Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops is a part of the June Allure Beauty Box. Subscribe and get editor-approved picks in makeup, skincare, hair care, and fragrance delivered right to your door every month.

Niacinamide has been a trending skin-care ingredient for some time now. While it’s no newbie to the beauty industry, the brightening ingredient is a star in Glow Recipe‘s Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops, a highlighting serum, and 2023 Allure Reader’s Choice Award-winner.

For those unfamiliar, niacinamide (a type of vitamin B3) is a powerhouse ingredient with a boatload of skin-care benefits. When applied topically, it can decrease inflammation from acne and rosacea, reduce the appearance of fine lines and pigmentation, and overall enhance skin tone, Mona Gohara, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, tells Allure. In other words, niacinamide is the ideal remedy for stressed-out skin.

When my skin has signs of redness, flakiness, and dullness, I’ve been slathering on all of my most intensely-hydrating skin-care products, but no singular product has visibly reduced my redness and enhanced my glow as well as the Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops has. 

The lightweight, cooling pink formula has a gel-like texture similar to that of the Plum Plump Hyaluronic Serum, so it sinks into my skin immediately. A few minutes post-application, my redness is all but invisible. Now, please direct your attention to the photo on the left below where I’m only wearing Dew Drops. I took that right after waking up to inflamed skin and was wowed by the very apparent glow-up. Jaw, meet floor. My morning beauty routine has slowly chipped away to the bare necessities (aka sunscreen), so I’ve been relying on this serum to make my skin not reflect my erratic sleep schedule, poor diet, and constant floods of stress. (We’ll tackle the larger issues later, OK?)