I don't often write negative reviews, especially when it comes to a brand I genuinely love and normally rave about, but I have to say the Fresh Pressed Pure Vitamin C 7-Day Kit was a product I was really disappointed by.
I have a lot of pigmentation so I normally and drawn to anything with claims to brightening or with Vitamin C, so was excited to try this kit which contains a mini activator and 7 individually-wrapped packets of vitamin c powder cleanser.
Both products smell deliciously of vitamin c which I love, great way to start the day. The powder comes in individual packets as Vitamin C degrades in oxygen. To use, tip a little in your hand and mix with a little water to create an exfoliating paste. If you've used Dermalogica's Microfoliant before, this reminds me of that. The fine granules create a nice exfoliant which does make the skin look brighter and fresher, which any exfolliant does. I used this in the morning as a great way to wake my skin up.
The activator comes in a bottle with a squishy top and thin nozzle. You use it to boost your regular moisturiser with a Vitamin C injection. You only need a couple of drops of activator, and while this is a 7-day kit I found the activator lasted longer than this. I used this mixed in with my moisturiser morning and night.
While I LIKE both products and they're both nice to use, with the cleanser indeed making my skin look more radiant, I feel that was the exfolliating action more than the Vitamin C at play. Otherwise I didn't notice any difference in my skin at all over the week.
For me one week may have been too short a time frame to notice a difference. Unfortunately for this kit I have found other Vitamin C products and exfolliators that out perform it, and for the price of the kit would instead recommend friends purchase one of the others. Even if they have a higher price take, they are much better value and get more noticeable results.
I love having an vitamin C in my skincare routine, I've seen it brighten my skin and so I love trying new vitamin C products. This intrigued me because so far I've only tried products that had the vitamin C already added and vitamin C is only of those vitamins that can go bad and lose efficacy really quickly. However, I didn't want to pay the high price tag to find out if it works and I already had over a week's worth of the vitamin C powder cleanser since got them as free samples from online orders. So when I went to buy Clinique products instead of buying them all at one counter. I bought them at different counters and asked very nicely for an extra sample of this which they were happy to give me since I purchased their products and it went nicely with the moisturizer I bought from them. I waited till I had run out of my regular vitamin C product to put this to the test. You use the powder cleanser in the morning but honestly each sachet has enough for 2-3 times so I would use it in the evening as well. You add water to the powder and it turns into this creamy, bubbly, thin paste that you wash your face with. It's worth mentioning that it offers a bit of light exfoliation. After using it my face was a bit brighter from the exfoliation. Now for the vitamin C. The formulation is liquidly and smells citrusy but not super strong. Even though it's 10% ascorbic acid it didn't sting me. I tried it mixed in my Clinique Dramatically Different Gel and I've tried applying some directly to areas of pigmentation and even some mixed in with my eye cream. I didn't have any irritation or stinging at all. The ingredients are water, ascorbic acid, glycerin, dimethicone, squalane, butylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, acetyl glucosamine, cucumber, barley, mulberry, molasses, laminaria digitata and scutellaria baicalenses root extracts, acetyl hexapeptide-8, grape and algae extract, palmitoyl hexapeptide-12, palmitoyl tripeptide-1 and 7, alcaligenes polysaccharides, caffeine, sucrose, whey protein, betaine, salicylic acid, soybean protein, sodium hylaluronate, caprylyl glycol, St Paul's wort extract, bis-PEG-18 methyl ether dimethyl silane, propylene glycol dicaprate, sunflower seedcake, allyl methacrylates crosspolymer, carbomer, glyceryl polymethacrylate, tromethamine, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, PEG-8, polysorbate 20, sodium citrate, disodium EDTA and phenoxyethanol. I did get some brightening but was it more than what I was using previously, not really. I can't say my skin was incredibly brighter than when I was using more affordable vitamin C products and I didn't see fine lines decrease. I would use this if I got it free as a gwp again but I wouldn't buy this just because while it does give some brightening it's too expensive and it doesn't out perform what I've used in the past.
Tips: You can get more than one use out of each of the vitamin C cleanser packettes if you want to use it at night as well. Start with a few drops of water and then add more to turn it into a paste.