Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum Review

Product Purchased By IMBB

Hello everyone,

Today’s review is on my advent into the Drunk Elephant line. Everyone and their cousin has been talking about it. So, I did want to get onto the bandwagon. However, availability and the price point were turning up to be a huge deterrent. However, finally, I managed to get my hands on a couple of products from the line and I am super excited about that. I have been using this C Firma + Day serum, which in effect is a Vitamin C day serum, for about a month and a half, and I feel comfortable to share my review on this serum now. Let’s get started:

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Product Description:
Which skin type is it good for?
✔ Normal
✔ Oily
✔ Combination
✔ Dry
✔ Sensitive

What it is: A super potent vitamin C day serum packed with a powerful antioxidant complex, essential nutrients, fruit enzymes, and an anti-aging chronopeptide to visibly firm, brighten, and diminish the appearance of photo aging. Solutions for: Uneven skintone, loss of firmness and elasticity, dullness and uneven texture. This revolutionary face serum delivers advanced antioxidant defense against pollution, environmen-tal stressors, and the damaging effects of free radicals while helping to replenish lipids and visibly reduce the appearance of dark spots and wrinkles for brighter, firmer-looking skin. Jam-packed with a game-changing antioxidant complex of 15 percent l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C), ferulic acid, vitamin E, C-Firma™ Day Serum supports a healthy, vibrant glow and promotes a more even skintone. While, enzymatically dissolving built-up dead skin cells, this hydrating formula absorbs quickly and easily into the skin. The result? Incredible radiance and luminosity. It is formulated without parabens, sulfates, and phthalates.

Ingredients:

  • Potent Antioxidant Complex (L-Ascorbic Acid 15%, Ferulic Acid, Vitamin E 1%): Works to firm and brighten the look and feel of skin while defending against the signs of photo aging, pollution, and other environmental stressors.
  • Chronocyclin: An antiaging chronopeptide that provides the antioxidant benefits of vitamin D to skin.
  • Pumpkin Ferment Extract and Pomegranate Enzyme: Work to enzymatically digest surface dead skin cells.
  • Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer: Hydrates and plumps the appearance of fine lines while acting as a free-radical scavenger.

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Price:
USD 80 for 30 ml.

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Ingredients:
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Did you just do a double take reading the price? Yes, I did say it was pricey. Although, while placing the order, I didn’t know that it’s gonna be only 30 ml. The bottle looked big enough to accommodate 50 ml or more. I did try to search online, including zooming in on product pic on Sephora website, but the quantity wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Why was the quantity so important? Obviously, bang for my buck. If the quantity is more, it’s likely to last longer. So, the cost of $80 gets split across that many months. Which helps you determine – if this is something which is sustainable to repurchase tomorrow! Assuming you like it, of course!

My Experience with Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum:

My standard skin type information: I have oily to combination skin which gets dull and dehydrated very easily – due to my lousy eating habits and my horrid sleeping patterns. I am constantly on the look out for something to improve radiance and increase hydration.

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I have reviewed a handful of products from various brands which have become a part of my night routine – REN Rosa Centifolia No.1 Purity Cleansing Balm, Biologique Recherche P50, REN Wake Wonderful Night Time Facial, Peter Thomas Roth Glycolic Acid 10% Toning Complex, Kiehl’s Nightly Refining Micro Peel Concentrate, Ole Henriksen Invigorating Night Treatment. So, I was fairly set in terms of acids and treatments for my night-time routine. I first worked on this because the skin has a higher tendency to heal in the night – when it is resting, instead of fighting the physical aggressors in the day, like pollution and sun damage. Once my nightly routine was set, I wanted to look at something for the day. I wanted to avoid acids in the day, I didn’t want products to be counter productive and end up causing more harm than good. Post research, I decided that I wanted to include a vitamin C product in the morning ritual. Question being, which one? There are obviously a plethora of options at different price points. So, why this one?

  • I wanted to try Drunk Elephant brand – this could be the starting point.
  • It had rave reviews regarding its efficacy online – from people whose opinion I trust.
  • It hadn’t been reviewed on IMBB! 😉
  • The packaging! Yes, packaging played a role in determining the choice of product. Is the packaging so cool that it reeled me in? Not! Not really! When it comes to makeup, I know I get taken in by packaging sometimes. However, when it comes to skincare, I don’t care about the aesthetics of the packaging, but I do care about the efficacy. If you notice, all the products which have recently been included in my skincare regime, all are bottles/tubes – no tubs/jars. I did learn my lesson with Estee Lauder face creams. The exposure to air will render antioxidants ineffective over time. Considering how much skincare can cost, it does not make sense to me. So even if a product has a good rating, but is in a jar/tub packaging – I would rather avoid it.

Packaging:
Let us talk about packaging – the product comes packaged in a opaque plastic white bottle. You twist the upper orange portion, it rotates the pump and moves it upward. Excellent way to ensure that you don’t end up pressing the pump accidentally and avoid spillage during travel. I’ve not had a problem with the pump malfunctioning or anything. The bottle may not look pleasing to the eye – aesthetically, but it is absolutely brilliant, there is no chance of contamination, no exposure of product to air, no exposure of product to light, its air resistant. Which, in effect, means that the Vitamin C and the horde of antioxidants in it will neither become unstable, nor will they lose their efficacy. No wonder the product has a shelf life of 2 years!! Beats the tinted glass bottles with dropper dispensers hands down!! The flip side of it, I have no idea how much product is left and when it might suddenly get over, but I think I can live with that considering that the prodct that I am getting is going to be effective till the last drop is dispensed.

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Texture:  The product is yellow in colour. No, it is not an attempt by the brand to create effect of the presence of vitamin C in it. The colour is natural and comes from one of the ingredients in the product. It has a slight citrusy smell which dissipates quickly. Again, this is not an additive. The texture feels a little thick but spreads very easily and gets absorbed fairly quickly.

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Application: I take about 1.5-2 pumps for my entire face and neck. Yes! I’m trying to ensure my neck also matches my face. I don’t want to end up wearing heavy chokers in my old age in a bid to hide the wrinkles there. 😉 So, I wash my face in the morning and go ahead and apply this. I generally wait for about 5-10 minutes and then go in with my moisturiser, followed by the sunscreen. You need to apply this as the first step to ensure it gets absorbed. Anything heavier needs to go after this – else it will not allow C Firma + to get absorbed into he skin effectively.

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Experience/Efficacy:  When I started using this product, my biggest dilemma was – how will I know that it is working because my skin was already at a good place thanks to the battery of acids I had included in my regime. So, two things helped me here. One, while travelling last month for 2 weeks, I decided to take this instead of any other serum, and this ensured that I was using this product religiously. The second thing which highlighted the efficacy was the fact that post returning, I couldn’t be bothered to unpack (yes, I am extremly lazy when it comes to unpacking) the skincare and started using something else. Net result, I could see the change in my skin in 4-5 days. What changes? Lets talk about them:

  • The product has a host of good ingredients – Vitamin C at 15% (fairly potent), vitamin E at 1%, loads of other antioxidants, mild acid enzymes (for exfoliation) and Sodium Hyaluronate (for hydration).
  • The product is at a balanced pH level of 3.3 to 3.5, which means it renders the ingredients effective to work. If the acid balance wasn’t there, irrespective of what good ingredients you put in, they would not be able to work on the skin. To explain this, if the temperature of the pan isn’t optimally hot, it won’t make a difference whether you put on seafood on it or mushrooms, it ain’t gonna cook.
  • The product has a reservoir effect which means that it remains effective for the next 72 hours on the skin, it cannot be washed off. So, you need to remember 2 things – this does not mean that you reapply every 72 hours. No, you still need to use it daily to get optima results. Secondly, you need to ensure that you use sunscreen – even on the next day when you may not have used the C Firma+ for some reason.
  • Unlike an acid which gives almost immediate effects or effects within a short period of time, Vitamin C does not. It takes time and continued usage for Vitamin C to show its results. It’s the tortoise – slow and steady wins the race.
  • With regular usage, you will see your skin getting brighter, more even toned and there will be reduction in pigmentation. It takes about 3 weeks for these signs to become clear. The change is more subtle so you may not pay attention to it. However, after using it regularly for two weeks, when I stopped using it, my skin got visibly dull despite me using acids in the night. Obviously, pollution is a big physical aggressor in Mumbai and the skin probably had a tough time fighting it on its own! I was actually shaken up and had to sit up and wonder – what happened. Needless to say, I quickly unpacked and got this out. Once, I started using it again, within a week, my skin was better again.
  • The antioxidant ferulic acid boosts the UV and free-radical defense of vitamin C and provides additional stability benefits for the other antioxidants in this formula. It also boosts the efficacy of the sunscreen applied on top of it.
  • It has never broken me out.
  • It also has virgin marula oil in it which is high in antioxidants and omegas 6 and 9 and is known to protect and heal the skin.
  • The texture is light enough to be absorbed readily and does not mess up your makeup during the course of the day.

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Pros of Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum:

  • Lightweight texture.
  • Absorbs easily.
  • Repairs the skin and works on fighting physical aggressor of the environment.
  • Results visible after continued use.
  • Formulated at the correct pH to ensure that the ingredients work well.
  • Strengthens the epidermal shield.
  • Skin feels soft, supple, brighter, clearer, more even toned.
  • Did not break me out.
  • Non-comedogenic.
  • Helps improve skin texture, radiance.
  • Reduces pigmentation.
  • Improves efficacy of sunscreen applied on top of it.
  • Works well below makeup – and does not melt it.
  • Excellent packaging.
  • Cruelty free.
  • Gluten free.
  • Free from unnecessary additives like colour and fragrance.
  • Excellent mix of effective ingredients.

Cons of Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum:

  • Nothing.

IMBB Rating:
5/5

This is an excellent product and actually delivers on the promises made by the Company. It’s the best out there, I really don’t know because I haven’t tried any other. The true test of a skincare product – will I repurchase? Why is this the true test? With makeup, even if you like something, you can pretty much always find a dupe – even if it’s not 100%, so you may not repurchase the exact same thing again. With skincare, the ties are more long term. If the product is working for you, you have no choice but to buy it.

So, will I Repurchase? I’m in a Catch 22 situation. While I LOVE this product, I see it working so effectively for me and I don’t want to go searching for an alternative, I find the price a deterrent to me repurchasing. Not that it’s not worth the price….but just personally for me, the price is a bit steep for continued regular usage because it does not cost just $80 – it costs way more with shipping, etc., but that’s just me. If the price is within your budget – you could be mated for life. Also, if there is a cheaper option, which is as good, I would like to try it. Actually, I have already started using something new. Too soon to say if the new product is working as effectively or not. If it doesn’t, I may not go searching again for a new product. I will have to bite the bullet and go back and repurchase this.

Do I Recommend/Repurchase Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum
Absolutely!!!

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3 thoughts on “Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum Review

  1. Very nicely reviewed:) I have been wanting to try this but was scared it might break me out. I think now will give it ago. My parents are in the US. Will tell them to pick it up. Have the Lala whipped cream from drunk elephant, still not opened it. Time to open that now since the winters are here 🙂

    1. Thanks Divya! I was pleasantly surprised by how effective this product was. It is such a relief when you buy an expensive product and it works. Do give it a shot, Im sure you will enjoy using it.

  2. Talk about the price.It cost me a bomb with all the shipping and customs etc.
    Though it helps with the skin toning effect,I still am not sure about its brighenting claims,doesnt break out though. Please share if you find a cheaper alternative.

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