If you are into the beauty scene you have probably heard the name Sunday Riley once or twice by now. Seems like every wide-eyed-youtuber has raved about the Luna Sleeping Night Oil over the past year, which adds speculation no doubt. When something is so heavily exposed it makes you think a PR team is working pretty damn hard on sending out freebies to gather hype.

Some people really love Sunday Riley products and some people, including myself, have been turned off by the price pint. Most products are reaching, if not past $100. That is some mother-fucking-aspirational pricing for sure. So when the ‘Power Couple‘* set came out this past holiday season, I wasn’t surprised that it had a hard time staying in stock. My curiosity got the better of my wallet and I grabbed one before they where OOS again.

The set includes .5 oz bottles of both the Luna Sleeping Night Oil and The Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment. I’ve been using both products pretty regularly over the last two months and I’m mostly impressed.

The Luna Sleeping Night Oil*is definitely my lesser favorite of the two, but I did find it somewhat effective. It’s nice to have a different type of Retinol in the mix, but I’ve had better results using RetAsphere by Kate Somerville, or just a good old strong Vitamin A like Rosehip Oil. I did see improvement in my pore size while using Luna, and some blurring of fine lines, but nothing drastic to see it as worth the price tag. I was also drawn to this stuff by the inclusion of Blue Tansy and Chamomile essential oils which are some of my favorites. Both are great for calming the skin and reducing redness. It’s got vitamins B, C, D & A, and I like the inclusion of Neroli which is both antiseptic and an emollient.

I do find it annoying that for such a high price the carrier oils in the product are rather cheap, (avocado and grape seed are the first ingredients), I would have liked the inclusion of starflower or even primrose oil as the top carriers. My other grip with this oil is the inclusion of dye. Both Chamomile and Blue Tansy are a gorgeous blue in essential oil forms, but the color would be much lighter with all the carriers oils, it’s purely a gimmick added to the product which just seems silly. I must say I liked the effect of the Luna oil best the nights I used it in conjunction with Good Genes. They seem to really enhance one another’s performance.

Let me just start out by saying I loved Good Genes*, it has earned the hype in my opinion and will be something I’ll shell out the cash for in the future. It really gave my hyperpigmentation a beat down: my skin was less congested, patchy and discolored on days I used it. The high concentration of Lactic acid does indeed plump the skin, and even out texture. And although it’s got a chemical exfoliant, the inclusion of Squalene and Licorice help calm and repair the skin.

Prickly Pear is one of the first ingredients, which is great to see because it is high in Omegas 6, and 9 and has high amino acids which means it helps with collagen production. It’s also awesome to see such a large amount of Blue Agave in Good Genes, which is a great skin healer, having been used for hundreds of years by the Aztecs. I have a feeling both Blue Agave and Prickly Pear are going to be some big trending ingredients in the years to come. On a superficial note, I really liked the lemongrass scent of the GG, it was reminiscent of a good cocktail. I’ve been using it at night, as well as occasionally layered under my makeup in the daytime, but I’ve laggard my use of Good Genes because the bottle was dwindling faster then I would like.

Some peeling did occur for me while using this duo, as well as a purging period I attribute to the retinol in Luna. If you’re a curious junky like myself this duo might be worth the splurge to satisfy your curiosity. It is still available at Sephora as of now, (here*) but if you’re tentative about the price, grab yourself a sample, at least of the Good Genes and let me know what you think!

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