Review – MUN Skin Aknari Brightening Youth Serum

The bottle is a bit funky looking because I’ve almost finished using it! *sorry!*

Hi guys! I’m finally back after such a long hiatus! If you’re curious about why I was gone for so long, let me just tell you that so many things happened in 2018 that my head was left spinning. I got a new job, got pregnant with my second child and gave birth, and I also bought a new house. *Eeeee* Anyway, now that I’m back, I’ve got a review of a facial oil that I’ve been using for almost 6 months or more. Read on to find out more!

Ok.. Maybe 2018 didn’t leave my head spinning to this extent.. Lol..

I’ve always somehow been aware of the natural skincare brand MUN. Although I don’t really recall how I got to know this brand, their most famous product – Aknari Brightening Youth Serum, was always under my radar for one of the skincare products that I need to try at least once. However, its luxury pricing has always put me off and I already have too many unopened skincare products in my cupboard. But as fate would have it, I saw this product sold online for a very good price and immediately grabbed it. *Sometimes I really wonder if the law of attraction is indeed true. I always seem to attract whatever that I’ve been thinking of the most.*

The Aknari Brightening Youth Serum contains just the 3 ingredients that I’ve listed below:

Ingredients

Prickly Pear Seed Oil*, Argan Oil*, Rose Flower Essential Oil *Certified Organic

How does the MUN Skin Aknari Brightening Youth Serum fare?

MUN Skin’s Aknari Brightening Youth Serum claims to transform skin from lifeless to luminous. Prickly Pear Seed Oil is extremely rich in Linoleic Acid and super antioxidant Vitamin E. When combined with Argan Oil, the duo works wonders to smooth wrinkles, repair sun damage and lighten dark spots. Aknari Brightening Youth serum also soothes inflammation, brightens under-eye circles and stimulates collagen production. Rose Essential Oil is included to aid absorption and provide a heavenly scent. The synergy of these three elegant oils will leave your skin feeling soft and looking radiant.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve been using this oil for around 6 months and I’m almost at the end of it. From my deligent usage of this product, you might guess that I love it and you would be absolutely right! The thing is, I’ve got a very bad habit to confess… If I don’t like a product or find it pretty meh, I’ll not use it even if it is an expensive product. I know, I know.. You might be thinking that I’m such a money wasting person who doesn’t recognise the value of money but in my defense, I’m wasting my own money, ok guys?

Anyway, how do I love this oil? Let me count the ways…

1) The MUN Aknari oil is super duper hydrating. I know.. I was surprised to realise that despite it being an oil, it is really hydrating and totally not greasy at all.. In fact, this oil is slightly mattifying and even helps to prolong the freshness of my makeup. It just leaves my skin with a soft matte glow reminiscent of a makeup primer. I’m not exaggerating guys! It really does that despite it being a a facial oil with no silicones!

2) I love just how “inactive” it is. It is weird to say this but if you are a person like me who uses a lot of products with “actives” such as acids and retinol, sometimes you just want a simple product that works without further aggrevating your skin. If my skin is throwing a hissy fit or it is more reactive than usual, I know that this product will not make it worse. In fact, it will help to soothe and calm it down. It just works!

3) I love its musky rose scent. Now, don’t get me wrong, this product absolutely does not smell like perfume at all. In fact, it smells more of the earth that the roses were grown in (thanks to the inclusion of the prickly pear seed oil) than roses itself. But the smell has grown on me and I love it.

However, if you are expecting this product to lighten dark spots or eliminate wrinkles, I will be very honest and tell you that I didn’t experience any effects of that sort at all. To me, it is just a beautifully lightweight and hydrating facial oil that soothes and calms my skin. Sometimes, I guess that’s exactly what I need.

If you are wondering whether you need this product, I would say that if you don’t mind paying for a premium quality oil with all eco-certified organic ingredients, then go ahead and indulge. However, you can definitely get a good facial oil at a cheaper price. Just buy the best within your own budget.

It’s a beautiful lightweight oil that leaves your skin matte with a soft glow

Where can you find it?

If you are based in the US, you can purchase it from their official website, The Detox Market Online or Beauty Heroes Online. It retails at US$95 (20ml sized).

In Singapore, Living Naturally Co stocks this product. It retails at S$139 (20ml sized).

Thank you for reading!

Review – Zelens Provitamin D Treatment Drops

Hi everyone, I’m finally back with a new post! Sorry for disappearing from my blog for so long but now that I’m back, let’s start with a review of a product that I’ve been using for the past 6 months. Yes, 6 months! As always, when I test a product for a much longer period of time, there’s a reason for it. Read on to find out more!

As always, the ingredients list is as below for your reference:

Ingredients

Coco Caprylate/Caprate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, C10-30 Cholesterol/Lanosterol Esters, Caprylyl Caprylate/Caprate, Isoamyl Laurate, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Lipids, Zea Mays (Corn) Oil, Linoleic Acid, Phospholipids, Octyldodecanol, Isoamyl Cocoate, 7-Dehydrocholesterol, Plankton Extract, Ganoderma Lucidum (Reishi) Extract, Agaricus Bisporus Extract, Lentinus Edodes Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Sterols, Glycolipids, Lecithin, Linolenic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, Tripeptide-29, Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate, Ethyl Linoleate, Ethyl Linolenate, Ethyl Oleate, Arachidyl Propionate, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopherol, Pelargonium Graveolens Leaf Oil, Citronellol, Geraniol, Linalool

The ingredients list is very interesting to me because unlike a normal oil, you would find that this product actually has both Linoleic Acid (omega-6) as well as Linolenic Acid (Omega-3) listed. Now why is that special? Typically, oils have a composition that consists of a mixture of Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Lauric Acid and Oleic Acid. These acids, also known as free fatty acids, are the reason why applying facial oils to your skin might have greater benefits to your skin than just preventing transepidermal water loss (TEWL). For example, lauric acid is strongly antibacterial and is useful for treating acne. Oleic acid is a barrier disruptor (meaning it can help to restore skin moisture barrier), while linoleic acid can fade pigment. By and large however, most facial oils in the market would not have ingredients list that consists of the free fatty acids listed as such. Additionally, there’s this concern that facial oils do not breakdown efficiently enough onto the skin itself for the skin to reap such benefits (read here for more info!). Therefore, when you have a facial oil with free fatty acids already broken down for you, you know that it’s quite special indeed! Enough with the ingredients analysis, so how did it fare for me?

Reference from @goalstogetglowing instagram

How did the Zelens Provitamin D Treatment Drops fare?

Zelens Provitamin D Treatment Drops is a light facial oil enriched with Provitamin D and bio-mimetic lipids similar to those found naturally in the skin that helps to restore the skin’s natural barrier and build skin’s resilience. It also claims to help protect against microbial attack (helping to keep blemishes at bay and control skin conditions such as dermatitis), wards against environmental stresses and helps to fortify skin’s fragile fabric.

So, did it work for me? Well, my answer to that would be both yes and no. To be honest, I could only use this product whenever I feel that my skin’s moisture barrier is compromised or when it’s feeling a bit drier or more sensitive than usual. Using this product at night over 2 or 3 days would help to restore my skin to a healthier state without fail. It’s kinda like a fail-safe skin repair and restoring oil for me.

However, when I try to use this product while my skin feel quite healthy, I would discover that it causes me to breakout a little. I’m not quite sure why this situation occurs for me though. This situation frustrated me and I was on the fence for this product for some time. I wanted to test it over a much longer period of time and it wasn’t until 6 months later that I feel confident enough to sum up my thoughts in this post.

I think that if you have ultra-sensitive skin with a compromised skin barrier, you should find this oil to be quite life-changing. However, if you already have relatively healthy skin, you might not see much benefits from it. Nowadays, I would use this product on a weekly basis after using the aha/bha mask as an excellent skin-restoring oil to repair my skin and protect it while it’s in a slightly weaken state.

A light-textured treatment oil

 

Where can you find it?

I bought this product from CultBeauty Online. It retails at £115.00 (30ml sized).

Thank you for reading!

Unboxing Caroline Hirons x Cult Beauty Box (Dec 17)

This is the season of mindless consumption and I gave in to my inner hedonist and did all kinds of damage to my credit card. I know that I’ll be groaning when I get my credit card bills next month but hey, at least I’ll be groaning with (hopefully) gloriously radiant skin!

I finally bought the Dec 17 edition of the famed Cult Beauty x Caroline Hirons box. Actually the product which kinda sealed the deal on my resolve to purchase is the May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon Balm. I’ve heard all kinds of miraculous results from people who are die-hard devotees and I’m hoping that I’ll get to experience them myself too.

The Dec 17 edition of the Cult Beauty x Caroline Hirons box includes the following products:

1. Omorovicza’s Moor Cream Cleanser (150ml – full size)
2. Oskia’s Renaissance Mask (50ml – full size)
3. DCL’s Multi-Action Penta Peel (50 pads – full size)
4. NIOD’s Fractionated Eye Contour Concentrate (15ml – full size)
5. Leahlani’s Champagne Serum (30ml – full size)
6. May Lindstrom’s The Blue Cocoon Beauty Balm (50ml – full size)

I’ve not started using any of the products yet but I’ll definitely do full reviews on the products once I’ve gotten around to trying them.

This edition of the Cult Beauty Box retails at £220. You can purchase it here.