At a glance
Texture — Gel-crème
Key Active — Three vitamin C forms (concentrations undisclosed)
Best For — Dullness; normal to combination skin
Price Tier — $$$
What stands out
It feels genuinely lovely, and it has lasted in a crowded category for that reason. The gel-crème texture is light, fresh, and absorbs quickly.
It uses three forms of vitamin C, including L-ascorbic acid — the evidence-backed form — alongside two derivatives. Using a mix is defensible formulation: they have different solubilities and stabilities.
Hyaluronic acid and green tea round it out sensibly, and it hydrates well.
Watch out for
None of the three vitamin C concentrations are disclosed. "Three forms of vitamin C" tells you nothing about how much of any of them you are getting. Dose is the whole question with vitamin C, and this product does not answer it.
It contains fragrance plus citral, limonene, linalool and benzyl alcohol — four declared fragrance allergens, in a product you apply to your whole face every day.
L-ascorbic acid in a gel-crème raises a real stability problem. Pure vitamin C degrades on contact with air and light. This is a translucent gel in a jar-style pot. If it has darkened, the vitamin C has oxidized and is doing less than it was.
$46 for 1.7 oz of what is fundamentally a nice humectant gel with an undisclosed amount of vitamin C in it.
Key ingredients
🍊 Vitamin C — brightens and reduces fine lines
🧬 Collagen — plumps skin and smooths wrinkles
Full ingredient list
Formulation Notes
There is a real tension in this product that no formulator can fully solve. L-ascorbic acid needs a low pH and an oxygen-free environment. A pleasant, light, water-based gel-crème in a wide pot is the opposite of both.
You can have an elegant gel or a stable, potent vitamin C. Getting both is very hard, and the products that manage it — waterless bases, airless pumps, opaque tubes — all give up something on texture to do it. This one chose texture.