First, I am going to give you a snippet of what Sephora's website says about these three products:
Embrace Ole’s philosophy for gorgeous, healthy skin with daily exfoliation, hydration, and protection. These three multitaskers work in synergy to brighten, resurface, and hydrate using the most potent antiaging powerhouses: vitamin C, essential fatty acids, and alpha hydroxy acids—the three pillar ingredients of Ole’s skincare. By expertly blending potent actives balanced with nurturing and soothing botanicals, skin can achieve maximum youthful results. These three little wonders with indulgent textures and aromas make treating your skin a daily pleasure.
Before I get into the guts of my review, I would like to point out that a lot of people love these Ole Henriksen products. The reviews on Sephora's website site are phenomenal for the most part. If you start to look at a lot of the reviews though, it seems that there is a segment of the population that has no love for these products and has had a very bad experience with them. Sadly, I am one of those people. This appears to be especially the case for the acne-prone like myself. It's not just that I didn't like these products, they sure as hell didn't like me.
Okay, enough blabbing. Let's cut to the chase. I started this skincare system at nighttime a week ago. First, you are supposed to use the Invigorating Night Gel. It has AHA in it and I have used that before in other brands and had no issues. I applied this stuff to my face and it felt like it was on fire. My skin was screaming like I had poured acid on it. It really hurt. The pain went away completely after about an hour. I know AHA products can sting a bit and that is ok with me, but this was something else. I then put the Sheer Transformation Brightening Moisturizer on hoping it would soothe my face. It did somewhat. I just hoped and prayed and this was a one time deal, the burning, and that it was just a "growing pain" thing when you first use this product.
When I woke up the next morning, my pillow stunk of sulphur and it was greasy as all hell. My face hurt and when I touched it, I could tell that something was very wrong. I knew I had broken out on a scale that was out of this world. I looked in the mirror and tried not to scream. My cheeks were covered in huge cystic pimples/blemishes/zits, whatever you want to call them. They hurt like hell and were like open sores. They were, sorry to be gross, literally bloody and sore-like. It seriously looked like I poured acid on my face.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I hoped against hope that the product was just cleaning out my pores and this was a one time thing. I, stupidly, put the daytime Ole Henriksen stuff on. I thought or hoped that the daytime moisturizer and serum would calm my skin down. I applied the Truth Serum. Now, to be truthful, no pun intended, I did try a sample of the Truth Serum once before and didn't really like it. It's very greasy and it doesn't absorb into my skin very well. Then I put the Sheer Transformation on. I have to say that these two did calm my skin down slightly, but my face hurt all day. I had to slap on so much cover-up for work, it wasn't funny.
That night I thought that my skin couldn't get much worse so I did another night treatment. My skin burned like crazy again, just not as much as the last time. I was literally biting the insides of my mouth of digging my nails into my palms. Yes, I am clearly mad. The next morning my skin was still a total disaster and it still hurt like hell. I did another round of the day treatment. I have to say that the Truth Serum, no matter what, is not for me. It doesn't absorb well at all into my skin (I have oily skin by the way) and my face looks like a grease ball all day long when wear it. I think it even made my "new acne" extra oily and gross. Truth Serum must only work for people with really dry, non-acne prone skin.
So that third night I decided that this was madness. I washed all of this crap off of my face, put on a mask, applied my regular moisturizers and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and already my skin was 50% better. The redness had receded and the "acne" was significantly reduced and was drying up. I still have the marks and a couple of "active" spots left 5 days later but my skin is definitely on the mend. It doesn't hurt anymore. I can't imagine if I had used the entire 7 day supply. I fear it would have ruined my skin permanently. I do see some comments on Sephora by people saying that these products did just that to their skin.
In fairness, I think I know my skin quite well and from what I experienced, I can say that the Sheer Transformation Brightening Moisturizer was the only one of the three products that my skin did not appear to react badly to. I certainly hope that if any of you try these products that you will not have the same experience that I did. If you are still interested in Ole Henriksen products, despite my horrifying tale, I beg of you that you will try a sample first before you buy a jar or bottle of this stuff. None of it is cheap and I cannot believe that they don't have warnings on the packaging that people with acne-prone skin should not use this.
I won't bother to break down a rating for these 3 terrors because I have to give them a 0/10.
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