Drunk Elephant caused acne and breakouts!

[Anonymous]

I just felt the need to warn anyone who may suffer from acne or oily skin that Drunk Elephant may not be the best brand for you because it certainly was not for me. I am 35 years old and have not suffered from ANY acne or breakouts in well over 10 plus years. I do have oily skin but thankfully not acne. However within two days of starting on the complete Drunk Elephant skin care line my face was erupting in horrible cystic acne everywhere, whiteheads appearing everyday and my skin was ten times more oily then it has ever been. My pores looked so congested and clogged.I was shocked because I read some great reviews from others on this line but it destroyed my skin! I stuck it out for 4 1/2 months and it just got worse and worse to the point I couldn't use it any more in fear I was going to get permanent scarring. I thought it may have been "purging" but I highly doubt your skin "purges" for well over 4 months. Now I don't even believe in this purging thing. If my skin was clear for years prior to using these products then I really can't see there being such horrible invisible issues happening beneath the skin for years that suddenly decide to surface. Not only that but it had been over 4 months and it was getting worse!

      After doing some research on the ingredients I found out that pretty much every product in the line has marula oil in it and if you look up this ingredient you will see that it has an EXTREMELY high comedogenic rating and potential to clog pores-it's comedogenic rating is 4/5 (with 5 being the highest)!. Also the C-firma's 5th ingredient is Laureth-23 is rated 3/5 on the comedogenic scale! Thankfully after researching all the ingredients to find out what could be causing these breakouts on my skin I was able to see why and stop using them. Thankfully now my skin is healing from these breakouts now that I have switched to a different line.

   I REALLY REALLY wanted to love these products so bad! I spent so much money on them and thought the packaging was so cute and loved the whole all natural, non-toxic approach since I only use clean products. And for anyone who may say the standared DE response of "what happened was caused by other brands I must have been using and NOT DE" I can assure you this is impossible considering I ONLY used DE for the entire 4 months-DE cleanser, C-firma, TLC and the SPF. Literally did not use ANYTHING else on my skin and also I do not wear makeup ever. Unfortunately I have nothing else to attribute the acne and breakouts on other then the DE products. As I mentioned I had not had any issues with acne or break outs whatsoever in well over 10 years UNTIL I started using these products. I even decreased the amount of the serums thinking maybe I was using too much and it made no difference whatsoever.

I am sure others have had these experiences and just wondering what your thoughts are.

[sockmagnet]

If you look on product details they almost always list for every product that they work for almost all skin types. This is a common feature of a lot of brands, not just DE. Since a person's skin often doesn't just fall into just one category of either, normal, dry, combination, oily, sensitive, acne-prone, etc. I am always a bit skeptical when a product is supposed to be good for completely different skin types like dry AND oily. I understand that brands cannot necessarily take into account that some people will have specific issues with some of the ingredients (that they are often not themselves aware of when trying products, until they have a bad experience). However, I would like all brands to take the negative experiences of people who WANTED to love their products more seriously and not dismiss them or erase them. I would much rather brands stated openly that some customers with such and such skin issues have reported that this particular product was not a good match for them and we would instead recommend this other product that we also sell (as an example).

[sahmed92]

Hi there, This is exactly what happened to me after purchasing DE’s littles collection. No idea which specific product(s) caused such severe acne around my jawline, ear area, as well as upper neck. I’ve never experienced those areas breaking out so badly. So sorry you are experiencing this as well. I honestly stopped using the products after about two weeks because it hurt to even put on makeup towards the end. It took at least a month, but I started a much more simple skin care routine and my face is finally looking better! Best of luck and I’m happy to provide any other helpful info!

[sk0345]

I also got cystic acne around my jaw line and around my hairline after using The Littles. I did some experimenting and would just use one product a day and found that it was the tinted SPF that caused the breakout (which I don’t normally get that type of zit/acne) and also I would get topical break outs if I didn’t mix the C-Firma serum with a moisturizer like Protini. I think also using less C-Firma than recommended worked better for my skin - I just use one good pump mixed into the protini now and don’t have any issues with cystic acne or acne really! 

[Anonymous]

I’ve been using DE for over a month now. Shortly after starting DE I noticed I was breaking out and getting deep cystic acne spots which I have not had in years. I figured it was my skin purging so stuck with it thinking it may also be stress related, hormonal, or what I was eating. When it continued to get a lot worse, not better over the past month I’m thinking there must be a specific ingredient in DE products that my skin does not tolerate. Prior to trying DE I had been using products with retinol, glycolic acid, and other strong actives so my skin had previously been accustomed with no issues. I want so bad to love DE and for it to work for my skin. I have been using the tinted SPF combined with d-Bronzi and never suspected it as the culprit. Does the non tinted SPF or d-Bronzi cause issues for you? I’d still like to use a daily SPF if possible. Thanks for your help! 

[briii327]

Yes I am also having the same issues around my jawline up towards my ears,cheeks, and chin. I have never broke out here ever. And ever since using these products I have had severe acne in those affected areas. What did you do to heal your acne??? 

[blackivy24]

I’m sorry to hear that DE didn’t work for you. I’m shocked to learn about them deleting your review though. You would think they would want to reach out to you like some other Companies. Unfortunately I can speak on the fact that not all of their products worked for me as well. I’ve tried almost everything in their line with the exception of their eye creams and Lala. Lala got bad reviews from oily girls. I also tried two of DE products at a time and expanded once I decided I like them. The 2 worst products in their to me is the cleanser and the Marula oil. The cleanser left my face greasy and dirty. It didn’t thoroughly cleanse my skin. I haven’t tried it again since it first launched, I don’t care how many times they changed the formula. I just couldn’t take that risk. The Marula oil is something I liked at first but as I continued to use it I noticed that it never sunk in, it just sat on my face which caused clogged pores and brought back cystic acne. I still use the T.L.C. serum and the Babyfacial. Those two are staples in my skin care routine and they worked well for me. I haven’t experienced any purging when I tried both of them. I forgot about protini. That was something else that I wasted my money on. I’ve tried it several times and each time it starts out fine but then acne come back. That’s another moisturizer that just doesn’t sink in and causes clogged pores. I liked the c firma and b-hydra as well but I can live without it. They didn’t cause any harm but I have found something else that is clean/natural and works just as well and less expensive. Hope you to can find something that works for you too.

[illianamarie]

Hi, I know your commend is months old, but if you don't mind me asking, what did you find to replace the C-Firma and B-Hydra?  I also liked, not LOVED them, and would love to see a less expensive alternative to try out!  

[Kim888]

@Anonymous there are quite a few posts on this already if you want to check them out. Personally the TLC serum is a holy grail for me. Once I got over the purging period of introducing actives to my skin, my skin looked great. But what works for some doesn't work for everyone. The Vitamin C didn't work for me for example. 

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Acne-Prone-Skin/DRUNK-ELEPHANT-OR-SUNDAY-RILEY/m-p/2749240

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Honest-advice-on-the-Drunk-Elephant-brand/m-p/3852019

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Sensitive-Skin/Drunk-elephant-for-sensitive-skin/m-p/3788973

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Drunk-Elephant-Framboos-Purging/m-p/3930016

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Acne-Prone-Skin/Anyone-has-horrible-purging-breakouts-using-Drunk-Elephant/m-p/2787767

[alynicmol]

Hi Kim! I realize this post is a year old but I'm doing research on people's reaction to TLC serum and I was wondering how log your skin purged for before you saw results? I'm not sure if that is what is happening to my skin so I'm trying to figure it out!

[Anonymous]

Thx for your reply. Don't know which of them was the worst for me or if it was simply all of them combined. I posted a review on their actual website on my experience and shockingly they deleted it within the hour! Any company who does that I find to be very shady and dishonest. Not okay to delete someone's honest review that could potentially help others.

[AnnaCassandra]

It's pretty shady of them to delete your review, I agree. And sorry I know this is kind of an old post- but you said you were using the cleanser, c-firma, framboos and the SPF- but I don't see any mention of a moisturizer/ hydrator, this might have been the cause of your breakouts not necessarily an ingredient in any of the products. The SPF is more of a barrier cream than a moisturizer and the c-firma, framboos and cleanser can all have a fairly drying effect on your skin which could have sent your skin into oil overdrive- I had this happen to me personally when I tried pro-active and any other time I tried something geared towards Acne-prone or "oily" skin. I just started using DE products about a week ago so while I'm happy so far, I can definitely see how they could dry out and potentially inflame sensitive skin if you're not using the moisturizers and hydrating products. I'm also not really on board with their "skin is skin" mentality- to a certain extent they are right in that what we put on our skin is probably causing a lot of the issues we have and that a simple cleans-treat-moisturize routine can work wonders for skin issues, but there are also certain issues that are genetically determined that we have no control over- like pore size- I don't believe there is anything I can apply to my skin that's going to make my pores disappear.