🌙 **Morning After Regret**
Slather this on at night and you wake up glowing. Slather it on in the morning and you’ll spend the day explaining why your face looks like a tomato that lost a fight.
The real kicker? It’s not even the retinol that burns — it’s the pH balancer they added to make the retinol work faster. Smart formulation choice for PM. Dumb choice for daylight.
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☀️ **What You’re Actually Buying**
$34 for 1.7oz of 4% retinol plus a bunch of “glow” promises. TikTok made me do it — the before/afters were too convincing.
Encapsulated Retinol
Means it releases slowly overnight — but also means it keeps releasing if you apply at 7AM and walk into sunlight at 8.
Licorice Root Extract
Sounds fancy. Actually just calms the redness the retinol causes. A bandaid, not a solution.
Squalane Base
Thicker than you’d expect. Feels like a barrier cream, not a moisturizer — sits on top instead of sinking in.
Photo: ibnu ihza / Unsplash
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🧪 **The Ingredient Reality Check**
4% retinol is aggressive for anyone who isn’t a veteran user. But the real story is the delivery system — they use a liposomal encapsulation that breaks down faster when your skin temperature rises. Morning application + warm skin = faster absorption = more irritation.
- Retinol (4%): Smooths fine lines but will peel your face off if you overdo it
- Niacinamide (2%): Helps buffer the sting but it’s barely enough
- Licorice Root: Redness reducer that works better in theory than practice
- Tocopherol: Vitamin E — the only thing keeping this from being a total irritant
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
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⚠️ **The Texture That Lies**
Comes out like a thick pudding — almost too rich. Spreads white then disappears into a greasy film that takes 4 minutes to dry down. First night: woke up with a glow. Second night: woke up with a glow. Third morning (yes, I tested it): woke up with angry red patches on my cheeks.
Week 2 update: I switched back to PM only and the glow returned. The AM experiment was a mistake my skin is still forgiving me for.
💡 **One Thing** Apply to completely dry skin — any dampness activates the retinol too fast and you’ll regret it.
Photo: Mockup Free / Unsplash
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📅 **One Month Later**
Fine lines around my eyes? Noticeably softer. The weird texture on my chin? Gone. The morning-after redness? Only happened when I broke the PM-only rule. Pores look smaller but that might just be the niacinamide doing its job.
Photo: ibnu ihza / Unsplash
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💡 **My Actual Take**
Great night cream. Terrible morning experiment. Keep it in your PM rotation, pair it with a real moisturizer on top, and you’ll get the glow without the regret.
🛍️ **Where to Buy** Their website directly — Amazon has fakes floating around and the packaging is easy to counterfeit. Grab the travel size first ($12) to test your tolerance.
Photo: ibnu ihza / Unsplash