By Elicka Ghahramani, @Elicka_G
Combining clinical and clean skincare, the brand slogan at Sunday Riley is: ‘Powered by science, balanced by botanicals’. Founded in Houston, Texas back in 2009, the brand only reached international cult status in the last few years. Now, we see their serums dominating the go-to routines of beauty insiders.
Dedicated to sourcing high quality ingredients while upholding cruelty-free, clean and green formulations, Sunday Riley excels on all fronts and has earned its respect as a high-end, higher price tag brand.
To find out for ourselves just what makes the products stand out, the OBVS team decided to review three of their most popular serums, sharing results after a fortnight of consistent use.
Here’s what we found:
1. Juno Antioxidant + Superfood Face Oil
This serum is impressive for its dual benefits of intense nourishment and deep protection. As the title suggests, the Juno Serum is jam-packed with nutrients such as argan and black cumin seed oils to feed and moisturise the skin, filling out fine lines and creases. The serum is also replete with antioxidants such as raspberry, blueberry and grape seed oils to protect the skin from free radicals and UV rays. The formula is a pleasingly lightweight, dry-oil blend which is friendly for all skin types, including our oily readers. Rapidly absorbing to provide the dream base for make-up, while working to nourish the skin & restore its elasticity and glow, this serum got a thumbs up from us.
2. C.E.O Rapid Flash Brightening Serum
The C.E.O Rapid Flash Brightening Serum proudly shows off a 15% Vitamin C formulation, promising a brightening transformation for your skin. This product was tested on sensitive skin and we didn’t notice any adverse reactions, despite the high Vitamin C percentage. We were impressed by how easily it blended in, with only leaving a minimal greasy residue behind. However, the hydration factor meant that we didn’t mind the grease so much (for once). If you’re a fan of citrus then you’ll enjoy the strong, lingering scent (think: pure tangerine), but if not then perhaps this won’t be the one for you.
3. Luna Sleeping Night Oil
The Luna Sleeping Night Oil divided the team, as we weren’t taken with the texture or suspicious colouration. The blue tint concerned us at first, as we were worried about subtle staining after we had to wash the excess blue tinge off the fingertips. Plus, the serum leaves a slightly sticky residue, which creates concern of blue staining on pillowcases (silk ones, obvs, since we’re skincare lovers). But since this product is such an A-list favourite (Victoria Beckham, Gwenyth Paltrow, etc.) we gave it the benefit of the doubt. The formula contains retinol for anti-ageing purposes, as well as blue tansy to combat redness and inflammatory skin conditions, such as rosacea, psoriasis, dermatitis and acne. It also claims to combat eczema but we personally feel the formulation is too strong for this and could be an irritant. The jury’s still out on this one, and another month or so is needed to fully examine the effects.
If you fancy testing out two of the mentioned serums without indulging on the full-sized bottles just yet, then you can purchase the Sunday Riley Multivitamins Kit here and try out some travel editions of two of their most popular products.
In the UK, Sunday Riley is stocked at all luxury beauty consignments, including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in-store and online, and online at Cult Beauty and Space NK.