I purchased this late last year (beginning of November) and wanted to use it all up before I full reviewed it. I have to say since getting this I have actually become much more interested in skincare and researching it, so my views on this have now been slightly swayed by my research.
I purchased the Ole Henriksen 'The Works' Kit from Feel Unique. I was going through my shopping list (a folder that I bookmark products in) because sometimes I just have a need to spend money and saw that I had two products from Ole that I really wanted to try the
Pure Truth™ Youth Activating Oil (£47.00) and the
Lemon Strip Flash Peel (£35.00). They are both very pricey products for me to just purchase straight away. For some reason I looked into the kits and found that two of the products that I wanted to try were available in the kit - so I decided to save myself some money!
The kit comes with 5 mini versions of the Ole Henriksen pure truth™ youth activating oil (15ml), Ole Henriksen lemon strip flash peel (15ml), Ole Henriksen truth serum collagen booster (15ml), Ole Henriksen african red tea foaming cleanser (45ml), Ole Henriksen sheer transformation™ creme (15ml).
Ole Henriksen African Red Team Foaming Cleanser: The first product I used up was the African Red Team Foaming Cleanser, I was really weary of this because I always think that foaming cleansers will dry my skin out. Nevertheless I wanted to try this one out. First of all it smells lovely, that's the one thing I love about this whole range - the smell of most of the products. Although I now know that fragrances can actually be irritants in a lot of cases, so it makes me more weary of the product, but man the smell is good! I used this regularly and I really didn't find that it dried out my skin personally, but I feel this was because I was using hydrating products after. I actually don't have much to say about the cleanser other than it did its job of cleaning my skin after I removed my make-up, or if I used it in the morning it really woke me up.
Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Collagen Booster: One of the next things I used up was the Truth Serum Collagen Booster. I was really unsure of what this was when I first started using this, however when I found out it was a water based serum I was really intrigued by it. I loved using this on my skin and because it was water based my skin just soaked it up. Like I said in my '
Journey with Serums' post I did like using this but it isn't something I can say worked or not, simply because as a collagen booster I'm assuming the results of this will be seen in the future (if at all) when I'm old and have firm skin. The smell of this was so yummy, but like I said above fragrances in a product can be an irritant to the skin.
Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation™ Creme: This was next thing I used up. I really like the moisturiser (or creme whatever), it felt incredibly light weight and I can't actually say I've used many moisturisers like this. The aim of this product was to 'help fade discoloration such as freckles, age spots and sun damage without the use of chemicals.' personally I didn't even know this when using the product but I can't say I noticed any fading on my skin. I mainly liked this product for the lightweight and non-greasy feel. It was easy to apply make-up on top of it and I would often use it in the night as well if I had applied an oil to my face. One thing to note about this that I found out about upon my research, is products in jar packaging (depending on the ingredients) may not be effective because the ingredients either become unstable or lose their potency once opened. I think is the one thing I would repurchase from this kit if I couldn't find another suitable light weight moisturiser.
These two products are the reason why I purchased the kit, so I thought I would talk about my thoughts separately.
Ole Henriksen Lemon Strip Flash Peel: I first heard about this through
Teni Panosian and thought it sounded amazing. She described it as a strong acid that might burn initially and I was sat there like yup that's what I want (well aware that this is not normal). The full size version of this actually comes with a brush which is meant to help the exfoliation process, but this small size version did not come with the brush. I actually enjoyed using this product but annoyingly enough I didn't use it regularly, I would always do so probably twice a week simply because I would forget. The first time I used it, it stung briefly for the first minute and then it calmed down. I would say my skin is quite used to strong products, so I didn't feel it burned severely. I would happily keep it on for the required 10 minutes and sometimes more. Towards the end of using this I did notice that my skin looked a little brighter, but for me personally the price tag means I can't invest in it to see if I'll get that result again. There is also had the same issue I mentioned above earlier when I spoke about the creme, because it is a jar packaging it was said that the product may not work as well once it had been opened. So that also makes me weary about repurchasing it. It was a good product to start acid exfoliation with though.
Ole Henriksen Pure Truth™ Youth Activating Oil: This was the second product I wanted to try and it was the last thing I used up! I loved the smell of this product and putting it on my face at the end of the night felt like a bloody gift. This was good from preventing my skin from drying out, I really found that to be true in the case of using the foaming cleanser from this range. Recently I've been using the
Vichy Normaderm Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel and
Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Gel Exfoliant in my routine and both have the potential to really dry out my skin so I've been using this to balance everything out and it has worked a treat! However because this contains so many fragrance oils it is potentially irritating for the skin, and I did find that when used over the sides of my mouth after the reaction it would really make it itchy. This has a huge price tag in my opinion and yet it contains so many potentially irritating ingredients that for me it is not a justified purchase. However, my skin didn't react so badly to it, so it's a product I
might consider purchasing in the future, if I find I need it.
My overall thoughts:
Overall I enjoyed my Ole Henriksen experience. I did however experience a slight "burning" on my skin which was a reaction to one of the products. It reminds me of the reaction I got from the products I used when I had a dermatologist as a teen. The sides of my mouth became dry, dark and irritated so I did have to stop using all the products at one point to let my skin breathe. I thought perhaps maybe the creme did it or the flash peel, so I avoided using those around my mouth area. However it could have been once of the fragranced products, the point is I'm not sure and there is no way of me finding out, unless I tested them all again. I'm not actually used to using fragranced products in my routine so I am a little bit tempted to put it down to this. If you want to know more about fragrances in products do just do a google search and delve into the wealth of information that's available.I didn't notice a huge decline or improvement in my skin, so I'm neither happy or unsatisfied with the products.
Summary:
I don't think I will be purchasing any Ole Henriksen products right now simply because I don't personally feel the products addressed the skin needs that I had. Although I absolutely loved the smell of some of the products, the high usage of fragrances was concerning to me. I wasn't blown away by the two products that I really wanted to try either, so I'm really really glad that I purchased this kit to try it out.
Samples:
I thought I'd throw in the small samples I got given with my purchase. I haven't even use the NUXE one, so I can't comment on that except that I have wanted to try it for SO long because it has been raved about. I did use the Caudalie oil and oh my goodness the smell :/ It actually smells like that I'd imagine inside of a stem to smell like, basically it's rank. I only had a dinky sample size so I can't really comment much on the results, if I'm honest I was happy to use it up simply because it made me gag when I put it on my face.
Are there any sets or kits you've purchased recently?
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