Anti-blemish

Revolution Skincare 2% Salicylic Acid and 5% Niacinamide Serum Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - August 17, 2025

A new serum enters the fray! This time it is the Revolution Skincare 2% Salicylic Acid and 5% Niacinamide Serum! 
 
 
When I am choosing a serum for myself (instead of being given one in sets/mystery boxes), my first priority is to make sure it is a serum that can calm down my skin. This means some combination of salicylic acid or niacinamide or Centella or tea tree/tea plant. Well, would you know it, Revolution Skincare just happened to have a serum that contains both salicylic acid and niacinamide! This sounds absolutely perfect! The previous Revolution Skincare serum that I used (and liked) had only salicylic acid. It was pretty good, but surely I can find something better, no? This serum for sure seems like it’s going to be better, but is it really? Well, I am super excited to find out, so let’s finally check it out, shall we? 
 
Packaging: the outer, cardboard packaging looks both expensive and very much like a medical product! I love the calming light blue! It reminds me of nitrile gloves! There’s some black text, but it’s mostly white, which I feel is a great choice! White plus medical light blue makes it look calming and reassuring, possibly what this serum is going to be like for my skin? Also, the modern, uppercase, bold lettering is cool, isn’t it? There’s also a life-size illustration of the bottle on one side and explanation of what exactly salicylic acid and niacinamide are on the other side. Very informative and well-put-together! But it doesn’t stop here: there’s also a huge amount of text on the inside too! 
 
 
 
 
As well as a reassuring note about blemishes! Very lovely packaging! 
 
 
 
 
 
At some point, the bottle and packaging have been changed; there's no black text anymore. I like this more than the previous packaging because it's more balanced. The black really was too harsh on this light blue. Aside from that, they also removed the percentage numbers for salicylic acid and niacinamide, though the ingredients list is 100% identical. Why do this? It's important to know the percentage of active ingredients.
 
 
 
 
 
The serum itself comes in a rather large-looking glass bottle. The bottle feels quite heavy – must be some quality, thick glass! I love the combination of that light blue/white design (same as the outer packaging) and the white cap, it really looks like a medical product this way. The glass is frosted; it might look like it’s the serum that is cloudy, but in this case it’s the glass. The cap closes extremely tightly - and I mean that! Like, sometimes I have to seriously struggle to open it! This is good, as it means that it truly is as airtight a seal as possible, keeping the serum fresh for a long time. This serum has the same bottle design as the previous Revolution Skincare salicylic acid serum with that ring around the dropper. However, here that ring doesn’t typically break whereas with the other salicylic acid serum, it always breaks.  
 
Not that it actually matters much, but it shows that there’s a higher level of QA here. I will discuss the dropper in more detail in a moment. This is a really great bottle! I love it! Also, the bottle itself hasn't been changed, unlike the cardboard packaging. The new one is exactly the same as the old one - down to including % numbers for the actives... which was removed from the cardboard. Make it make sense!
 
 
Ingredients: glycerine, niacinamide/vitamin B3, salicylic acid, panthenol/provitamin B5, pullulan, Tasmanian pepperberry (Tasmannia lanceolata) fruit/leaf extract, pantolactone for nourishment. No parabens. Wow, niacinamide at position number 3 on the list? And salicylic acid and panthenol at numbers 5 and 7, respectively? This is honestly very surprising! This must mean that there is a ton of niacinamide here, amazing! Then results surely won’t be poor! The scent is extremely subtle; it almost doesn’t smell like anything. What little I can smell smells faintly chemical and very slightly kinda bitter. This is exactly the type of scent you’d expect from a product that doesn’t contain perfumes. The expiration date is 12 months after opening. 
 
 
 
The dropper is fantastic! It’s super precise, allowing you to suck in as much serum as you want and it is also capable of precisely dosing exactly the amount of serum that you need. Drop by drop, and you can control how big the droplets are. When you really squeeze the dropper, it sucks in so much serum that there’s enough for multiple days of applications! Even if you apply multiple drops like I do (I usually apply 4 drops; forehead, left cheek, right cheek, chin). And the plastic ring doesn’t break, which was very annoying with the previous salicylic acid serum. Easy to use dropper that never gets clogged up! Yay! 
 
 
 
Okay... well, the dropper has been changed. It doesn't have that bulbous tip anymore, now it's just a typical eyedropper with a slightly narrower tip. I don't mind this! It is every bit as precise as the old one, and it still sucks in a ton of product. It still can precisely drop whatever size of the serum you want. So, not a change for the worse, but still a change. Though I will say that the ring around the dropper is more fragile now; it tends to become loose and/or break after a few months of use.
 
 
 
This serum is colourless and clear as water. This interesting, as the previous salicylic acid serum had a very cloudy appearance and was slightly yellow! It also feels noticeably different. But in a good way! This serum is much lighter than the previous salicylic acid one, and it feels like it is much more watery. It’s definitely thinner. I like this, as I am already sick and tired of oils and grease from my skin, so something this light and refreshing is totally what I needed! It’s not at all greasy; soapy, yes, to a degree, but it’s much less soapy than the previous serum. It’s really obvious that this is a water-based serum given how watery it is. And because of how lightweight it is, it feels breathable. It’s also much, much easier to buff into the skin compared to the previous Revolution Skincare salicylic acid serum! There’s no soapy residue as it absorbs ridiculously fast! And there’s also no pilling, yay! This means that I can apply my makeup normally! Significant improvement! 
 
 
At first, this serum might feel a bit soapy while you are still buffing it into your skin. However, since it absorbs so quickly, that feeling is gone after less than a minute. I already said how lightweight this serum is, but seriously, it becomes literally invisible after it absorbs. Like, I cannot feel it at all on my skin! It still gives you a nice hydrating and slightly cooling feeling while it’s absorbing which feels very calming. Even though I cannot feel the serum on my skin, my skin feels so nice and calm and just overall great! Since it’s so lightweight, this serum is super comfortable to wear for hours, even when it’s very hot outside. Super comfortable, super lightweight and feels balancing and hydrating at the same time! Perfect! 
 
 
 
NB: The following section was written long before I started using adapalene and an LED mask. Since then, I have started using it just under my eyes, not on my chin, since that area is nowadays already treated with many other products. It still has fantastic results on my undereyes, though!
 
Oh my! The results are astounding! My skin looks visibly better after a month of using this serum! The serum hydrates the skin pretty well, and it keeps it balanced throughout the day. The salicylic acid ensures that blemishes don’t reoccur too often, and if they do, that they’ll go away soon. In fact, I have been able to go though an entire PMDD and period without a single cystic acne appearing! Words cannot describe just how monumental of an achievement this is! Nothing, literally nothing was able to calm my skin down enough to prevent cystic acne, but this serum manages to do it with ease! Aside from preventing acne and helping them recover sooner, this serum also helps the surface of the skin become much smoother. 
 
 
Like, yeah, it’s not perfectly smooth (it likely never will from more than a decade of consistently reoccurring acne breakouts), but it looks so much better! A bit craggy still, but far less than it used to be! I literally cannot remember the last time my skin was in such good condition – it looks and feels happy! And even if I don’t get enough sleep or if I am feeling unwell, my skin still looks remarkably good! It also seems like this serum helps balance out the production of sebum, leading to less oily shine through the day (an effect that is further enhanced by the Eucerin Dermopure moisturiser). This also means that makeup looks much better now! Especially things like contour powder and blush, they look much more even now that my skin is in better condition. I am blown away by how much this serum is helping! And how good my skin looks now, compared to all the previous serums I had used!  
 
 
In conclusion, oh yes, this is the best serum I have used, so far! The formula is extraordinarily comfortable and lightweight! It’s literally feather-light! At first, it feels soapy and slippery, but it doesn’t feel slimy or icky at any point. It takes only a few seconds for the serum to absorb into the skin – much faster than the previous serum! And it doesn’t leave a tacky residue after it absorbs. Instead, it feels silky soft! I literally cannot feel it once it absorbs, it’s that comfortable! But that’s not all – this serum is a godsend for anybody who has acne-prone or oily skin! It seriously does wonders! My skin is suuuper problematic and yet this serum manages to calm it down and make it both look and feel so much better! The texture of my skin is refined; no longer is it horribly craggy and uneven. Now it is only slightly uneven because I highly doubt it will ever be perfectly smooth, but even this is miraculous! What’s even more miraculous is that it somehow manages to keep the skin in wonderful condition even during my horrible PMDD and periods, when it usually erupts into an oily, cystic-acne-filled mess. But with this serum it is (at least visually) happy and content! Smooth, no cystic acne and doesn’t feel icky and slimy! Exactly what I wanted! And what I needed! It also helps acne heal faster! But besides all that, it is also a fantastic base for makeup as it never pills, which, combined with smoother skin from the effects of this serum means that makeup looks better overall! God, what would I do had I not discovered this serum?? My only wish is that Revolution don’t stop manufacturing it for at least a couple of years... I think that’s a fair request, right? It’s magnificent so of course it will get my highest recommendation! Absolutely check out this serum if you struggle with acne! 
 
 
Rating: 9.5/10 
  
Would buy again? YES, absolutely
 


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