
Clearing Acne and Redness in a Flash – Nine less A-Control 10% Azelaic Acid Serum Review
Nine Less 10% Azelaic Acid Serum Review
Azelaic acid has been booming as a treatment for acne and rosacea, only growing in the last 5 years. It is a natural acid that inhibits melanin formation and also acts as an antioxidant to prevent cell damage, whilst also calming inflammation and redness on your skin. It has low risk of side effects and shows great effect at helping clear irritated skin and soothe.
Nine less is a long-lasting K-beauty brand that started in natural, hydrating hair care. They utilized natural ingredients to create famous their famous hair essence and rich volume balm. But, they’ve since moved quite away from their hair days and instead brought their natural touch to skincare.
Their most famous products include their serum tackling hyperpigmentation (B-Boost 1% Kojic Acid Serum) and of course, their diverse azelaic acid range. From their moisturizing cream, to their refreshing toner with soothing tea tree extract – Nine less has made azelaic acid easy to blend into your everyday routine. But, what about their original serum? Is it worth reaching for in a moment of outbreak to bring back smooth, clear relief? Let’s test it out!
What's In The Bottle?
Azelaic acid (10%): as it says on the bottle, this is the second highest ingredient after water in the serum. Ideal to treat general redness and skin inflammation, this dose is lower than clinical prescription (typically 20%), but is easily added to your routine.
Niacinamide: the staple of K-beauty, a brightening vitamin that helps even skin tone by lifting dark spots and preventing melanin formation.
Panthenol: soothing Vitamin B5 that is ideal to help repair and hydrate damaged, irritated skin barrier.
Centella asciatica extract: soothing herbal extract from centella leaves that provides gentle hydration and soothes irritated skin.
Snail secretion filtrate: snail mucin produced from snails which deeply hydrates and cools skin tone, whilst providing enriching vitamins, natural hyaluronic acid and repairing peptides.
Willow Bark extract (BHA): gentle exfoliating acid from its natural willow source, helping cleanse pores and refresh skin barrier.
Green tea extract: powered by antioxidants and providing lasting calm to red and irritated skin. Gently hydrates and repairs skin cells.
Madecassoside: extract from centella that directly inhibits melanin formation to lift dark spots and clear skin.
Coffee extract: with powerful antioxidants, also soothes inflammation and boosts natural skin elasticity for brighter skin.
Bergamot (citrus) extract: antibacterial, potent extract that provides vitamin C for lightening skin tone, as well as reducing bacteria to help clear acne.
This serum has a verified cocktail of ingredients to combat classic, bacterial acne. The most exciting ingredients for my eye is the snail extract (even if it's just under 1% - I love snail mucin) and the calming panthenol. Azelaic acid is a great treatment for redness, but it can lead to increased dryness – depending on the dose. So, combining it with soothing, hydrating agents is important and this serum has done part of that work for us.
Who Should Avoid?
It is not 100% recommended for fungal acne, as although it does have some great agents to combat general acne, it contains “polyglyceryl-10 laurate” and the added bergamot essential oil can aggravate FA specifically. Although it’s not a high-risk product – there are other azelaic acid serums that don’t have the same potential risk (so if you’ve already been using it for FA and it works, don’t sweat it).
It also contains butylene glycol – so if you’re avoiding that one, skip this serum.
Otherwise, its flexible for a range of skin types (due to its lightweight hydration choice), is good for pore health and contains some fun additional ingredients for brightening and even skin tone.
The Results
It was the perfect time to add some azelaic acid to my routine, as I’d just switched in some AHA/BHA to my routine and my skin was in a rough spot. I needed to add an additional cleansing step to combat the exfoliation in my skin (achieved with a warm face towel that I used to gently scrub my skin after a foam cleanser) and just needed something to help calm everything down.
I cracked open the Nine less azelaic acid serum and was delighted by how watery it was, which my skin prefers for layering. It was deeply hydrating and I would apply 4-5 drops to each cheek in the morning and gently massage in after toning (onto dry skin – which is important to limit irritation!)
With my added cleansing step to help clear the purge – I was delighted by the general results. After using azelaic acid for 2 weeks, there was an immediate settling to my spots and a better soothing of redness. I did note that it increased my skin dryness (which with combination skin is always a risk). It also mostly affected my nose (which is odd), so I avoided using azelaic acid on the bridge of my nose (which helped calm it down quickly).
I took a classic before and after shot (with the two-week interval), where you can see what I started with and the results after consistent daily use. I did have to add in a snail mucin cream to combat the added dryness (Cosrx 92 Snail Mucin All In One Cream is what I used), but otherwise the serum was a non-irritating addition to my routine. I still have little red patches of skin, which I want to continue using the serum to see if it will clear – but for classic, bacterial acne this was a win!
Final Thoughts
For acne and irritated skin, this serum is a great pick! It was fairly drying for my skin type - so perhaps it might not suit more dry skin, but upping my moisturizer helped calm it down fairly easily.
As a serum for sensitive, irritated or acne-prone skin it is a good treatment option to add azelaic acid to your daily routine.
Shop azelaic acid, kojic acid, tranexamic acid and more! All available on Arktastic




