Epionce Lytic Sport Tx & Renewal Facial Lotion

About a month before my wedding, I was complaining to my aesthetician that I wished I had finer and smoother skin.  I don't have that many issues with my skin, but I do get blemishes from time to time, especially around time of the month.  And I feel that my pores around the sides of my nose are more visible than I would like.  She recommended that I try the Epionce Lytic lotion, which she described as being a "magical" product that can give immediate results.  The lytic lotion is supposed to lift out the dirt, black heads, white heads, etc. from the pores and make the skin look ultra smooth.  I was sold right away and wanted to try this amazing product.

So I bought the Lytic Sport Tx, which is a pretty small tube that costs $56.

How you are supposed to use this is after washing your face, put it on like lotion all over the face.  I would describe the consistency as something between a gel and a lotion.  Medium weight.  Not greasy at all.  Then you wait for it to get absorbed for 7 minutes (not sure why 7 is the magical number here).  After that, you apply facial lotion.  Do this morning and night everyday.

The Renewal Facial Lotion is supposed to be designed to work with the lytic lotion.  When I was paying for the lytic, I asked how much the lotion was.  I thought the girl said "$19", and thought why not try it.  But after I paid I realized it was actually $90 (don't ask me why I didn't realize when I was signing my credit card receipt, most of the time I just don't pay attention I guess).  Wtf.  This is definitely the most expensive lotion I've ever bought as it is a very very small bottle as well.  Ok maybe I spent more on La Mar before, but that was a total waste of money too.

This is how small the bottle is with me holding it in my hand, taken right after I bought it:  notice that the bottom of the bottle is the pump so the lotion doesn't even go all the way down.  Then there's a layer of plastic outside of the actual bottle holding the lotion.  Tiny portion.

So this has been the lotion I put on my face everyday after waiting 7 minutes for the lytic to kick in.  By the way this bottle sucks.  Pump doesn't work well always and I end up pumping furiously and either nothing comes out or a big blob comes flying out (that's when I feel like I'm seeing dollar bills flying away).  7 minutes is a long time to wait for the lytic, especially in the morning when I don't have much time.  So I've had to switch up my routine - I used to brush my teeth first, then wash my face and put on lotion.  Now I wash my face and put on lytic lotion first, then brush my teeth and get dressed while I'm waiting around.  Then I put on the renewal lotion.  It's not too bad actually.

I've been using both of these products twice a day every day since I've got them.  Actually I also got a sample of the Epionce toner, so I have also been using the toner every night after I wash my face, but before I put on the lytic lotion.  I feel like I can now give a good opinion on them since it's been about 6 weeks.  

I feel that the lytic lotion is not as magical as described to me, but I can't say I'm surprised by that.  I actually didn't have super high expectations because I'm always suspicious.  But I did have expectations to a certain extent just because of the high price tag, coupled with the glowing recommendation.

I was hoping to see visibly smaller pores around the sides of my nose, but I don't really feel like they have changed at all.  What I did notice about a week or so after using this set is that my skin tone was much more even.  In fact, I felt pretty comfortable going outside of the house with no makeup on at all because my face looked like how it would before with a light coverage type of makeup, like my BB cream.  So these products took away some redness, and perhaps did shrink my pores overall to achieve the make up look.  This is great of course, but it is the only visible difference I've noticed with this product.  I still do get some blemishes once in a while.  However, when I went to my facial right before my wedding (after about a month of using this set), my aesthetician said it was much easier to perform her extraction (she totally forgot that I bought the lytic lotion).  

I'm not sure if it is mainly the lytic lotion that made the most difference, or the renewal lotion, or the combination of both.  But I kind of don't feel like paying $90 for lotion again.  I'm kind of on the fence about whether the result is worth the money or not.  It's been about 6 weeks and I've used up half of the tube of lytic lotion, and a little less than half of the renewal lotion.  So that estimates to about a 3 months cycle.  And that is $900 a year if I keep buying both.  Hmmmmmm.....

I think what I might do after I'm done with them is to buy another tube of lytic lotion alone.  And try using a different facial lotion with it to see if the results will be any different.  I just have a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this renewal lotion is worth $100 after tax.  $56 for the lytic is a lot more acceptable.  If the lytic works on its own, then I definitely think it's a great price to pay for even toned skin that you can wake up every morning looking like you already have makeup on.  That's only $20 a month!  Small price to pay for magical cream really.  I will update after I try it.