Jennifer Garner Called This Product the 'Mack Daddy' of Face Serums

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If you were to describe Jennifer Garner in three words, "relatable" would probably come to mind. While plenty of celebrities seem to play up an 'I'm just like you' angle to varying degrees of believability, it's hard to imagine Garner's off-camera personality is insincere. When watching her converse with her dog in her owl-printed pajamas on an installment of her #PretendCookingShow, you might forget the fact that she has 11.7 million followers on Instagram and award-winning films under her belt.

True to form, Garner has been sharing all the details on her beauty routine as though swapping notes with a friend. Two weeks ago, she told Today that she wants to "normalize looking normal" and gave a full rundown of her minimal hair and makeup routine. Now, she's provided a more in-depth look into her skin-care routine in a new interview with Byrdie. (Related: Jennifer Garner Swears This Hair Oil Made Her Thinning Locks "Strong and Vibrant Again")

If there's one skin-care product that Garner seems enamored with, it's the Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Retinol Pro 0.5% Power Serum (Buy It, $43, ulta.com). (Garner is a spokesperson for the brand.) Of the product, Garner tells Byrdie that the last step in her nighttime routine is "almost always this bad boy," and that the pick has been co-signed by her dermatologist. "I had used prestige products for a while, and then a dermatologist had prescribed [a product] and then in talking to my dermatologist, they were like, 'You know what, you can get the same thing at the drugstore if you get Neutrogena,'" she says in the interview. "So this new power serum is the absolute... it's the mack daddy. It is no joke. It's taken forever to get it right." (Related: Jennifer Garner Calls These Hair-Care Products the 'Perfect' Gifts)

Ulta

Buy It: Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Retinol Pro 0.5% Power Serum, $43, ulta.com

If you're unfamiliar, retinol is a vitamin A-derivative that's known for fighting wrinkles, discoloration, and breakouts. Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Retinol Pro 0.5% Power Serum is one of two new additions to the brand's retinol lineup. With the highest concentration of retinol of any of Neutrogena products to date, it's intended for experienced retinol users who are looking for a strong product (and, by extension, more noticeable results). The brand settled on the 0.5% concentration as a potency that would still be gentle, and FWIW, Garner calls it "non-irritating and great" as someone who's recounted irritation from retinol in the past. (For reference, retinol products typically range from .1 percent to 1 percent concentration, with 1 percent considered a high-strength formulation. There are exceptions — particularly lately, brands have launched products with concentrations exceeding 4 percent, but these could risk being very irritating to novice retinol users and or won't be appropriate for everyone.)

While the serum seems to be the skin-care find that Garner's currently most excited about, she also shared the rest of her routine along with her overall skin-care philosophy. Sunscreen is the "only thing that is 100 percent a sure thing," [that she'll put on every day] and right now Garner says she's rotating between Neutrogena's Hydro Boost Water Gel Lotion Sunscreen (Buy It, $16, ulta.com), Tinted Facial Moisturizer (Buy It, $13, amazon.com), and Daily Defense Face Serum (Buy It, $13, amazon.com). She considers washing her face at night non-negotiable and believes taking care of your skin becomes all the more important with age. "And in order for [a minimal makeup routine] to work, especially as you get a little bit more wisdom under your belt, you have to just take care of it," she says to Brydie. "That's really what it's about." (Related: This Jennifer Garner-Approved Styler Transformed My Hair In One Week)

If you want to show your own skin some love, the product that Garner's considers the crème de la crème of serums is a few clicks away. You can find it on Amazon (Buy It, $33, amazon.com) where it's currently discounted with a mini face cream thrown in.