This particular elephant is not drunk
The summer of skin care is in full effect! — and I’m currently using and loving the heck out of products from Drunk Elephant.
You’ve probably heard about them already. They’ve been makin’ major waves lately, and it seems like everyone is talking about them (including me!).
For the record, this Drunk Elephant did not have too many Coronas. It’s a cruelty-free brand out of Texas, and I really like their no-nonsense, balanced approach to skin care.
Here’s some cool backstory on their website, but, basically, they see themselves as a “clean” skin care line, rather than a “natural” skin care line, and they incorporate both natural and synthetic ingredients, but the synthetic ingredients are things they believe are effective but aren’t going to disrupt the way your body is designed to work.
And their name, “Drunk Elephant,” comes from an ingredient they use in several of their products called marula oil. Legend has it that when elephants eat the fallen fruit of the marula tree…the fruit ferments in their tummies and gets them completely crunked!
Cheap drunks, those elephants.
My bare skin
C-Firma Day Serum
The product that lured me into loving the line was their C-Firma Day Serum ($80), which contains 15% l-absorbic acid, ferulic acid and vitamin E.
I heard it was comparable to Skinceuticals CE Ferulic, which I used for years to mellow out my pigmention probs, but I stopped using it when I got pregnant with the Coywolf.
Dude…sh*t is crazy expensive. It works, but dropping $165 on a bottle of CE Ferulic got old real quick.
C-Firma costs half as much ($80), which, I mean, isn’t exactly budget…but it’s A LOT less expensive than Skinceuticals.
Anyway, I’m into it — so much so that I plan to snag a refill when I finish this bottle, whenever that happens…and I have no idea when it will happen because the bottle is opaque to prevent light from breaking down the Vitamin C.
But good luck figuring out how much is left in there, LOL!
I’m pretty sure that my cheek look plumper after using it?! I don’t know for sure, but that area looks more…voluminous than it did before, and my cheeks look less “sunken in.”
Some people feel the serum is “stinky,” like it smells like sausages or hot dogs or lunch meat (that’s what I’ve heard), but I don’t really think it smells like anything at all.
My only issue with it is when the weather’s hot, like during last week’s heat wave. I can’t stand to wear it when it’s hot because the formula feels extra sticky and heavy on my skin. Other than that, though, it works, and I love it.
Shaba Complex Eye Serum and Lala Retro Whipped Cream
As for the Drunk Elephant products I like but may or may not end up refilling, there’s the $60 Shaba Complex Eye Serum, which has fermented black tea, copper peptides and Co-Q10 to keep the fine lines and dark circles from going buck wild; and the $60 Lala Retro Whipped Cream, which is a surprisingly moisturizing, lightweight face cream with African oils (but no silicones, which is rarer and rarer among face moisturizers these days).
I’ve been using both, along with C-Firma, since April, and I like ’em. They layer well with other skin care products and work well under makeup.
My skin looks and feels moisturized when I use them, for sure, but I feel like my 40-something-year-old skin needs an even more aggressive anti-aging approach.
Twenty-year-old Karen, though? She probably would have stockpiled them both.
Umbra Tinte Physical Daily Defense
I know that I’ve talked about Umbra Tinte Physical Daily Defense ($36) at length, so I won’t rave about it again…but it rocks. It’s a lightweight tinted physical sunscreen (so its active ingredients reflect light rays instead of absorbing them), and it has a gorgeous, glowing finish.
The thing about physical sunscreens, though, is that they’re usually thick and difficult to blend into your skin. Many of them also leave behind a white cast.
Umbra Tinte actually absorbs quickly and, because it’s tinted, doesn’t leave behind one of those white casts.
I’m into Drunk Elephant, man! And I’m going to try their T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Night Serum ($90) next. It’s supposed to be their version of Sunday Riley’s Good Genes.
Super stoked about that.
The summer of skin care continues… ?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
