Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum

So, if you know anything about Vitamin C, you know it’s HIGHLY unstable (particularly in the L-AA form). It oxidizes quickly and loses efficacy. Additionally, some studies show that oxidized product can be bad for your skin. Adding ferulic acid helps stabilize Vit C products, but it’s still not something you should stockpile.

Drunk Elephant’s C-Firma has a reputation for oxidizing quickly, but mine (the Little size) arrived oxidized. It was a very orange color, and I immediately knew what that meant. I mentioned it to DE founder/CEO, Tiffany Masterson, on Instagram (kudos to her for being accessible and responsive that way), and her reply was that it’s ok for it to be oxidized because, “we did the testing.”

OK, first of all, do a quick search online and you can see DE’s pat response to anyone who emails about this problem is that they did the testing. (They do provide their stats, as well.) In-house testing is great - if backed by independent studies that confirm it. Second of all, for the money DE charges for its stuff, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a product to be fresh upon purchase.

Sephora (love them) sent me a replacement, but that also arrived oxidized. I give up. I’m sticking with my original brand.

I really love DE’s Lala Retro, but this experience is making me very wary of the brand, as a whole.

I received this in a holiday package set and love all of the drunk elephant products since they are made of simple ingredients. I did not see any positive or negative results from this, which is great since it is keeping my skin consistent. I would not repurchase just because the benefits did not match the expensive price.

Love clean beauty and c serums, so trying c-firma was irresistible. The serum-like consistency absorbed quickly with no telltale signs of perfume and minimal stickiness. A little concerned about c freshness due to the orange tint, but continued daily use. A few days days in, my skin took on an orange glow reinforcing my original concern. NO, the product had oxidized! Sticking to smallbatch c serums.

I have been using a sample of DE C-firma Day Serum for about 4 days to see if my skins likes it before I splurge on the $126.00 bottle in New Zealand. I am of indian decent and have combination skin. I'm in my early 30's and have been guilty of not giving my skin enough care. I recently discovered that I have developed small dark sun spots around the cheeks and eye area and wanted a product to reduce it. I went into Mecca Cosmetica and was recommended this serum to help lighten/remove sun spots. I took a sample home and started using it.

My first application after using product was good, I applied the product by itself at night and the next day my skin looked brighter. The second day I applied it during the day, and noticed my skin had a light tan to it, I'm unsure if this is due to the pale/mid yellow colouring the serum has. The third day I decided to use it with rose hip night cream to provide more moisture to my skin as the serum is a bit sticky on it's on, I applied this during the night.The next morning I noticed I started breaking out in small red bumps, just 2 or 3 around the forehead, t-zone and cheek.

Fourth day I used the serum at night just by itself and my red bumps got a little bit bigger, so I've stopped using it. This product could have reacted with the rose hip night cream, maybe, but the little breakouts was enough for me to make up my mind. I dont think I will invest in buying this product, I will research for an alternative.

Best advice is to get samples for these expensive serums and creams, everyones skin type of different so they react differently.

This gave me a bad breakout including a painful acne bump on the side of my nose which has taken almost 1 week to settle down (using The Ordinary Niacinamide & Zinc 2 x per day and PC's BHA 9). The only thing I can put it down to is the form of Vitamin C in here: Ascorbic Acid which is harsher than many other types of Vit C. The first few times I applied this were without any issues but by the 4th day all hell broke loose. Very surprised as my skin loves Vit C (in most forms) normally and there are so many good thing in here that should in theory counteract the harshness of the Ascorbic Acid, such as Licorice and Green Tea. Not for me.
However the few days I did use it, for what it's worth my skin did look very bright and radiant. The effects were definitely visible, just such a shame I couldn't continue using it. My advice would be to try out a sample first if unsure. 

Selena x



~ My HG list ~

(As I've sampled many 100s of skin, hair and m/u products over the last decade and a half, I thought it might be useful to share my top 10 must-have products, subject to change if and when I come across something more effective. I love constantly trying out new stuff - usually sample sizes via e-bay, also plenty courtesy of a friend who works at Sephora)


1. Hair Loss Treatment: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Hair Oil
2. Lip Balm: 'Nuxe' - Reve De Miel Lip Balm
3. Pigmentation + Anti-Ageing Treatment: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Facial Treatment Serum
4. Cleanser: 'Paula's Choice' - Skin Balancing Cleanser
5. Concealer: ‘Mac’ - Studio Finish Concealer
6. Lash Growth Serum: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Divinelash
7. Foundation/SPF: ‘Juice Beauty’ - Stem Cellular Repair (warm glow)
8. Foot File/Callus/Heel Treatment - 'Microplane' - Colossal Pedicure Rasp Foot File
9. Moisturizer: ‘Antipodes' - Rejoice Light Day Cream
10. Hand Cream: 'Origins' - Make A Difference Rejuvenating Hand Treatment

For $100 (CAD) product this vitamin c serum has been extremely disappointing. I have used the Ole Henriksen Truth serum and Philosophy Turbo Booster C powder and I noticed results with both. I noticed the best results with the Philosophy one. The Philosophy booster C powder gave me radiant skin! I didn't notice any results with the Drunk Elephant serum after using a whole bottle. My skin became dull and it looked like I wasn't using any vitamin c serum while I was using this. I didn't like how the serum is orange coloured since that makes it difficult to tell if the serum has oxidized. I also noticed the serum turned a darker shade of orange after 3 months of use, which is very disappointing considering the air tight opaque bottle and I store it in the medicine cabinet. I noticed a huge improvement in 2 days after I went back to my Philosophy booster C powder and that only cost me $50 compared to $100 and it has a longer shelf life since it's in a powder form. I feel like Drunk elephant is a over hyped brand and I have better results with The Ordinary and drugstore products. Overall, this product didn't hurt my skin but it did absolutely nothing. I have used vitamin c serums daily for close to 2 years now. This product couldn't even maintain the results of previous vitamin c serums/powder, which shows how ineffective the formulation is for me.

If I had to pick one DE product that I can't live without, this would be it. At $80, you get 30 ml or 1 fluid ounce. The one thing I don't like about it is the price point, but this product is very good and is the most effective vitamin C serum I've ever used. I've tried a few before this, but this fades my hyper-pigmentation and acne scarring in 1-2 weeks. It comes in a pump bottle and is designed in a way where you can get every last drop out, so nothing goes to waste. Some criticisms about this product that I've seen is how it might cause discoloration, but I don't find that to be an issue. I use very little at a time and only apply at night onto certain problem areas of my face. The issue that I find with vitamin C is that it's very difficult to stabilize. The CosRx Triple C Lightning Liquid and the Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin C serum have drop bottles, but the product changes color rapidly as the vitamin C serum is exposed to air. A lot of people mention maybe putting it in the fridge, but I don't like spending money only to have the effectiveness of the product be diminished as soon as I open it. The greatest thing about the C-Firma Day serum is that the air-tight packaging allows for the vitamin C to REMAIN stable and effective. It earns a permanent spot on my counter because I see major results when I use it. No more dark marks!

I bought into the DE hype and decided to try this serum along with a couple of other DE products. I say save your money and skip this one. I've used several Vitamin C serums and this is my least favorite. I haven't had any negative reactions to it, but due to the fact that this is oil based it makes my skin very shiny and a bit sticky. I also don't love the packaging. When I spend this much I want packaging that looks and feels elegant and this looks and feels like it's for children. The pump doesn't even work that well and causes a bit of a mess. There are water based serums at the same concentrations available for much less that work better for me. As far as the scent, this smells the same as every other vitamin C serum I've tried. All Vitamin C seems to smell a bit funky, but it goes away once dried.

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. It did absolutely nothing for my skin, and oxidized to a dark amber color within 2 weeks (!) This serum also smells horrible and left a lingering unpleasant odor on my skin during the day. Would not recommend.

Pros:
none

Cons:
No visible change in my skin
Crazy fast oxidation
Smells terrible IMO (and leaves a lingering scent)
Price

I bought this to try it and when I was done, I immediately went back to the Paula's Choice brand. I actually see a difference when using the Paula's Choice brand (sort of like a brightening effect) and I think that the DE version made my skin look dull.