Drunk Elephant destroyed my skin

[CMRicher]

I recently decided to give the Drunk Elephant line a try after reading so many amazing reviews. Unfortunately, it made me break out LIKE CRAZYYYY!! I haven't seen my skin this bad since I was a teenager and I'm now 28. Any recommendations? I have sensitive acne-prone skin. 

[insiderjulie]

I purchased a travel size kit and i was so excited to try drunk elephant... i had gotten my microdermabrasion facial and then after one week i started using the drunk elephant products.. my skin slowly felt weird and started breaking out. it felt like i was sitting in the sun and my skin got rough, tight... almost two weeks using the product my eyes started peeling..later on that same exact day my neck had gotten severely itchy... i wake up the next day and my entire face has blotches of red rashes (burned like crazy) and my skin looked dry and it was peeling every where. nothing could help the pain. not even water.. i used nothing but water and raw aloe for two days and then my skin got back to normal. i started using drunk elephant again and my skin looks a lot better now and it doesnt burn anymore. i am not sure what caused my skin to react this way... I dont know if this is normal coming from drunk elephant .. is this a sign of it working?? anyways,  im going to finish my travel sizes and i wont be using this brand ever again.. BUTTTT i have to say..my skin is looking better now

[DDias808]

Unfortunately or fortunately i purchased the full size Vit C, i have the same experience.  Gets tight, i ve noticed dry patches by my inner eye, and breakouts of small whiteheads, i am old and never have had that kind ve breakout. I m not sure what is going on

[jessicabruno66]

Omg same for me so where did you purchase your raw aloe 

[livevelinn]

I always tell people you have to ease yourself into drunk elephant especially with some of their harsher products I would use once a week to start out until my skin got used to it

[khiles]

I started the trial size of the night serum with the Marula oil and I broke out terribly for the first week. Every morning I had new zits but the ones from the day before would be dried up. After the first week, I haven’t broken out and I think it is helping with my blackheads.

[SoraDixie]

Interesting!

[Charly1Btx]

Omg! I just bought their set from the Rouge event this morning! Now I'm scared to try it on! Should I return it?😱

[IttyxBittyxMe]

Try the products first. Everyone’s skin treats everything differently. Like I can’t use the Açaí Bum Bum Cream from Sol De Janeiro as it makes me itch like crazy but my friends love it! Try it for a week, see how it suits you, then go from there.

[MackyDeanna]

@Charly1Btx I agree with @blueviolet21 to try the products first. I have tried several of their products and love 3 of the 4. The one I don’t love didn’t cause a reaction. Hope this helps 🙂

[blueviolet21]

@Charly1Btx You have the option of returning after you try so my advice would be to try first. But I would also advise you not to try everything at once. Try one thing, give your skin time to adjust, then try another, and so on. Trying many things at once can overwhelm your skin (at least my skin, anyway!). That way, if you do react to something, you'll know what it was. Hopefully, you won't though. Just take it slow. Good luck 🙂 

[blueviolet21]

Which products did you try @CMRicher? Sorry to hear you had such bad luck with them. Sounds like it's best to give them a rest and just move on to something else as you have done. I hope your skin heals and you find something you like better!

If it helps you at all, I'll give you my experience: I have sensitive skin that is currently dry but I had cystic acne for several years in my late teens and early 20s. I've tried 4 Drunk Elephant products-- the C Firma, the TLC Glycolic, the Lala Cream, and the marula oil. I'll leave out the cream and oil from this and focus on the first two. I tried the vitamin C serum on its own for several months and didn't have a problem with it except that it made my neck, which is my most sensitive spot, itch a little bit. This resolved after a few months and I did get used to it. I started seeing great results too so I was quite happy. After this experience I thought I'd try TLC Glycolic. I did not like it. It was too strong for me, made my face burn, sting, and look bumpy and red. I shelved it for 4 months and used other acidic products. I tentatively tried it again after that time and discovered that I been able to essentially work up to using it with not as strong products and that I was no longer sensitive to it. For example, I used AHAs with 5% strength as opposed to the 12% strength that TLC had. That made me eventually able to handle TLC and I've been using it since. I'm not saying this is necessarily what happened to you-- you may totally want to chuck out whatever you reacted to and never touch it again!-- and there's a lot of great stuff at Sephora that you could probably happily use and get results from. I just thought it might be useful for you to hear my experience because I had quite a bad reaction initially from their night serum-- it was much too strong for me at first-- and now I use it every day and am very happy with the results I am getting from it.

[sahmed92]

Thanks for sharing! I had a bad reaction to DE Littles and because I was so excited to use them...of course I used every product as instructed to put on day and night. It took a month for my skin to recover after I simplified and stopped using DE. Things may have been different if I slowly started using more and more of the products week by week, so that’s a very good point.

[Shimriri]

Thank you for sharing your experience @blueviolet21

My experience with Tlc was similar to yours! I have dry sensitive skin.

Could you please tell me what AHA products (5%) you tried after TLC? 

How did you heal your skin (mine is burning)?

[pineappletea]

were you using the acids products? those are a bit harsh for my skin, but the cleansers and especially the retro whip cream were great at soothing my face eczema.

[CMRicher]

Thanks for your comment 🙂 I'm going to give my skin some rest and may try to re introduce DE one at a time once my skin is feeling a bit better!

[blueviolet21]

You're welcome and I hope your skin feels better soon!

[Anonymous]

I broke out the first week too but then I stopped using my other products that had fragrance and essential oils and the breakouts stopped completely.  I haven't looked back.  Drunk Elephant has completely changed my skin and highly recommend you buy the Littles kit and give it a chance. I tried so many different brands and I have finally found the one. 

[PetuniaSnaps]

the night serum made me break out at first but after the first week my skin got so much better. Maybe keep using it to get out of the purge period?