While we don’t know the exact ingredients used to formulate the ageLOC proprietary blend, we did discover that the ingredients are proported to influence your genes. Dr. Joseph Chang, Chief Scientific Officer & Executive Vice President of Product Development at Nu Skin told Forbes, “Nu Skin scientists are able to identify the gene expression that influences ageing and select the ingredients that can affect the genes, so that these genes can start to behave like young genes again. This is our proprietary ageLOC Science that forms the basis of our skin care and nutritional products.”

We did notice that many of the Nu Skin products contain high concentrations of silicones and emollients. For example, the top 6 ingredients in the Nu Skin ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra include two silicones (cyclopentasiloxane, dimethiconol), squalane, caprylic/capric triglyceride, olive oil, and safflower oil.

Silicones give the products a silky, smooth skin feel while also improving the product’s spreadability. 

An emollient is an oily substance that fills in the spaces between dead skin cells, thus creating a smooth skin surface. Basically, an emollient is a film forming substance that makes the skin feel and look smooth. The inclusion of silicones and emollients in Nu Skin products will help to keep your skin soft and smooth. 

Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that nearly all of the Nu Skin products contain synthetic fragrance ingredients. The use of synthetic fragrance ingredients can be a problem because the brand can use a proprietary blend of chemicals to create the fragrance, and they do not have to disclose which chemicals they use on the label. They are allowed to list this blend as “Fragrance (Parfum)” on the ingredient list.

Fragrance ingredients have the potential to cause skin irritation and sensitivity. 

How Does The Nu Skin Tanner Work?

The brand’s most popular product is the Nu Skin Tanner, which is able to give you a bronze tan thanks to dihydroxyacetone (DHA). 

DHA reacts chemically with the amino acids in the skin’s main protein keratin to produce a brown color change. 

Nu Skin Tanner also contains coloring ingredients (Caramel, CI 77891, CI 77491) that give you that “sun-kissed glow” in as little as 15 minutes. 

Where to Buy Nu Skin Products?

You can buy Nu Skin products on the brand’s website, as well as through its network of sales consultants. In addition, you can find Nu Skin products on various third party online retailers, such as Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and others. 

Is Nu Skin Cruelty Free?

No, Nu Skin is not cruelty free because they conduct pre-clinical studies of their ingredients on animals to assess a product’s safety. 

The brand’s animal testing policy states, “Nu Skin does not test its cosmetic products on animals, nor do we request others to test on our behalf, except when mandated by law and regulatory agencies.”

Nu Skin Reviews

Unfortunately, the brand does not display Nu Skin reviews on their website. Thus, we had to look on Amazon.com for Nu Skin reviews so that we could get a better idea of what customers really think of these products.

One product that has plenty of reviews is the Nu Skin tanner, which has earned an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars after more than 2,500 customer reviews. 

The positive Nu Skin reviews for the self tanner comment on the nice bronze color and mention that the product has no smell. 

The negative Nu Skin reviews for the self tanner are mostly from customers who saw no change in the color of their skin after applying the Nu Skin tanner.

Our Verdict

Overall, we think that Nu Skin products are formulated well but if you have sensitivity you may want to be mindful. 

Pros

• Nu Skin products contain evidence-based ingredients (AHAs, vitamin C, sodium hyaluronate, etc.) along with proprietary ingredients
• Many positive Nu Skin reviews

Cons

• High cost (i.e. Nu Skin ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra is $191 USD)
• Many Nu Skin products contain synthetic fragrance blends
• Nu Skin products are tested on animals

References:

Forbes “The Science of Staying Younger for Longer” July 2020
Papakonstantinou, E, Roth, M & Karakiulakis, G, 2012. ‘Hyaluronic acid: A key molecule in skin aging’, Dermato Endocrinology, vol. 4, is. 3, pp. 253-258.
Gupta, R, Lall, R, Srivastava, A & Sinha, A, 2019. ‘Hyaluronic Acid: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Trajectory’, Frontiers, vol. 6.
Dougados, M, Nguyen, M, Listrat, V & Amor, B, 1993. ‘High molecular weight sodium hyaluronate (hyalectan) in osteoarthritis of the knee: a 1 year placebo- controlled trial’, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, vol. 1, is. 2, pp. 97-103.
Cosmetic Ingredient Review, 2009. ‘Final report of the safety assessment of hyaluronic acid, potassium hyaluronate, and sodium hyaluronate’, International Journal of Toxicology, vol. 28, is. 4, pp. 5-67.
Tang SC, Yang JH. Dual Effects of Alpha-Hydroxy Acids on the Skin. Molecules. 2018;23(4):863. Published 2018 Apr 10.
Moghimipour E. Hydroxy Acids, the Most Widely Used Anti-aging Agents. Jundishapur J Nat Pharm Prod. 2012;7(1):9-10.
Kornhauser A, Coelho SG, Hearing VJ. Applications of hydroxy acids: classification, mechanisms, and photoactivity. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2010;3:135-142. Published 2010 Nov 24.