If you want your skin to look good, you wash it and moisturize it on the daily. If you want your skin to look like it was kissed by the light of a thousand angels after a three-week slumber, you use an anti-aging serum. In the simplest of explanations, anti-aging serums pack a bunch of potent, good-for-you ingredients in a lightweight, silky formula, making it easy to improve your biggest skin-care issues without suffocating your face.
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Basically, if your skin were a drunk college girl, your moisturizer would be a watered-down beer, and your serum would be the triple-shot of 100-proof tequila. And when you want to erase all memories of your fine lines, dark spots, and wrinkles, you go for the tequila—a.k.a. anti-aging serums. Each of these formulas is filled with wrinkle-smoothers (amino peptides and vitamin B3), dark-spot faders (vitamin C), and fine-line plumpers and hydrators (hyaluronic acid and ceramides), and they’re quick and easy to use: Just massage them into dry, cleansed skin, wait until dry, then apply your moisturizer. With daily use, you’ll start to notice a difference in your complexion after just a few months.

Photo: ImaxTree
Of course, magic in a bottle doesn’t come cheap (we know; we’re sorry). Unlike the majority of beauty products that have drugstore alternatives that are just as good, if not better, than their pricey counterparts, anti-aging serums really are in their own you-get-what-you-pay-for league. Luckily, we found seven excellent serums for (almost) every budget, but know that the more money you shell out for these, the more skin-boosting rewards you’ll reap, since drugstore products can only do so much, here. But hey, at least they’re still thousands of dollars cheaper than getting fillers, right? #Perspective.