How did the Drunk Elephant A-Passioni Retinol Cream fare?
Drunk Elephant states that A-Passioni™ Retinol Cream is a clean, cutting-edge formula that combines 1.0% vegan retinol with nourishing, superfood-rich ingredients to dramatically diminish the appearance of fine lines, deep wrinkles and sun damage revealing a vibrant, younger-looking complexion. It is also 100% free of essential oils, silicones and fragrance. Please do note that it is not recommended for use while pregnant or breastfeeding.
I’ve been using it for around 1 year plus and I think it’s a good time to talk about it.. First of all, it’s Strong! OK? So first time retinol users, please be very careful about using it. My skin is very used to retinol, or so I thought, but this DE retinol made my skin purge for the first month and my skin was really quite dry and sensitive. I had to stop all other actives during that time because my skin just wasn’t having it! The retinol purge made all the pimples came out so I was breaking out like mad for the first month. However, after around 2 months, my skin FINALLY started to calm down and return back to sorta normal. I still cannot use this retinol without buffering and I’m only using it on alternate nights. My skin looks much brighter, smoother and clearer now. Fine lines on my forehead are also reduced. One thing that I noticed after using retinol for so long is that my skin is finally very much not prone to clogging anymore. I used to be very prone to getting clogged pores but now my skin is pretty smooth. Lastly, unlike what Drunk Elephant recommended, I really really wouldn’t advise you to use this in the daytime. Your skin is fighting against the sunshine, pollution and maybe air conditioning in the daytime. It really doesn’t need a strong retinol to make things worse. Final thoughts: Use it with caution, love the final results!
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:
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?
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).
Sometimes I guess things really do come back in a full circle. I remember when I was just getting into skincare, I would sneakily use either my mum’s or older sister’s Advanced Night Repair serum and tried to see whether the hype about this product was real. Well, I was around 19 years old and didn’t really have much to repair (lol lol), so the effect that I saw was just better hydration.
In February this year, while I was waiting for my flight to Beijing in the airport, I decided to browse the Shilla duty-free stores. As my husband can attest, that was a dangerous move for my wallet as I would always walk away with something. That something included this product – the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II. I was curious about how it would fare for my skin after all these years so I bought it to try.
Back in 2013, I realised that this super iconic serum had a revamp. Estee Lauder had reformulated their Advanced Night Repair serum into Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II. The key improvement lies in their patented ChronoluxCB™ Technology. Apparently this ChronoluxCB™ Technology helps not only protects skin cells from damage in the first place but also helps them repair themselves from damage quickly (sorta like Wolverine powers in a skincare serum format.. super fast regenerative ability.. lol..). However when I began to think further, I realised that this sounds very similar to the claims that antioxidants typically have on the skin. So what makes this patented technology different from other antioxidant serums? I was curious and decided to dig deeper. What I found out surprised me and I thought that I should share my findings with you.
Now at this point, you should know that I’m not a dermatologist, a skincare chemist or a cosmetic scientist. I’m a civil engineer who’s a skincare enthusiast and my interpretation might not be totally accurate.
Before we begin, you might want to take a look at its ingredients list below:
The thing which caught my attention about this ChronoluxCB™ Technology was that Estee Lauder claims that it helps to boost the catabolysis activity in the skin. Apparently, catabolysis activity helps skin cells eliminate internal debris that can cause cellular damage, which in turn optimizes cellular performance and helps increase skin’s overall repair. Considered a critical ageing pathway, the efficiency of the catabolysis repair process declines with age and becomes de-synchronized from the night. Together, with skin’s circadian rhythm, the discovery of this natural cellular repair function reinforces the critical link between night and skin’s natural repair processes. The ChronoluxCB™ Technology seemingly helps support the natural synchronization of skin’s nighttime renewal process so that skin renews its appearance at exactly the right time with patented “clock gene” technology.
Note: Originally the catabolysis activity was studied by scientists for the symptoms of dementia and how a decline in catabolysis activity in brain cells could lead to this condition. However, Estee Lauder wanted to study if the same theory could be applied to skin cells as well.
I know… It sounds incredibly like some hogwash PR marketing dribble.. When I first heard it, I couldn’t help but to raise a sceptical brow. So in order to quench my desire to cut through the marketing bullsh*t, I decided to search for more information and see if this ChronoluxCB™ Technology was really the sh*t.
Is ChronoluxCB™ Technology really the sh*t??
In my search, I came across the patent that was filed in 2009 by Estee Lauder about their ChronoluxCB™ Technology (Click here for details). While I was going through their patent, I was quite surprised to find out that their patent was actually for the whole composition of the ANR serum and not just one aspect of the ChronoluxCB technology. In fact, the patent was for “a skin care composition comprising at least one keratinocyte CLOCK or PER1 gene activator and at least one DNA repair enzyme; a method for inhibiting damage to human keratinocytes due to environmental aggressors by applying a composition comprising at least one keratinocyte CLOCK or PER1 gene activator and at least one DNA repair enzyme; and a method for repairing DNA damage in human keratinocytes“. The Chronolux technology mentioned in the patent actually refers to a peptide named Tripeptide-32.
To my utmost astonishment, I discovered that the ingredients list on my bottle of ANR serum does not even have that ingredient. However, I saw that the ingredients list on their official USA website does include that ingredient so I’m kinda stumped as to what happened. To clarify, my bottle of ANR serum is bought from the Changi Airport Duty Free Shop so I’m certain that I didn’t have a fake product.
In any case, although Estee Lauder likes to emphasize on the Chronolux technology aspect of their ANR, their testing was based on the whole composition of the ANR which includes ingredients such as Bifidus Ferment Lysate and Lactobacillus ferment, which are the repair enzymes. Therefore it should work to a certain extent in the repair of the skin.
How does the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II fare?
Despite my misgivings about the bold claims made by Estee Lauder, I do think that this serum is a good overall “anti-ageing” serum. Whenever I use this serum, I will notice that my skin looks more rested, calmer and slightly brighter. Despite the fact that it doesn’t claim to be a hydrating serum, I do find this product to be quite hydrating. Sometimes, I would even skip using my hydrating serums if I use this product at night. One thing which surprised me about this serum is that it has a “heft” to it. It is not at all a watery serum. Hence, I think that oily combination skins might want to keep this product in their nighttime routine only because it feels slightly tacky before it absorbs into the skin.
Since it is not an “active” serum in the sense that it contains AHA/BHA, retinol or Vitamin C, I do not think that it’s fair to expect this serum to have super drastic effects on your skin. Nonetheless, if you are around mid-twenties to early thirties and are discovering that your skin looks and feels slightly drier or more tired than usual despite eating and sleeping as per normal, maybe you would like to give this serum a try. This serum will give a gentle boost to your skincare routine without the harsh and sensitizing effects that “true actives” would have on your skin. The thing about using the Estee Lauder ANR serum is that you’ll need to give it time to work. As I’ve mentioned earlier, it is not a “true actives” serum so it works much slower. Nevertheless, give it time and you should see your skin looking more refreshed and less dull or tired.
Now I know that my review might make you think that my feelings towards this product is kinda meh (lol!). But I’ve already purchased a 100ml sized of it even though I’m only halfway through my 50ml product so make of that what you will.
Where can you find it?
I bought this product from Changi Airport Duty Free Shop. However, you can purchase it from any Estee Lauder beauty counters. It retails at S$122 (30ml sized), S$170 (50ml sized) and S$217 (75ml sized).
Engineering Beauty 