I will start off by reviewing something quite interesting:
Catrice’s Disney Princess Face Serum Belle, variant 020/Broke The Spell.
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I was on the fence whether to buy this serum or not; it is
very pretty but I wasn’t too big into serums at the time and I didn’t think it
would really make any difference with the condition of my skin. It is worth
noting that this serum was part of a Catrice & Essence Disney Sisterlove
Limited Edition collection, so it was in shops for only a very short time. I
bought it on a whim while buying Christmas presents. Is it good though?
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First, the packaging! It's really beautiful and looks way more
expensive than it really was. It’s a rectangular clear glass bottle that is made out
of very thick glass. The text and decorations are reflective and gold, pretty
deluxe! Inside the serum are ‘rose petals’; in actuality they aren’t real rose
petals but they still look beautiful floating inside the serum. The dropper is
black-gold, to keep with the theme of princesses (gold being the colour of
royalty and all that). Really, A+ on the packaging, Catrice!
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| Source: essence.eu |
As for the ingredients, you will find glycerine, vitamin B3/niacinamide,
French rose (Rosa gallica) flower water, hyaluronic acid for nourishment and no
parabens. So there are quite a few ingredient in this serum to help calm and
hydrate the skin. The scent is very lovely, smelling like rose flowers. I
really love the smell of roses so this scent is right up my alley. The
expiration date is 12 months after opening.
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The serum itself is mostly colourless, perhaps being a tiny
bit pink. The formula of this serum is interesting; it is really thick and heavy,
and feels like gel, but it feels surprisingly light on skin. Despite the thick
formula, it is very easy to blend into the skin. Since this is an oil serum,
don’t expect it to be extremely hydrating; water-based serums are there for
that. Though it is pretty hydrating for an oil serum.
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There’s a good
side to the dropper being this precise, and that is that I can precise apply
exactly the amount of serum that I want, so I guess it’s not all bad.
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This serum feels light, silky and soft when applying it.
Despite being an oil-based serum, it does not feel one bit oily or greasy. And
in another subversion of expectations, it absorbs extremely quickly, like
within 30 seconds! I would have expected it to take some time to absorb because
it is really gelly and thick, how they managed to make it so easily absorbed is
beyond me!
As a side note, the petals aren’t designed to be actually
used, I think, because they are pretty difficult to buff into the skin and when
you do they just feel greasy. Which means that I have to keep picking the
petals off my skin, and there can be many of them, depending on the day.
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Okay, now to mention how my skin feels after using this serum for a while. I naturally have very oily skin that is extremely
problematic and prone to breakouts. Niacinamide is one ingredient recommended
for this skin type because it regulates the production of sebum and helps with
redness, while rose water calms and soothes the skin, reducing the amount of
redness. After the first use my skin did not have any adverse reactions, and that
is still true, a month into using it. I think that it reduces the amount of
redness, but I don’t have huge problems with redness anyways so it is tough to
tell. But, it does seem to calm my skin, resulting in fewer breakouts; acne
seem to heal more quickly too.
So, it appears that my skin really likes this serum! I don’t know how good it would be for dry skin, but I can safely say
that it is very good for oily, problematic skin.
In short, I am astonished by just how good this serum is for
my skin! I am actually noticing an improvement in how many active acne I have,
and they seem less inflamed in general. Now, the results aren’t quite as
extreme as I might make them seem like they are, buy they are visible after a
month of using this serum, which is great. It’s quite annoying that the petals
can be sucked up into the dropper because they definitely seem like they are
purely decorative. And you know what’s even more bloody annoying? The dropper
being so finicky and taking a massive amount of time to actually get it to suck
up at least a couple of drops of serum. I had to try and invent some way to use
it consistently instead of just, you know, squeezing it quickly and that’s it. The
thick, gellly formula feels silky, soft, and incredibly light on skin. And it absorbs
in less than a minute, leaving skin soft and feeling very nice. So, aside from
the finicky dropper and the annoying (but still beautiful) petals, this serum
actually does improve how my skin feels and looks. Seeing as how I originally
doubted there would be any real benefits, and it turned out that there are
visible benefits to using this serum, there is no reason not to recommend it.
Unfortunately, due to it being part of a limited edition it isn’t in shops
anymore. Bugger! It was a really good serum!
Rating: 7/10
Would buy again? YES (if I could; sadly, it is an LE
product)
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