24 Karat Magic In The Air!! AKA "Moist Light Muscle Essence Dope."

I can't remember if I have talked on here about this before, or just Instagram, but I have been reading a lot about the benefit of gold flakes and gold serum on skin.  For most people, when they think of Gold Serum, their first thought is going to be Farsali Rose Gold Elixir.  I'm sure its the standard bearer for a reason, but, by the same token, 30mL is going to run you about $60.

Before I dive into that too deeply, I need to touch on a message that I got on Instagram the other day from a reader who felt that by talking about "budget beauty" I was disparaging the wealthy and acting like, "having money is a crime."  Let's let Jesus take the wheel on this one for a second.  Though I honestly never expected to be saying something like this, here goes:  I do not think being wealthy is a crime.  I do not think it makes you a lesser person.  If you have $60 in your pocket, and you feel like face serum is the appropriate use of that money, then God bless. I don't pay your bills.  I don't write about budget beauty because I think having money is bad, I write about it, because I feel like lots of people think it takes big bucks to enjoy makeup and engage in a little self care and neither is the case.

Having gotten that out of the way, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Spending $60 on something like this would make me break out in the terror sweats, so, thanks to the interwebs, I was able to locate a less expensive option that I am pretty excited about!

 This is Aqua Beauty 24K Gold Skin Care, and you can purchase it for $6.99 here.  The short version of what is going to become a longer story is that after using it this week, I am in love with it.  But more on that shortly.  Another thing that I pride myself in on this blog is that the products I share are cruelty free.  I think cruelty free beauty is really important.  I think testing cosmetics is about the worst reason for animal torture that I can think of and I am firmly and totally against it.

Now, I can tell you that China is really bad when it comes to animal testing.  They require it in all cities except Hong Kong.  Just because something is coming out of Hong Kong doesn't mean its cruelty free, but its the only place in China where it could possibly be true.  Additionally, if a company sells in China, they have to comply with animal testing laws, so its something to pay attention to. Many commonly known drugstore and department store brands are not cruelty free (L'Oreal, Lancome, Elizabeth Arden, Clinique to name a few) and even some luxury brands like MAC still test on animals.  That one has always bugged me, because MAC has always been on the front lines in giving to humanitarian causes.  Anyway, I searched and searched and searched, and could not find anything on this brand one way or the other.  It falls into a category of obscure eastern skin care products that are totally amazing, but might be made of radioactive chemicals, I don't really know.  This product does come out of Hong Kong, so its possible, but, in the spirit of full transparency, I am not 100% sure.  Donald Trump has me fucked up, ya'll.  My rage is turned up to 11 at all times, and it has almost become a third full time job for me (after being a mom, which is 24/7, and the office job that gives me a W2 once a year) to stay bothering my representatives.  I contact them online, and call their offices, and write letters on a near daily basis.  Some people smoke to escape stress, I slather my face in possibly but possibly not cruelty free face serum.  Its not right, but its where I am in my life right now.

Speaking of getting lost in the translation, I'm guessing the designer of this packaging took six semesters of English in college.  Because I took six of Spanish, and this is about as good as my Spanish skills are.  Hats off to those of you in the world who are fluent in more than one language.  You all are rock stars. The guy who wrote the packaging blurb for this and I are not among your distinguished ranks.  Behold:

Let me point of my favorite parts.  The top right that says, "Moist Light Muscle Essence Dope." Also, about half way down the description, also on the right it says, "to repair skin, dry, rough, dumb wrinkles."  I laughed out loud when I read "dumb wrinkles."  Read the whole thing though, its a treat.

I have to say, for a product that cost $7, I had to wonder if it fell off the back of a truck somewhere because the packaging is really luxe.  The bottle is glass, and so is the dropper.  It is really heavy, and is also 30mL like the Farsali.  Its definitely a product that is going to look beautiful sitting on a vanity.  It has sort of a vintage look to it with the gold lid, and it is just a really pretty product.

As I understand it, the point of the product is to moisturize and boost collagen.  I started out wearing it at night.  After I take the paint of my face, and cleanse,  I always try to put some kind of serum or heavy moisturizer on my face.  This one is kind of interesting because it looks watery, and when I squirted the dropper in my hand it still felt sort of watery, but as I rubbed it in, it got very sticky/tacky.  It definitely has a thickness to it that  I was not expecting.

It stayed tacky until it was dry, and I could still feel it there, but my face felt very, very smooth and soft.  It felt like a very heavy moisturizer, but not in an overbearing way.  I tend to have really oily skin in the winter, but this didn't feel greasy.

I loved it so much, that I have also been putting it on in the mornings as primer.  The reviews I have read on line say you can mix a few drops in directly with your liquid foundation, but I haven't tried that yet.  My favorite part of this product though, besides the moisture (when you put it on at night, you can still feel it in the morning) is that it gives me this really warm golden glow.  I'm guessing that its the tiny gold flakes that cause that, but whatever works right?

There are no filters on this picture.  This is just my crappy cell phone camera taking a picture at my desk at work. Hello, sunshine!

I absolutely think its worth the money.  It does take about three weeks to receive from the time you place your order (I ordered three more the other day, one of which I plan to give away on Instagram, so stay tuned for that) but its worth the wait, I think.  Maybe it helps with collagen, I don't know about that yet, but if you are looking for a fantastic winter moisturizer that gives you a beautiful glow and is most likely not radioactive (I kid, I kid) then I strongly recommend giving this one a try!