I often criticise my friends for not taking care of their skin and not having a true skincare routine. Although I have always had a skincare routine, it has definitely been missing a couple of ingredients and it turns out Vitamin C was one of them. Thankfully an Ole Henriksen set I purchased has given my routine the Vitamin C it needed.
I actually bought the Let's Get Luminous Set for a friend for their Birthday but I ended up changing my mind and got them a different present so I kept the Ole Henriksen set for myself. I had not tried any of the products before and I thought this would actually be a good chance for me to test a few, plus it includes the highly spoken about Truth Serum. Before I get into the products, I thought I would talk a little bit about Vitamin C as it is a temperamental beast within skincare.
What is Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant which helps to create a barrier to protect the skin against free-radicals. Free-radicals more simply put are things like pollution and environmental damage, it will also help protect against sun damage. This is one of the reasons that Vitamin C is best used in the mornings, it gives your skin an added element of protection.
Vitamin C also helps with the brightness of your skin which was one of the reasons I wanted to add it into my routine as my skin has been pretty dull. This is because it helps to aid cell regeneration bringing out your fresher skin. It also promotes Collagen production which is important to anyone over the age of 26 as that is when your skins natural process of creating Collagen slows down. If you too struggle with dull skin, Vitamin C could be the answer but you need to make sure you get the right one.
Vitamin C is an active so it can cause irritation and you can buy it in different strengths. It is always better to start at a lower strength and work your way up as is the case with all active ingredients. Anything above 15% is quite a strong Vitamin C so you want to start off lower. Not only do you need to consider the strength of the product but also what the Vitamin C is mixed with.
Vitamin C breaks down incredibly quickly; both sunlight and moisture will break down Vitamin C which is why you have to be careful to pick a mix that is going to last and that hopefully won't break down too quickly. Also you want to leave it in your draw, rather than on your side so that the sun doesn't break it down. The best way to use Vitamin C is using a powder like the Clinique Pressed Vitamin C or the Fresh Glow Powder.
As well as the benefit of brightening your skin, it is recommended that you use Vitamin C in the morning as your active so you can use a different active in the evening which you wouldn't necessarily want to use during the day like a Retinol or an acid. Mixing the two in the same morning routine could cause irritation but ultimately it would be counter productive. In your morning routine, you want to make sure that you cleanse your skin and use your Vitamin C as your first serum, even if you are using Hyaluronic Acid you want to put that on after, and finish with moisturiser.
Let's Get Luminous
Within the Let's Get Luminous set you get three Vitamin C products, all of which have been spoken about quite a lot by the beauty community. I feel like Ole Henriksen in general has been quite hyped since it relaunched as few years ago. I had previously used the brand before the rebrand and I wasn't entirely sold but the brand wasn't as hyped back then. Anyway in this set you get a tiny pot of the Banana Bright Eye Creme, a 15ml of the Truth Serum and a 35ml tub of the C-Rush Brightening Gel Creme. I have been using all three products for over a month now so I am ready to review them.
Banana Bright Eye Creme
According to the Boots website, this eye cream was 'Inspired by "Banana Powder,"' (Boots) which is a big trend in Instagram makeup. I don't know whether this is one of the reasons everyone loves this eye creme but I have to say it was one of the things that put me off this product. I do not like the whole Banana Powder Instagram trend, I think that makeup look often ends up cakey and rarely looks good in anything but pictures.
When I first tried the eye creme, I still was not sure about how thick and powdery this product looked. When you take the lid off, it does not inspire confidence as you face a weird looking cream but it isn't that bad when you actually use it. It is actually quite a light creme that sinks in quickly and takes away from dark circles. Obviously if your dark circles are really bad, it isn't going to solve the problem but it certainly helps to reduce the colour and lays down a nice base for makeup to go on top.
I might have had a concern about this smelling like Banana but it ended up being completely unfounded, in fact it actually smells quite pleasant. It isn't quite as nice as the serum or the face cream, it smells slightly more spicy but it is much better than a banana smell. I cannot stand the smell of Banana hence my concern. I'm not sold on an eye cream that smells this strongly but it is nice to use.
I can see why so many people rave about it but I do not think it is any better than some of the other eye creams I already love. I would still chose The Inkey List Brighten-I Eye Cream which is significantly cheaper than this Ole Henriksen one.
Truth Serum
I have to say the Truth Serum was the product that excited me the most in this set and having used it, it is still the product that excites me the most, this serum is absolutely gorgeous. This is the product that made the biggest difference to my skin. First thing you will notice as you use this product is the citrus scent, it is so refreshing and sweet which for me makes it a joy to use.
It is an incredibly light, silky texture that spreads easily and seems to just sink into the skin without a trace. It literally takes 10 seconds for it to fully sink in. You don't instantly notice a difference but after a week of using this, there is a definite radiance to your skin. After I started using this, a week later I posted a picture on Instagram and I had a few messages saying about how glowy my skin was and it was definitely this product that made the difference.
This is a blended product so there are other ingredients which help to support the Vitamin C. This is why I prefer this so much to the Vitamin C I used from The Ordinary. The one from The Ordinary is a very stripped back, basic product and I think that is why I didn't get on with it as much, I needed the more gentle ingredients to support the Vitamin C.
This is a really expensive product but I honestly would spend that much on this serum as it has made such a difference to my skin and I think it is genuinely such a lovely product. I can now see why everyone raves so much about the Truth Serum.
C-Rush Brightening Gel Creme
At first I thought it was this creme that was making all the difference to my skin but then I swapped it out for a couple of days and there was no difference to my skin so the Truth Serum was holding it down. This creme is a really strange texture, it is a gel but it almost has a bounce to it and it is actually quite thick. It is quite hard to get the product out which makes it difficult to use.
As this is a gel it is incredibly cooling and the citrus scent really helps to support this refreshment. Once again it feels quite silky but it does leave a bit of residue on the skin however it just feels moisturising. I have to say my skin feels hydrated once I have used this product and it does look brighter, but I don't know how much of this is the serum.
This creme is nice but once again expensive, I do not know if this creme is worth it as I think the serum does the work. I think you could get a cheaper moisturiser and use the serum and still get a similar effect to what you get from using the products in this set.
Before using these Vitamin C products, the only Vitamin C product I had tried was one from The Ordinary which was too strong for my skin, it seemed to irritate my skin and to be honest I did not see any difference which means it was clearly the wrong Vitamin C for me. These products were much better for me.
Trying these three products has made me curious about more of the products from Ole Henriksen and I do hope to be able to try more products from the brand in the future as even though they are expensive, I have not been disappointed by any that I have tried. All three of these worked and were lovely to use but there are just other products which are cheaper and work just as well.
Reading references:
Paula's Choice: https://www.paulaschoice.co.uk/how-vitamin-c-helps-your-skin
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