I’m extremely late to the party with this product, I know, but I finally caved and bought myself a bottle. I will admit that I was curious about why so many people raved about this and the similar product from The Ordinary, so off I trundled to Boots to pick some up.
I have to say, I like the look but not the feel of the packaging. The plain black and white bottle is nice, but it’s plastic and feels a little cheap. Mind you, this was about £6, so I guess it is cheap. I assume the brand saves money on the packaging. I’m not mad, but next to some of my Elemis products, it definitely looks budget. If you’re someone who likes pretty packaging, this probably won’t float your boat.
The bottle is, as mentioned, plastic, with a flip top lid.
This is where the problems start.
Dispensing the product is annoying. You have to squeeze the bottle to get any out, and it isn’t really the kind of plastic that squeezes well. A dropper or some other kind of nozzle would have been better, especially because you can’t open the lid far enough to properly tip the thing up into your hand. There’s been quite a lot of swearing in front of my bedroom mirror lately, all directed at this tiny bottle.
When it does deign to finally plop into your hand, the texture is… well, my first reaction was ‘ew’. It’s like sticky water. I can’t think of a better way to describe it, and when it’s applied to the face, it goes on sticky and takes a while to absorb. I’m talking like five minutes here, which when you’re in a hurry in the morning isn’t great.
It also has made my skin feel quite tight, which is interesting for a product that’s supposed to be hydrating. As the owner of dry skin, in my experience, if something makes your skin feel tight, it’s dehydrating you.
Once it’s absorbed, moisturiser goes on top just fine, and I have to say my skin does feel nice and soft after using it. I am concerned about the tightness I feel, but I’ve only been using it a week, so I’ll give it a chance and see.
First impressions of this serum are, to sum up in one word, meh. I’m neither disappointed nor blown away by it. I will continue to use it for a month, then report back.
Unless I get so annoyed by the bottle that I lose my patience one day and yeet the thing out of the window, that is…
WEST SURREY STYLE 