If you are somewhat in touch with beauty news, you might have heard of the scandal with Sunday Riley (an ex employee dished out that they were required to make fake accounts and put out positive reviews for their products, as the CEO ordered personally).
I was surprised that this even made news at all because I assume Sephora (and online communities) are full of shills, r/Asianbeauty now feels like it's 70% brand related shill/attention ho and 30% real user...I guess I have visited reddit enough times to finally get fed up with the hype: Perfectly mediocre brands got mentioned over and over as if it's some kind of innovation (I have gotten some brands in my black list but will keep the rant for later).
Sunday Riley Luna is one of their star products. The night time skincare oil has some retinol to refine rejuvenate skin while you sleep. I got it as gift with purchase back in 2018 and have been enjoying it as a travel moisturizer. The oil has an indigo tint and a weird but tolerable licorice smell.
The texture is quite typical of oil, light and mildly tacky (less so than rosehip) and works well as early winter moisturizer. I started using it on my first trip to Japan that I always associate it with the red maple leaves by the train station (the product pictures here) and me circling around the area (I was lost).
I do notice some evening of skintone (not much for hyperpigmentation but for redness) and texture (it gets rid of flakey skin and small bump from irritation). I did not experience any irritation with retinol but it could be due to its low concentration. Overall it was pleasant to use but I didn't really have the need for a full sized tube. I suppose for a nightly treatment I can stick with, I need something that's more noticeable (rosehip) or more pleasant to use (Jurliqu** I am not spelling the brand name as I hate getting spammed by their PR).
Pfff scandal? What scandal? I thought every brand does that? :P
ReplyDeleteI thought oil was supposed to slow the absorption of retinol and thus it's better to use a gel carrier instead of a cream/oil based? So the name retinol oil sounds like an oxymoron to me. But may be my info is outdated. Anyway, I have the same size sample bottle as well but haven't used it because, well, baby. Ha.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you and your two Enos, big and little.
DeleteI have a feeling that it's probably very little retinol mainly because the previous one use were either hardcore
effective (hyperpigmentation flaked off in whole patch) or super irritating (the missha ampoule).
The PR, influencer are in such full force the last two year I automated hate something when it's from a pro blogger.
Sleeping oil sounds so interesting! I agree... the golden age of rAsianBeauty on reddit have sadly passed.
ReplyDeleteYup. Over the last year it's all like filtered selfies mentioning cosrx low ph gel cleanser, "most underrated Innisfree product?" , 3ce promo image with hundreds of upvotes...It got tiring real quick.
DeleteI'm currently using Neostrata Enlighten Illuminating serum. It contains nianicimide and acetyl glucosamine and other stuff. I wasn't getting any results from Olay, so I'm giving Olay a rest at the moment. Too early to tell if Neostrata is working but I do like it, my face does look a bit more radiant however that could just be my cycle. It's sticky though, I have to mix it with my moisturiser. I apply my serum first, usually Lancome Advanced Genifique or Double Serum then apply Neostrata. I think the acetyl glucosamine is what makes the serum more potent- Olay doesn't have that so maybe that's why it's not working. So I use DE vitamin c daytime and Neostrata niacinamide at night.
ReplyDeleteI just went to neostrada site and got scared by the price (it's not outrageous or anything) right now I am using pretty basic vitamin c, timeless CE ferulic (24USD and always on sale) , Rohto melano CC (12 bucks) and HABA white lady. I can still get a little lazy with sunscreen for now because it's winter, I need to catch up next month.
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