I
had acne in my late teens and early 20’s until my sister’s wedding prompted me to
finally sort out my acne situation with a course of Roaccutane. But until I was
35 my entire skin care regime consisted of using St Ives Apricot Scrub on my
face in the shower, the occasional clay mask and a basic moisturiser with SPF
during the day which did nothing for my acne scarring or textural/tonal issues.
With so much beauty blogger/vlogger coverage of what Retinol can do to help
renew your skin, it was a given that eventually I’d start looking for a product
that would address these issues.
Enter Retinol Fusion PM Night Serum. For a product that doesn’t require a prescription, it’s got a fairly decent amount of Retinol at 1.5% in microcapsules (3rd ingredient) along with Vitamin C and E (4th and 5th ingredients so nice and high on the ingredients list). It comes in an opaque blue bottle (to protect it from sunlight) with a dropper and you need to shake it before each use to resuspend the microcapsules.
This is just a few drops. It begins to spread as soon as it hits the skin...
... then immediately begins to absorb without even touching it - this pic was taken less than a minute after the one above it.
It has a
really thin watery texture that smooths on with a very slippery feel due to the
silicone cyclopenasiloxane and
'oil-less oil' squalane. I always start
with a couple of drops on my fingertips and swipe some over each cheekbone and the
more pronounced wrinkles at the outsides of my eyes, then move onto the rest of
my face. I tend to slather it on a bit so I use about half a dropper worth for
my whole face and neck, each time adding more drops to my fingertips as I move
from one area to the next. It spreads along my fingers as easily as it does over my face so with my fingers now coated, I’ll then rub my hands together and work the excess
into the back of my hands. It starts absorbing immediately but with the amount I use it takes a little while to completely soak in which is then touch dry without a
greasy residue. I don’t top it with a moisturiser and just let it do its thing
overnight and then like with any resurfacing Vitamin A containing product I always use sunscreen
during the day. My skin tolerates it fairly well, probably due to having used
glycolic acid nightly treatments for a couple of years now, so I was able to
jump straight into using it every other night. And the improvement in my skin is
significant. This helped get rid of my old acne scarring, and my skin texture
and colouring is smoother and more uniform. Makeup wears so much better on my
skin now and even my pores don’t seem to be as pronounced. Even the skin on the
back of my hands is smoother. I've been using it steadily for the last 8 months and am about halfway through the bottle.
By my late 30’s I really noticed my fine lines deepen and my crow’s feet emerge and now I’m also seeing the beginnings of marionette lines beside my mouth as my skin loses its elasticity. I really wasn’t expecting to see any results from the Un-Wrinkle Eye. Over the years I’ve tried a few different eye creams that have claimed to target wrinkles (looking at you Dior Capture XP, you show pony) and none of them have done anything but realistically when you think about it any skincare I use from here on out with 40 just a few months away is going to be fighting an uphill battle to keep up. And don’t get me wrong, Un-Wrinkle Eye isn’t earth shattering and certainly won’t replace surgery or botox but it has definitely lessened the depth of my crows feet and lines around my eyes and has also made the marionette lines from the sides of my nose to my mouth much less pronounced. This is a medium density white cream that smooths on, absorbs easily and sits beautifully under concealer and foundation. I use half a pump as recommended and lightly blend it under my eyes, right up under the lashline and out to my crows feet then drag any remaining product down onto my marionette lines. I can’t seem to find this in stock in Australia anymore (Mecca Maxima aren’t stocking any PTR anymore) so will be buying it from BeautyBay very shortly. And yep it’s expensive but comparatively speaking it’s no more expensive than the majority of other higher end skincare brands and as I DO see a difference when using it, I’ll be buying this again.
I
also have a deluxe sample of the Cucumber Gel Masque which I haven’t tried yet so I
can’t speak to that. And on my wish list are the Un-Wrinkle Night Creme,
the Pumpkin Enzyme Mask and the Mega Rich Intensive Anti-Aging Cellular Creme,
and possibly the Pore Putty which I’d be interested to see if it could double as
a primer for foundation. The ingredients certainly sound promising. Now to find
something to really target my melasma...
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