I've tested and reviewed a lot of skincare products, and Maelove makes some of the best and most affordable I've ever tried

As a beauty expert, I've tried almost every skincare product on the market. Here's why Maelove remains one of my favorite brands.

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When you step into a Sephora, it doesn't take long to realize that plenty of skincare is not affordable. Glossy tubs of La Mer go for $190, and there's an $85 Peter Thomas Roth mask made with pure 24-karat gold. 

But, if you know where to look, you can find skincare products that perform on par with luxury picks. Companies like Maelove, a startup founded by MIT grads, use many of the same ingredients and cosmetics labs as high-end brands but sell products for a fraction of the cost, like a skincare version of Italic. 

Formulas are based more firmly on exhaustive research than the farm-to-face movement, and each product in the line is listed under $30, except for the Love 31 face oil and the Moonlight Retinal Super Serum.

What's better, though, is the quality for the price. I test many skincare products — both luxury and drugstore — for my job at Insider Reviews, and if I could only recommend one skincare brand to my friends and family, this would probably be it. The products work well, they're not expensive, and the startup rarely disappoints. Some of my favorites are the cult-favorite Glow Maker Serum (a much more affordable alternative to the pricey Skinceuticals C E Ferulic) and the gentle yet efficacious Night Renewer Cream. Like discovering the loophole of buying Differin gel rather than Differin cream to save $200 in our Differin gel review, we think Maelove is one way to save hundreds on the essentials without making any concessions regarding what goes into the products themselves.

Below, in our Maelove review, you can learn more about what makes the affordable skincare line one of the best around.

The Glow Maker Serum

The Glow Maker is a vitamin C serum that brightens your complexion, evens tones, and lightens dark spots. It's lightweight and sinks in quickly and completely without leaving any tacky residue. While vitamin C serums can be drying, Maelove's iteration has a botanical blend and hyaluronic acid (which can hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water) to prevent it.

Consumers have been quick to note the Glow Maker has a very similar ingredient list to the multi-award-winning C E Ferulic Serum, despite being more than $130 cheaper.

Read our full Maelove Glow Maker Serum review, which we also chose as one of the best vitamin C serums. 

The Hydrator B5 Gel

The Hydrator is a light serum that's dense with hyaluronic acid, a substance that can hold over a thousand times its weight in water. Because it's so hydrating, it helps eliminate lines on your face when your skin is thirsting for water. "Considering that I only used the product for two weeks, I was surprised that the crow's feet — or fine lines around the outside of my eyes — became much less noticeable. They didn't look nearly as deep or severe," says Rebecca Strong, beauty writer for Insider Reviews. 

Read our full Maelove's Hydrator serum review to learn more about our experience using it and see before-and-after pictures.

The Moonlight Retinal Super Serum

The Moonlight Retinal Super Serum is Maelove's first retinal product. While it uses a more efficient ingredient than retinol, it's relatively inexpensive at $40 an ounce. Like other vitamin A products, Moonlight is designed to increase the body's natural processes that combat signs of aging: cell turnover, collagen production, improving discoloration, hydrating the skin, and reducing acne. 

Maelove claims its Moonlight serum delivers "prescription level benefits" over the counter. And retinaldehyde is actually stronger than retinol, according to celebrity dermatologist Dr. Dendy Engelman. However, Dr. Engelman also says it can have more intense effects — like dryness. Moonlight includes niacinamide, bisabolol, ceramide, tea extracts, hyaluronic acid, and squalane to balance out the formula. 

It's also important to note that vitamin A derivatives are a "known teratogen," according to Dr. Engelman, so it must be avoided if pregnant or breastfeeding. You can learn more about retinol and how it works here. 

Fade Away Brightening Serum

If you want to eliminate dark spots, this is the product for you. This serum uses a potent combination of alpha arbutin, Kojic acid, and glycerin to fade hyperpigmentation while keeping your skin hydrated. Though we noticed a small stinging sensation when we first tried the product, it disappeared after a few days. In the end, the serum did just what it was supposed to: fade away dark, uneven patches of skin.

"After using the Fade Away brightening serum daily for three full weeks, I definitely noticed a difference in my dark spots. While they didn't disappear completely, most of them had faded to a lighter hue, making them less noticeable. That said, according to Dr. Vicki Rapaport, a board-certified dermatologist in private practice and co-host of the podcast Facially Conscious, the full benefits of this product might take six months or more. So, only time will tell if the spots will fade even further with continued use of the serum," says Rebecca Strong, beauty writer for Insider Reviews. 

Read our full Maelove Fade Away review to see photos and more of our thoughts on the serum.

The Eye Enhancer Eye Cream

The Eye Enhancer hydrates, tightens, and brightens the delicate skin around the eyes. A little goes a long way; it absorbs into the skin for an all-day brightness and de-puffing boost. Cold-pressed Robusta Coffee seed extract, full of antioxidants and polyphenols, reduces water retention and puffiness, and a botanical complex soothes the thin, sensitive skin around your eyes. But if you're used to a thicker eye cream, this may not be for you — it's very lightweight. 

The Night Renewer Cream

The Night Renewer is one of my favorite products. It uses 10% medical-grade AHA, a blend of soothing ingredients, and hyaluronic acid to gently resurface the skin for better texture and even tone without being too harsh or drying. It took the company years of research to master something gentle and effective, and they've nailed it here. After one night of use, I noticed an improvement in my skin's texture and tone and have noticed my dark spots fading over time. My pores also look a little smaller.

Read our full Maelove Night Renewer review. 

The NIA 10 Calming Serum

The NIA 10 Calming Serum is designed for dry, inflamed, sensitive, acne-prone skin. Niacinamide (vitamin B3), zinc, and white tea extract work to calm the skin and improve redness and tone over time. I noticed it helped calm my blemishes and made my pores look noticeably smaller. In terms of redness, it's helped slightly with steady use, but the results have not been drastic. If redness is your main concern and your skin is too sensitive for vitamin C serums, this is worth checking out as an alternative. Otherwise, the Glow Maker may be better for overall tone correction.  

Read our full Maelove NIA 10 Calming Serum review. 

The Refresher Face Wash

The Refresher is a gentle cleanser that helps clean the skin without disrupting its natural moisture barrier. Still, it can be slightly drying if you're used to other simple, gentle cleansers like Cetaphil. The Refresher uses a blend of AHAs (lactic, malic, and tartaric) to remove dead or dull skin cells, and without a moisturizer afterward, it can be drying. Personally, I like that the AHAs help calm my breakouts and remove dull skin, but if you're prone to dryness, you may want to stick with Cetaphil. The internal straw also doesn't reach all the way to the bottom of the bottle, so you may have to dig for the last bit of the face wash.

The Deep Exfoliator Face Polish

The Deep Exfoliator is a good, relatively gentle exfoliant. Its ingredients include BHA (salicylic acid) and pulverized clay to draw out impurities and absorb excess sebum, and niacinamide (vitamin B3), glycerin, allantoin, and vitamin E to restore moisture. When used a few times a week, it helps resurface your skin for better tone and texture. It works best when combined with another AHA/BHA like the Night Renewer, but it's nice on its own — especially for sensitive skin types. If you're looking for a stronger exfoliant and don't want to buy both, I recommend buying the Night Renewer. 

The Stargaze Enhanced Retinol Serum

Recently, Maelove introduced a gentler retinol, the Stargaze Enhanced Retinol Serum, which contains the dermatologist-recommended concentration (0.25%) for those uninitiated to the ingredient. This formula is also a good choice for someone prone to sensitivity.

While retinol has plenty of benefits in reducing fine lines and evening out skin tone, it's also known to cause dryness and irritation. The Stargaze serum lessens side effects by including a host of hydrating and calming ingredients like niacinamide and hyaluronic acid. If you want to try retinol but have been worried about potential irritation, this serum is a solid entry point.

Read our full Maelove Stargaze Serum review. 

How Maelove made good skincare cheap

Maelove CEO and cofounder Jackie Kim wanted to cut prices on grooming products, and cofounders Brad Yim and Rishi Khaitan were looking for ways to apply artificial intelligence techniques to unexpected industries. Skincare — with its glamour and markups — seemed like a natural fit.

As industry outsiders, Kim and company were able to pinpoint the norms that needed challenging. "The first oddity of the skincare industry that we noticed was that it's run like the fashion industry," Kim explained. "Marketers create trends and endless product varieties in an attempt to maximize sales. What you end up with is a ton of undifferentiated products hyped by overzealous marketers, which leads to confusion among shoppers."

The team recruited friends from all disciplines — cancer and brain researchers, chemical engineers, lawyers, and medical doctors — to hone in on the research without the baggage of preconceived notions. In essence, Maelove is one huge — and very successful — science experiment.

First, the team leverages decades of clinical research. "There are abundant and widely accepted published works that show which compounds work well for maintaining skin health. These are the tried-and-true ingredients recommended by every dermatologist and [which] are available in both over-the-counter and prescription strengths (the classic ingredients like retinol, AHA, certain vitamins and peptides, etc)." In short, these are the ingredients that should work.

Then, Maelove uses artificial intelligence to scan millions of self-reported product reviews — what Kim refers to as empirical real-world data — to determine which ingredients correlated with success and which to avoid. These are the ingredients that, according to users, do work. 

Finally, the company finds human volunteers to test the formula to verify its effectiveness. So, instead of building a business around variety for the sake of variety, Maelove focuses on making one line of stellar skincare that can work for all skin types. 

The bottom line

This radically affordable luxury skincare line is the real deal. Maelove makes some of the best and some of the cheapest skincare products that I've found. And while I don't often get to stick to my own skincare routine as a product reviewer, I've surprised myself by preferring to use the cheaper Maelove products over luxury skincare I often test for work because they're simple, gentle, and effective. 

I recommend Maelove to everyone who asks me for recommendations because it works for all skin types and doesn't cost much, but skincare is also a notoriously subjective experience. What works for me may not work for you — even a skincare line built to cater to every skin type. Luckily, Maelove has a 100-day, 100% money-back guarantee, so you're not risking much if you want to try it.