How much bakuchiol is in Herbivore's serum?

Herbivore does not disclose a percentage. Bakuchiol sits 7th on a roughly 30-ingredient INCI — a position consistent with a real, non-trivial dose, but not one that lets you verify the exact number against the clinical literature.

Is 100ppm bakuchiol enough to work like retinol?

100ppm converts to 0.01% — well below the 0.5%-2% range used in the studies (including the widely cited 2019 Chaudhuri & Bojanowski trial) that established bakuchiol as a retinol-comparable active. NEOGEN's disclosed dose is real and verifiable, which is a genuine transparency advantage, but at that concentration it is unlikely to deliver the same retinol-alternative results as a serum formulated in the studied range.

What is the best cheaper alternative to Herbivore Bakuchiol Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum?

NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum ($32.93) is the honest budget option — under half Herbivore's price, rated 4.9 stars across 42 Amazon ratings, and it discloses its bakuchiol dose where Herbivore does not. Just go in knowing that disclosed dose (100ppm / 0.01%) is a low one, and don't expect it to replicate whatever undisclosed concentration Herbivore actually uses.

Dupe report Nº 030 / Bakuchiol serums

Herbivore Bakuchiol Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum dupes, ranked by formula match

Name: NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum
Brand: NEOGEN
Price: 32.93 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.9 (42 reviews)

Honest verdict: the one bakuchiol dupe that discloses a number discloses a very low one.

The verdict / read the actives, not the marketing

There is no exact HERBIVORE BAKUCHIOL Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum dupe. Herbivore's Bakuchiol Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum discloses bakuchiol as an ingredient but not a percentage — it sits 7th on a roughly 30-ingredient INCI, a position consistent with a genuine, non-trivial dose. NEOGEN's Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum is the rare bakuchiol product that puts an actual number on the label: 100ppm, which is 0.01% — a real, verifiable figure, but one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% concentrations used in the published bakuchiol-vs-retinol clinical literature. That gap means NEOGEN is not a strength-matched dupe: it may be doing meaningfully less retinol-alternative work than Herbivore's undisclosed dose, even though it costs less than half as much and layers in real supporting actives (niacinamide, squalane, a peptide, vitamin C derivatives) of its own. If you specifically want Herbivore's bakuchiol dose, no other product currently discloses a comparable one — you are trusting an undisclosed number either way. If you want a disclosed, verifiable, likely lower, bakuchiol dose in a well-reviewed serum for under half the price, NEOGEN is the honest, transparent option — just don't expect Herbivore-level, or retinol-level, results at that concentration.

— ✓ original bakuchiol

$32.93 vs $68 original NEOGEN

Best available match: 45% base-formula score — the highest we measured across the candidates. Scores reflect formula proximity — read the actives column for the clinical story. How we score ↓

The winner

NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum

The rare bakuchiol product that discloses an actual number — "Bakuchiol(100ppm)" in its own INCI, which converts to 0.01%. 4.9-star average across 42 Amazon ratings, at $32.93 versus $68 for the original. Honest caveat: 0.01% sits one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% bakuchiol concentrations used in published retinol-alternative research — this is not a strength-matched dupe. NEOGEN is transparent and far cheaper; it is not verified to deliver Herbivore's (undisclosed) potency.

Buy on Amazon $32.93 Breakdown ↓

Some links earn us a commission. It never changes the verdict — the methodology is public.

02 / The scoreboard

2 formulas, one number that matter

Read the actives column first — it is the apples-to-apples comparison. $ per gram of active is what the working ingredients cost you; the base-formula score is supporting evidence, not the verdict.

Product	Actives vs original	$ / g of active	Price	Base formula	Verdict
HERBIVORE BAKUCHIOL Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum	Ingredient disclosed; concentration undisclosed	$0.00	$68.00 30 mL	100% the reference	The original
Partial overlap missing actives — different formula wearing the keywords
NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum	Ingredient disclosed as parts-per-million (100ppm = 0.01%); not disclosed as a percentage on the label	$11024.73	$32.93 30 mL	45% highest measured	The winner Amazon →

✓ same % as original ≠ different % ? in formula, % undisclosed — not in formula

03 / The original

Why the original is the original

Bakuchiol is a plant-derived compound studied as a gentler, pregnancy-compatible alternative to retinol — a 2019 head-to-head trial (Chaudhuri & Bojanowski) found 0.5% bakuchiol produced comparable improvements in fine lines and pigmentation to 0.25%-0.5% retinol, with less irritation. Herbivore confirms bakuchiol in its own verified INCI, 7th of roughly 30 ingredients — a position consistent with a real, meaningful dose — but does not disclose the actual percentage.

That undisclosed number is the entire story of this page, because most affordable "bakuchiol dupes" do not disclose a number either — they just claim the same ingredient name and let the shopper assume equivalence. NEOGEN's Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum is the rare exception: it states "Bakuchiol(100ppm)" directly in its INCI. That converts to 0.01% — a real, verifiable figure, but one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% range used in the published clinical literature on bakuchiol.

So this is not a clean "same active, lower price" story, and we are not going to pretend it is. NEOGEN is transparent where Herbivore is not, and it costs less than half as much — genuine advantages. But its disclosed dose is very likely far lower than whatever Herbivore's undisclosed percentage actually is. If retinol-alternative potency is what you are paying for, don't assume a cheaper bakuchiol serum delivers it just because the ingredient name matches.

04 / The candidates

Every candidate, examined

01 / NEOGEN

The winner

$11024.73 per g of active

$32.93 retail · 30 mL

45% base formula · highest of 6

NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum

Shared formula DNA 1 of 34 original ingredients present

Water Propanediol Glycerin Piroctone Olamine Dicaprylyl Carbonate Caprylic Bakuchiol Pisum Sativum (Pea) Extract Morus Alba Bark Extract Lentinous Edodes Mushroom Extract Melia Azadirachta Flower Extract Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Fruit Extract Radix Polygoni Multiflori Root Extract Haematococcus Pluvialis Extract Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate 1 2-Hexanediol Caprylyl Glycol Sodium Gluconate Ethylhexylglycerin Sodium Acrylates Copolymer Sorbitan Olivate Coco-Caprylate Caprylhydroxamic Acid Hydroxyacetophenone Lecithin Coco-Caprylate Triglyceride Ethylhexylglycerin Caprylate Tetrasodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate Citric Acid Xanthan Gum

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches: The rare bakuchiol product that discloses an actual number — "Bakuchiol(100ppm)" in its own INCI, which converts to 0.01%. That is real transparency Herbivore's undisclosed label does not offer.
What differs: 100ppm (0.01%) sits one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% bakuchiol concentrations used in the published retinol-alternative clinical literature. This is not a strength-matched dupe — NEOGEN may be doing meaningfully less retinol-alternative work than Herbivore's undisclosed dose, whatever that dose actually is. NEOGEN's formula also layers in niacinamide, squalane, a peptide, and vitamin C derivatives of its own.
Who it's for: Consider it if a disclosed, verifiable, and much cheaper bakuchiol product matters more to you than a guaranteed dose — $32.93 versus $68, under half the price, rated 4.9 stars across 42 Amazon ratings. Do not buy it expecting Herbivore-level, or retinol-level, results at this concentration.

Ships in: Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH: pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source: Ingredient disclosed as parts-per-million (100ppm = 0.01%); not disclosed as a percentage on the label NEOGEN discloses "Bakuchiol(100ppm)" directly in the INCI (Ulta product page) — 100ppm converts to 0.01%, a real and verifiable figure, but one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% concentrations used in published bakuchiol-vs-retinol clinical research. ASIN B094VL2TNH price + 29.8692 mL size verified from the verifiedbeautydata products.json record.

$32.93 for 30 mL → $11024.73 per gram of active — 0.0× cheaper per active gram than the original's $0.00.

Buy on Amazon $32.93

05 / Methodology

How we verified this

Verified 2026-07-29

Every formula on this page was tokenized — split into its individual INCI ingredients — and matched against the EU CosIng ingredient database, so "Aqua," "Water," and "Eau" all resolve to the same ingredient.

The base-formula match score works like this: sharing a rare ingredient counts far more than sharing a common one. Almost every serum contains water and glycerin — that proves nothing. Almost nothing contains Ethoxydiglycol or Laureth-23, so when a candidate shares those with the original, it says something real about how the formula was built. (For the statisticians: it is an IDF-weighted Jaccard similarity over the normalized ingredient lists.)

Scores are computed, not opinions. The verdict tags are our editorial read of the actives, the scores, and the prices — and the methodology stays public so you can disagree with us precisely.

Where the ingredient lists come from

Ingredient disclosed; concentration undisclosed
Ingredient disclosed as parts-per-million (100ppm = 0.01%); not disclosed as a percentage on the label

Sources for this report

INCIDecoder / Ulta product pages — bakuchiol confirmed present in each product's INCI
Published bakuchiol-vs-retinol concentration literature (typical formulation range 0.5%-2%)
Amazon Creators PA-API — ASIN/price verification
verifiedbeautydata products.json verified records

06 / Questions

Frequently asked

Is there a dupe for Herbivore Bakuchiol Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum?: Not a strength-matched one, and we want to say that plainly. NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum ($32.93) is the rare bakuchiol product that discloses an actual number — 100ppm, which is 0.01% — but that is one to two orders of magnitude below the 0.5%-2% bakuchiol concentrations used in published retinol-alternative research. Herbivore's own bakuchiol percentage is undisclosed, so we cannot confirm NEOGEN matches it — and there's real reason to think it doesn't.
How much bakuchiol is in Herbivore's serum?: Herbivore does not disclose a percentage. Bakuchiol sits 7th on a roughly 30-ingredient INCI — a position consistent with a real, non-trivial dose, but not one that lets you verify the exact number against the clinical literature.
Is 100ppm bakuchiol enough to work like retinol?: 100ppm converts to 0.01% — well below the 0.5%-2% range used in the studies (including the widely cited 2019 Chaudhuri & Bojanowski trial) that established bakuchiol as a retinol-comparable active. NEOGEN's disclosed dose is real and verifiable, which is a genuine transparency advantage, but at that concentration it is unlikely to deliver the same retinol-alternative results as a serum formulated in the studied range.
What is the best cheaper alternative to Herbivore Bakuchiol Dual-Retinol Alternative Serum?: NEOGEN Real Bakuchiol Firming Serum ($32.93) is the honest budget option — under half Herbivore's price, rated 4.9 stars across 42 Amazon ratings, and it discloses its bakuchiol dose where Herbivore does not. Just go in knowing that disclosed dose (100ppm / 0.01%) is a low one, and don't expect it to replicate whatever undisclosed concentration Herbivore actually uses.