elsheskin active rejuvenating night serum

this is the description from their website (i translated it because it was originally in indonesian): younger looking skin, moist, evened skin tone and glowing. 

key ingredients: contains 1% encapsulated retinol and multi peptide complex that can regenerates and treats problematic skin. active ingredients niacinamide, licorice extract, hyaluronic acid, and gluconolactone helps recover skin barrier's optimal function, regenerates skin softly, and giving hydration that's needed. suitable for all skin types and can be layered/ mixed with other elsheskin serum.

ingredients list: aqua, niacinamide, pentylene glycol, propanediol, glycerin, cichorium intybus root oligosaccharides, tetradecyl aminobutyroylvalylaminobutyric urea trifluoroacetate, magnesium chloride, dipeptide diaminobutyroyl benzylamide diacetate, acetyl hexapeptide-8, caprylyl glycol, caesalpinia spinosa gum, sodium benzoate, gluconolactone, calcium gluconate, lecithin, polysorbate 20, retinol, ethylhexylglycerin, ammonium acryloyldimethyltaurate/ VP copolymer, xanthan gum, disodium EDTA, hyaluronic acid, glycyrrhiza glabra root extract. 

the packaging:  it comes in red box with white text. i think all elsheskin skin has only red/white combination in their packaging, no matter what line it is. there's description on the side and back in indonesian as well as the ingredients list at the back. they use plastic sealing so secure the box, so there's no sticker label to secure the box. the serum itself comes in dark brown glass bottle with white dropper to dispense the product. the label on the bottle is completely white, and there's a bit description on the label. the dropper works well. there's a small gap between the beginning and the end of the label so i can see the remaining product from the outside. it's only 20 ml which is less than the usual serum size (30 ml). so i guess the bottle is deceiving since the size is not significantly smaller than 30 ml serum bottle.

the scent: there's no added fragrance in the ingredients list. so the product is unscented. however, since it contains a mix of several ingredients, obviously it won't be completely unscented. i think the scent is similar to votre peau retinol, but votre peau is slightly more foul than this one. but if you sniff it real close. so far i don't have problem with the scent as my other products are scented. 

the product: the serum itself is a cloudy white runny type serum, which is similar to votre peau's. but this is a bit runnier than votre peau. it's easy to spread it around and it layers well with my other skincare products. it sinks in nicely without giving any tackiness. i start using this every other day since my skin has some experience with stronger retinol, so even though i take a break from retinol quite some time, i think every other day is safe enough for me. but if you're new to retinol, you might want to try twice a week before using it every other day after two weeks and then proceed to using it daily.

the result: at first i didn't see anything significant since i also tested other products as well. but i do notice that this one is really not drying at all. even better, it works well with niacinamide from avoskin. at first i thought it would be too drying for my skin if i combined it with niacinamide, but it didn't work well with erha peptide serum and biobeautylab oil. plus using masks most of the time made me get maskne. so i started to use this every night and then used niacinamide instead of peptide serum. i also stopped the oil and tested several sulwhasoo cream. so far it gave better results. right now i started to see my acne scars fading, but i still get acne here and there. well, obviously my forehead would be glowy just like when i used somethinc retinol.

i was quite surprised that this lasted longer than somethinc. this is quite gentle just like somethinc and avoskin, and it works slower than somethinc, just like avoskin. however, i like this more than avoskin mainly because after i started using this everyday, i notice it helps fading my acne scars. my acne starts to lessen as well. i don't get maskne as much as before. but i need to hydrate my skin more, using sheet mask to counter the dryness effect. i think this is a good start for beginner. it's gentle enough for beginner and quite hydrating. it layers well with other skincare products and the price is still affordable. and one thing i need to appreciate is the marketing team/customer relation team work. i purchased the serum through a marketplace, and they follow up on my purchase via whatsapp messaging. unfortunately, i haven't tried the serum when they followed up on me. some people might find it annoying, but i think it's a good thing. they went an extra mile to reach the customer to make sure that the customer is satisfied with the purchase. i do hope they add more products though, or maybe revamped their packaging for a bit. but i also think simplicity might be a good thing as well. i think i'll put this and somethinc in my wishlist if i ever run out of retinol serum to try.