The beauty world has been sent buzzing over the past few months thanks to the release of the Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil. Beauty bloggers everywhere raved about the overnight results they saw in their skin, so of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and see what the fuss was all about.
I'll start off with a disclaimer here - no, I didn't pay for this. My mom bought this for the two of us and my sister to all try out and share, as we all had skin concerns that the reviews of Luna said it could fix. Do I think it's worth spending my own hard-earned cash on a repurchase? Spoiler alert: YES.
The Luna Sleeping Night Oil is essentially a retinol (trans-retinol ester) in oil - in the Pixiwoo Sisters' interview with Sunday Riley, she says that this is actually quite a hard thing to formulate. But she seems to have done it flawlessly. Retinols are known wrinkle fighters and anti-agers because of their ability to stimulate cell turnover and collagen production (source), but the cell turnover aspect is what attracted me to it - I really wanted to get rid of my acne marks. Giving the oil its blue color (besides a couple added dyes) is Blue Tansy, a flower that's poisonous if ingested but has great anti-inflammatory and skin-soothing benefits if formulated correctly (source). Because I have a lot of splotchy redness in my skin, too (thanks, hormones), this combination of ingredients just really sounded right up my alley.
I'm really happy with the packaging - the pipette is the best way to deliver this product, and the dark/opaque bottle is extremely practical as well. Retinols will react with sunlight, rendering them ineffective, so housing Luna in a dark bottle was pretty much the only choice - it will ensure that the active ingredients will actually stay active, and you won't be wasting your money on a product that will work at first and then just turn into a bunch of nice blue-colored oil.
After testing the product for a month and a half now, I can say I'm incredibly happy with the results. I use about three or four drops of the oil every other night before bed, so I think the bottle would last quite a long time. I didn't believe any of the reviews I had heard when people said they saw results overnight, but honestly, I did too - the morning after my first use, my skin looked so incredibly even and glowing - I didn't use a spot of concealer that day. It really tones down the redness in my skin, allowing me to wear less base makeup to even everything out. My mom and I were marveling at the results - her pores appeared smaller after one use, too. At first the results didn't last that long - the next day, after I hadn't used the Luna oil at night, my skin's redness was back. But after using it consistently for a month and a half, the redness has really toned down and stays minimal between uses. It's helped my dark acne marks tremendously as well. When I got back from the beach a couple weeks ago I had three or four really dark spots on my chin from a breakout (despite slathering on the sunblock, I was still left with these marks), and they were completely gone after using the Luna oil for three nights in a row.
It's becoming quite addictive to layer on at night because it just feels so luxurious and I'm in love with the results. It's incredibly moisturizing but sinks into the skin quickly and doesn't feel greasy at all. The blue color does sink in and disappear as you massage the oil into your skin, so it's a good indicator of when it's completely worked into the skin. It does have a bit of a smell, but I've gotten used to it, and my boyfriend actually told me last night that it smells like "mac & cheese without the cheese," if you're looking for a more detailed description (thanks, Brett).
Have you tried the Luna Sleeping Night Oil?