Review: Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum

It's no secret that I'm a little obsessed with Drunk Elephant.

I've written about their Babyfacial (twice actually) and TLC Framboos night serum, both raving reviews. Curious to see if the rest of Drunk Elephant's products lived up to the hype, I purchased some sample sizes to try them out. 

First up to be reviewed is the Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum. 

The Stats

Product

Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum

Price

$80/1oz (Sephora)

Active Ingredients

• 15% L-Ascorbic Acid
• Pumpkin Ferment Extract

Claims

"A super-potent vitamin C day serum that is packed with a powerful antioxidant complex, essential nutrients, and fruit enzymes that all work together to firm and brighten the appearance of skin." (via Sephora's website)

My Review

Application

Like most vitamin C serums, the C-Firma day serum is orange in color and thin in texture. It sinks in quickly and I don't find that it balls up under makeup or leaves any strange texture or color, so it's fine for daily use. Overall, I thought the application was really nice for a vitamin C product.

Packaging

I've raved already about how cute and practical the Drunk Elephant packaging is, but here I go again. I love the clean, minimalist style of the packaging and the sanitary pump applicator. Especially for vitamin C products, it's important that they don't have exposure to light, since this can ruin their effects. So the fact that the C-Firma serum comes in a completely opaque white bottle means that not only will it look cute in your bathroom, but it'll preserve the effects of the active ingredients.

Results

This is where things get a little bit...unimpressive. I haven't been the biggest advocate of vitamin C products in the past, never really sticking to one for a long time or seeing results. The C-Firma serum isn't much different. It didn't break me out, which is nice, and it feels good on the skin. It has a slight brightening effect, but that could also be due to other AHA products I've been using.

It's a nice serum, and if I was gifted it I would certainly use it again. But I just don't see myself spending my hard-earned money on it when there are other, better products out there that give my skin a glow. 

Bottom line: Will not repurchase

Even though I liked this serum well enough, I will not be repurchasing it once I finish my bottle. Other people love this product and claim it's transformed their skin, but for me it just didn't do enough. I don't think the results justify the hefty price tag, so I would rather spend my money on my beloved TLC Framboos serum instead. 

If you're in the market for a life-changing vitamin C serum, I'd say save your money. There are plenty of budget-friendly dupes out there, including The Ordinary Ethylated Ascorbic Acid 15% Solution which has the same percentage of vitamin C as the Drunk Elephant serum and comes in at a mere $18 for 30mL. There's also the popular Glossier Super Glow serum, which is slightly pricier at $28 for 15mL but still cheaper than Drunk Elephant. If I decide to travel down vitamin C road again in the future, I will probably purchase The Ordinary's version. 

Update on 3.22.19:

TLDR: I've completely changed my mind about this product and will 100% repurchase it!

So after I posted my initial review of the C-Firma serum, I still had about half the bottle left and, not one to let good product go to waste, I set out to finish it. In my research for the review, I discovered a tip that Drunk Elephant recommends mixing C-Firma with B-Hydra, which I hadn't tried yet. So I figured, what harm could it do? And that's when the true magic happened.

I'm not sure exactly why, but while by itself the C-Firma serum didn't do much to impress me, mixed with the B-Hydra serum and applied every morning under my daily moisturizer, this combo started to work its magic.

After just a few days of applying this concoction in the morning, my skin began to look noticeably healthier. It had a lit-from-within glow and I noticed my acne scars started to slowly fade. I found myself using less and less makeup as my skin looked so wonderfully healthy that I didn't want to cover it up. 

To test the hypothesis even further, I also stopped using my other glow-giving products, like my Drunk Elephant TLC Framboos Glycolic serum and my Herbivore Blue Tansy mask. I wanted to be sure that C-Firma was what was causing my glow - and lo and behold, it was!

I've been using a ratio of 1:1 (1 pump of C-Firma to 1 pump of B-Hydra) every morning for the past few weeks and it has completely changed my mind about this product. 

(New) Bottom line: Will repurchase! (with Drunk Elephant B-Hydra Serum)

Topic: Drunk Elephant Skincare Review