Zinc PCA 0.05%
The registered function of this serum is anti-blemishes, oil and sebum control, and this is the ingredient carrying it. Nothing else in the bottle is doing that job.
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GENOSYS
GENOSYS
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Serum · Oily and combination skin
When oil tips the balance.
Nine tenths of this bottle is water, and the working part is zinc PCA at a full 0.05%, neat rather than diluted. Korea registers it for anti-blemishes and oil and sebum control. Two or three drops after your toner, patted in, morning and night.
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Free delivery over 1,000 AED · Ships from Dubai
0.05%
Zinc PCA, neat, the oil and sebum active
90%
Water, so nothing is left sitting on the skin
AM & PM
Two or three drops after toner, then pat
30ml
Dropper bottle, made in Korea by DTS MG
What it does
Three jobs on oily and combination skin: bring the shine down, keep the surface even, and leave the face comfortable rather than stripped.
Zinc PCA at 0.05% is the part doing the work, and it is the ingredient the registration rests on. Everything else in the bottle supports it.
No oil, no silicone, no film former beyond a trace of thickener. It sinks in and leaves nothing behind, which is the point on skin that already makes plenty of its own.
Panthenol 0.2%, allantoin 0.1%, trehalose 1% and xylitol 0.5%. Oily skin still gets dehydrated, and this is the half that stops an oil-control step turning into a tight one.
The active
Zinc PCA goes in at 0.05% and it goes in neat, not as a diluted premix, so the number on the card is the number on your skin. Zinc pairs with pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, which is one of the humectants skin already makes, so the oil-control half arrives with a water-binding half attached.
The registered function of this serum is anti-blemishes, oil and sebum control, and this is the ingredient carrying it. Nothing else in the bottle is doing that job.
The comfort pair, at doses you can read on the list. They are why a control serum does not have to feel like a stripping one.
Two sugars that hold water without weight. Between them they are more of this bottle than every botanical in it combined.
Mung bean, white birch bark and yellow dock, delivered as one premix at half a percent of the batch. Named because it is really there, not because it is the reason the serum works.
Beta-glucan at 0.08%, polyglutamic acid at 0.01%, radish root and pumpkin ferments at 0.02% and 0.01%. The supporting set, listed honestly in tenths and hundredths.
How to use
Morning and night
Start on clean skin. Snow O₂ Cleanser is the range answer if you want one.
Intensive Problem Control Toner is the step before this one. The Korean panel on the carton is explicit about the order.
On the face. Pat it in with your fingers rather than rubbing it around, which is exactly what the carton asks for.
Intensive Problem Control Cream seals it. Oily skin still wants the last step, and that cream carries zinc PCA as well.
Then sunscreen. Nothing in this serum makes skin sun-sensitive, but daylight is daylight.
Keep it clear of the eye area. The carton says so, and the serum has no business being there.
See it in the bottle
The formula
The carton prints five, and the ingredient list backs every one of them.
This one goes further than the badge: there is no perfume in it at all, artificial or botanical, which is not true of every serum in the range. Twenty-two ingredients in total, and nine tenths of the bottle is water.
What is in it
Twenty-two ingredients. The ones that matter are named with their percentage, and the rest are the carrier, the thickener and the chelator that any water serum needs.
The active. Zinc paired with pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, one of the humectants skin makes for itself, so the oil-control half arrives with a water-binding half attached. It goes in neat.
The comfort pair, at doses you can read on the list. They are why a control serum does not have to feel like a stripping one.
Two sugars that hold water without weight. Between them they are more of this bottle than every botanical in it combined.
Mung bean, white birch bark and yellow dock delivered as one premix at half a percent of the batch. Named because it is really there, not because it is the reason the serum works.
The supporting set, with radish root and pumpkin ferments at 0.02% and 0.01%. Listed honestly in tenths and hundredths of a percent.
Black willow, and a trace of it. Willow is where people expect salicylic acid, so it is worth saying plainly: salicylic acid is not in this formula and this is not an acid step.
Aqua (Water), Dipropylene Glycol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Trehalose, Zinc PCA, Salix Nigra (Willow) Bark Extract, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Panthenol, Rumex Crispus Root Extract, Phaseolus Radiatus Extract, Lactobacillus/Pumpkin Ferment Extract, Betula Platyphylla Japonica Bark Extract, Betaine, Beta-Glucan, Allantoin, Polyglutamic Acid, Glycerin, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Xylitol, Potassium Hydroxide, Butylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA.
Every ingredient, in the same order as the box in your hand.
Is it for you
For external use only, and keep it clear of the eye area. Stop and speak to a doctor if redness, swelling or irritation appears.
Complete the routine
A serum is a step. These are the products it sits between, and you can add any of them here.
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Specification
Questions
No. Black willow bark extract is on the list, and willow is where people expect to find salicylic acid, but it sits here at 0.001% and salicylic acid itself is not in the formula. If you are after an acid step, this is not the bottle.
The toner runs zinc PCA at 0.5%, ten times this, and it sweeps on a pad or sprays. This is the leave-on layer in between, and it brings panthenol, allantoin, trehalose and xylitol that the toner does not carry. They are two steps of one routine rather than two versions of the same thing.
Both carry zinc PCA. The serum is the lighter one and the one you can wear through a Dubai summer with nothing on top. The cream is the seal. Oily skin usually starts with the serum.
It is not built to. Over 90% of the bottle is water, and trehalose, xylitol, panthenol and allantoin are all in there at doses you can read on the ingredient list.
Ask your doctor first. A cosmetic serum is not a treatment for diagnosed acne and it does not replace one.
No. There is no perfume in the formula, artificial or botanical.
The latest batch came back at 5.62, inside a 5.50 to 6.50 specification. Mildly acidic, close to skin.
Bring the shine down without stripping the skin.
PROBLEM CONTROL SERUM
Zinc PCA at a real dose, in a serum light enough to wear every day of a Dubai summer.
