CEO Vitamin C Rich Hydration Cream

1 Review

1. 

   sheepishSausage5

   Reply

   ETA: I doubt anyone cares about this as much as me, but I just found this factoid out months after finishing this jar. Sunday Riley put out a company email (idk when – but a quick google search and you’ll find it in its entirety – a rogue employee made it public) actually INSTRUCTING their employees to write FAKE REVIEWS of their wares on Sephora!!! With minute detail including original user names, making an array of reviews first across different brands and categories so they are more believable to be genuine reviews, and specific language to be used in lauding their products!!!!! I am NOT one to be like “oh this dye turned my hair black I WILL NEVER LOOK AT ANOTHER LOREAL PRODUCT AGAIN!!!!” but guys, this is just too TOO much.

   Ok this gonna be long. I’d never have bought this, I choose my battles and spend more on nice makeup now that companies like the ordinary make effective affordable skincare, and won’t buy this cream when it when it runs out. Why 5 stars then? I upgraded my Ipsy to Plus. $25/month and low and behold a FULL SIZE JAR of this sixty-sumthin jar of Sunday Riley vitamin c cream comes (plus like 5 other rad things. For 25 bucks.) I’m a bit of a vitamin c connoisseur. I’ve made my own with powder l-ascorbic acid, emulsified vitamin e, rose water, and Ferulic acid; bought the fancy premade one from OG Skinceuticals as well as its cheap imitators; used both the silicone and hyaluralic-based LAA ones from the ordinary always mixing in their resvertrol(sp???)/ferulic acid serum with it (currently doing that with the 30% LAA in squalane, having given up on the DIY after burning my skin off) (I use retinol at night too – I’m old – and temporary moisture barrier decimation isn’t fun). LAA is so fickle. I know all about the derivatives but never paid them much hoo haw cuz why bother? They all gotta covert to LAA anyway. So I always just stuck with LAA and used it every am, it went quick, & it never had a chance to go bad. It’ll go off color if it goes bad and then your C won’t work.

   What this CEO cream did for me was introduce me to an exciting derivative of LAA: tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate (THD ascorbate). It is fat soluble so able to go deeper into your skin, unlike water soluble l ascorbic acid. It is also EXTREMELY STABLE!!! So the jar format ain’t no thing here. Do use it within like 6 months though once opened. A jar of LAA would be as useless as a sunroof on a submarine. Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate is also somehow very efficient at converting to LAA. It is also – wait for it – NON IRRITATING!!!!!!! (For most people). Ask me no more- I was a liberal ARTS major.

   Anyway… I don’t have sensitive skin, but there are times when I go too hard on acid exfoliation (pm Tretinoin and am C are non-negotiable and they are sensitizing -esp retinoids) that a non irritant version of C is in order. This cream only has 5% so it’s not enough for me, but now that I’m aware of tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate’s existence, I purchased and use on sensitive days The Ordinary THD Ascorbate 20% + vitamin F (anhydrous dry oil serum – they use the term Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate 20% but they’re the same thing) – what I and some other internet skin nerds think is a basically cheapy CEO serum and a higher % to boot. I use CEO cream as my day cream every day and will til it runs out. The 5% just don’t make $65 or whatever worth it to me.

   On to the review of the cream after that encyclopedic intro most people do not care about sorry… I have normal oily leaning skin (prolly cuz of summer it may get drier come winter). This is my perfect level of hydration given the actives I’m using. When I’m not using the strongest retin a, glycolic and salicylic acids, vitamin c etc (fighting wrinkles with all my might), Clinique DDMGel (not lotion) or the new clear one or some other such very light lotion does suffice, but this CEO cream does not make me oily AT ALL right now it is PERFECT and I like the 5% C boost on top of what I’m doing C serum-wise. I also mix purple isle of Paradise tan drops into it – a full dropper full for my entire face neck and décolletage (constant skin regeneration means my face needs tan daily to match body). They play very well together.

   Personally, if I were just starting out on C, didn’t have oily nor dry skin (normal suits this best I think), and had this lying around from my glam bag plus, I’d buy me an $8 vial of resveratrol + Ferulic from the ordinary (from Sephora, their site, etc) and mix it in — you can really boost it. E too but it’s a pain and messy and may actually now that I think about it be easier with fat soluble tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate; when I was working w l ascorbic acid I’d have to emulsify it with polysorbate 80 first and I’m getting a headache just thinking about it. However, if you’re shelling out for CEO anything, the more effective yet admittedly $20 more costly serum with a much higher C 15% is defo worth it. You’ll see results faster and the results will be noticeable. It’s a serum you put first on clean skin. This cream though is the penultimate step before your sunscreen w only 5% C. The CEO serum with some drops of the above mentioned Ferulic serum and you got yourself a nice little c regime, and it’s one step. Some really sensitive types though will like the 5% it’ll just take longer to see results.

   Bottom line: fellow vitamin c nerd or not, a damn fine cream for normal skin types. For night or day. I just have many creams and use during day since C plays well under a sunscreen, I am a bad vile soul who smokes cigarettes, and recent studies show the higher amounts of topical vitamin c applied to a smoker’s skin the better. 🤪 No wise a$$ery here – I actually read that in a peer-reviewed medical journal.