I have hyper-pigmentation issues due lớn sun damage that occurred in another lifetime when I lived in bright, sunny Southern California. I have been using actives và brightening serums lớn try và lighten those spots. Two products that I have been using are Skinfood Yuja Water C Whitening Ampoule Serum & Neulii AHA VITA Brightening Serum. I purchased the Skinfood Yuja product myself và Rose Rose Shop provided the Neulii serum for me to review ~ Neulii is Rose Rose Shop’s own skincare brand & they launched five different serums: AHA Vita Brightening, Aloe BHA Soothing, Greentea BHA Pore Tightening, Snail Bee Anti Wrinkle & Teatree BHA Blemish Control.

If you are interested, I have reviewed two other Neulii serums: Snail Bee Anti-Wrinkle (review) and TeaTree BHA Blemish Control (review). My skin type is oily, blemish prone with aging concerns ~ hyper-pigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles.

Skinfood Yuja Water C Whitening Ampoule Serum Skinfood recently came out with a Yuja line ~ Yuja (Yuzu) is a citrus fruit very popular in Asian markets, especially in Korea. Skinfood’s Yuja Water C line are from Goheung organically grown yujas from the first và only Korean yuja artisan farmer, Taehwa Park. These yuja fruits are grown without pesticides & chemical fertilizers ~ instead, organic fertilizer made from seawater & organic compounds is used. (source Skinfood)

Description: A brightening synergy ampoule that contains organic Goheung yuja extract and oil lớn help lighten melasma and hyperpigmentation. Yuja, also known as yuzu in Japan, is a citrus fruit that is cultivated in Asia. It’ s sometimes referred to as “citron.” It’ s about the kích thước of a tangerine, và is yellow-orange when ripe. The mature fruit contains a large amount of seeds. The fruit is not usually consumed like an orange, with the rind peeled & the pulp eaten. Like a lemon or lime, it is highly prized for its fragrant zest, essential oil, seeds, and juice. The juice of a yuja is particularly sour, và forms the base for yujacha, a citron tea which Koreans swear by as a cold và flu remedy, and ponzu, a popular Japanese cooking sauce. 

Ingredients

Hydrating and soothing ingredients such as sodium hyaluronate, aloe vera, argan oil and bisabolol (chamomile derivative) help make this ampoule a rich source of moisture for your skin. Ingredients such as cedarwood oil, diacetyl boldine, maackia fauriei, sodium ascorbyl phosphate and ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate (derivatives of vitamin C) are antioxidants that contribute to lớn evening out and brightening skin tone.

Ingredients: Water, Citrus Junos Fruit Extract, Propanediol, Glycerin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Propylene Glycol, Beta-Glucan, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Gelatin, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Maackia Fauriei Stem Extract, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Cellulose Gum, Arginine, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Sodium Carbomer, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Peel Oil, Disodium EDTA, Citrus Junos Fruit Oil, Brassica Oleracea Italica (Broccoli) Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Juniperus Mexicana (Cedarwood) Oil, Maltodextrin, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Lactobacillus Ferment Lysate Filtrate, Diacetyl Boldine, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Bisabolol, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Polyglyceryl-10 Oleate, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol cosDNA analysis

One of the problems I have with this ampoule serum is that it comes in a clear bottle. If you have vi-ta-min C products, it should be in a darker bottle lớn ensure that it doesn’t degrade quickly. Even though this is a smaller bottle, it does take a while to use up. This has an eye dropper applicator to lớn make it easy lớn apply the serum. It has a light citrus scent, which I adore và this is very hydrating, but it doesn’t leave a sticky residue on my face, as it absorbs fairly quickly. This increased my moisture level by a jaw dropping 62%!! 

This feels lovely on my skin, hydrates nicely, no tacky residue và smells great too ~ but does it brighten & lighten my hyper-pigmentation? Nope.

Neulii AHA VITA Brightening Serum The Neulli line of serums come in a frosted clear plastic bottle with a pump applicator, making it easy khổng lồ apply. The pump doesn’t squirt the sản phẩm out all over the place, but I am concerned about the bottle ~ just as with the Skinfood Yuja ampoule serum, this is also in a clear plastic bottle, even though it is frosted. My experience with AHA’s is that it should be in a dark colored bottle, not clear. A clear bottle will cause the sản phẩm to thua thảm its effectiveness quickly.

Ingredients

Neulii AHA Vita Brightening Serum is also free from parabens, phenoxyethanol, artificial colors và artificial scents.

Ingredients: Water, Pyrus Malus(Apple) Fruit Water, Hippophae Rhamnoides Water, Butylene Glycol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Glycolic Acid, Betaine, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate , Hydroxyethylcellulose , Sodium Hydroxide, Xanthan Gum, Ascorbic Acid cosDNA.com analysis

The texture of this serum is very watery & it has a bitter scent to lớn it, common with AHA products. I use this all over my face, concentrating on my cheek area, as that is where my sun damage is the greatest. According khổng lồ the instructions, this is to lớn be used before a toner ~ and I vị use it that way, as it is so watery. It dries quickly & without any sticky or tacky residue. I’ve talked about AHA’s before và what they are, but I will recap that information here again for you.

AHA (alpha hydroxy acids) are mainly derived from fruit and milk sugars ~ these are the most common using natural sources: glycolic acid (sugar cane), lactic acid (milk), malic acid (apples, pears), citric acid (oranges, lemons), tartaric acid (grapes). The two acids that can penetrate deeper into your skin layers are lactic và glycolic acids. You want an acidity of 3 to lớn 4, with a 5 to lớn 8 percent concentration of AHA. The AHA ingredient should be one of the đứng đầu 3 ingredients in the list và since AHA’s need time to lớn absorb into your skin, you should not really bother with products that will be rinsed off, lượt thích cleansers. You should pick AHA’s if your skin is not prone to lớn breakouts or you really want to lighten hyper-pigmentation and tone & firm your skin, as they can stimulate collagen và elastic production in your skin.

Now, this sản phẩm has only one AHA ingredient ~ glycolic acid ~ & it isn’t in the đứng top three, but in the middle of the list. It is iffy, because even though it meets the first criteria of an AHA acid, the placement in the ingredient danh sách is questionable. Apple extracts can be an AHA, but it would be listed as malic acid, which it isn’t. Now, is this an AHA? The pH màn chơi of Neulii AHA Vita Brightening serum looks khổng lồ be a solid 3, which means it meets the second criteria for an AHA hàng hóa ~ it passes the AHA demo for pH levels, which I had mentioned that it needed khổng lồ be between 3 và 4 to lớn be effective as an exfoliating sản phẩm that also firms and conditions your skin. However, Neulii didn’t post the percentage of the AHA, so I did a little digging. The lovely blogger Little Porcelain Princess had a screen shot of the Certification of Formula for this product and it looks lượt thích glycolic acid is 1.5% và ascorbic acid is at a woeful .0010%. The concentration for the acids is not effective enough, even though the pH màn chơi is on target. 

This AHA serum did help refine my skin texture và smooth it, but it didn’t lighten my sun damage hyper-pigmentation. I did not break out with blemishes with this, so that is a win ~ sometimes with AHA và BHA’s, I will experience a mild “purging” for a week but I did not with this product.

Experiment

As neither of these products were effective with skin brightening, I decided lớn experiment with them. I took some thin cốt tông sheets and soaked them with both the Neulii and Skinfood product, making my own “sheet mask”. I then applied that to my face for around 30 to lớn 35 minutes. When I removed my homemade mask, I did notice an immediate brightening of my skin tone. However, it does go away in a few hours, just lượt thích many brightening sheet masks. I guess you could use these lớn make your own masks, but since there is a huge variety of brightening skin masks out there that are inexpensive, I guess I would ask ~ Why bother? However, for me, as I already have these products, this is another way to lớn use them.

Final Thoughts

This was a tough reviews to write ~ both products look great on paper for brightening abilities, but they did not work for my skin. Maybe I have really tough skin when it comes to lớn Vitamin C ~ I have only found one product that has worked for me using vitamin C & that still only works for new PIH (post inflammatory hyper-pigmentation) ~ Rohto Melano CC Medicinal Stain Essence with vi-ta-min C & E I have yet to lớn find a hàng hóa that works on reducing my old hyper-pigmentation spots. I will always be on the hunt for new items, but these two do not work for me. I did love Skinfood’s Yuja hàng hóa for its scent và moisturizing capabilities, but that isn’t enough for me to make a repeat purchase of it. Neulii AHA Vita Brightening serum seems lớn have right pedigree for an AHA ~ it has a perfect pH level and contains glycolic acid, but the concentration of glycolic acid is nowhere near where it needs to lớn be. Whether it was the lack of acids or not, it did not work for my skin. That said, YMMV (your mileage may vary) và these products might be your Holy Grail. For me, neither of these items came close lớn brightening and evening out my skin tone.

Have you tried either of these products? How did they work for you ~ was it better, worse or neutral? Out of the 3 Neulii products I have tried, this one is not as effective as the other two were. Skinfood gets points for hydration và its scent, but that is about it.

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Where lớn Purchase

Skinfood Yuja Water C Whitening Ampoule In Serum  44mL

See my savings page as some of these stores, I have referral or promo codes so you can save more money!

Neulii AHA Vita Brightening Serum 10 mL

RoseRoseShop carries Neulii AHA Vita Brightening Serum (click here) for around $13.00 USD và all of the Neulii skincare products as well. They ship internationally & have some of the lowest prices on Korean skincare và makeup products.

Disclaimer: Neulii product received complementary from RoseRoseShop for reviews purposes. All opinions are my own & are unbiased