Something about me. I’m not that proactive in event. The reality is, all of the product launch event comes with a mini game or activity to spice up the overall agenda. You know, the kind of activity that gets your brain moving after a dull day at work. However, I’m not into such activity. Not because the organizers did a bad job in this matter but when I go to event, I’m getting away from the work so I want to just relax, mingle with my fellow friends, laugh, feel the product, learn about the product and go home happily. I don’t wanna crack my brain at all. Not even a bit!

So when it’s ‘game’ time, I usually slide down the chair so that I’m half hidden underneath the crowd. Let’s face it. I’m not creative if you ask me to create something middle of the day and I’m usually the unlucky one when it comes to contest. I attended the Dr. Brandt Do Not Age blogger event a few months ago and when it’s game time, I cringed. But when I found out that the game is crossword puzzle, for some odd reason I suddenly woke up from feeling miserable and all hyped up. Even I surprised myself. THIS, I’m interested! Long story cut short, the fastest person to finish the crossword puzzle get to win a full size bottle of Do Not Age with Dr. Brandt Transforming Pearl Serum worth RM499 and I won it. It’s not easy at all since the paper that was given to us was merely a A6 size (quarter of A4 paper) and the words are so small that one can go blind staring it. Again for some very odd reason, the words just popped out in front of my eyes.

Initially I didn’t want to review this serum because as you know, it’s very hard for me to gauge whether anti-aging product works on me due to the fact that I don’t have visible signs of aging. I was looking at the outer box for a while now, trying to make sense of what it claimed to do against the hefty price tag. I thought I might as well do a review on it before I ran out.

Here’s what interesting. Madonna love this serum and she’s a loyal customer of Dr. Brandt. She said “I love how tight my face feels after applying more than I probably should” in Harper’s Bazaar magazine. She made it sounds like it’s a botox with an instant lift! Transforming Pearl Serum is formulated to jump-start the skin’s metabolism and to restore strength as well as vitality. As most anti-aging product, this serum also promote and maintain younger looking skin but the focus point of Do Not Age range is, it prolonged it. If you look at the claims on the box, I think it’s rather a brave move to print it on the box.

To be honest with you, I wasn’t impressed with the packaging. For RM499 you do get a heavy glass bottle but what I really dislike is the way the silver pump top is packaged. I would rather that pump top is sealed or fixed so that it is unable to be open as we want to. On a side note, the silver part doesn’t feels like a cheap material and the clear cap closes down with a loud click even after the excessive opening and closing. Some product’s cap do get looser but not this one. I can still hold the cap while retrieving the bottle from my vanity table without dropping it.

Now the star of the product that sparkles all the interest, that also includes a high pitch excitement. Girls will always be girls eh? What’s interesting with Do Not Age with Dr. Brandt Transforming Pearl Serum is none other than the suspending pearls that are visibly displayed through the glass bottle body. The serum features Dr. Brandt’s exclusive Juvenessence®+ Complex that is encapsulated in DuoPearl technology. This technology is the result after taking five years of research and it is now with six patents. It’s a tedious and complex process as the pearls are produced one by one, combining lipo + hydrophases for maximum ingredient efficacy as well as preservation. These are the ingredients to unlock Juvenessence®+ Complex to reserve domino effect of cellular skin aging. Looks familiar to you? The same concept was once featured last year and it’s the Guerlain Meteorites Perles Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer. This type of ‘encapsulated pearls’ technology is not a stranger anymore nowadays. More and more brand uses the same concept for their product regardless skin care or cosmetics.

When I bought the Guerlain makeup primer previously, there are a few readers who are curious as to how do I get the pearls out. You have no idea how many people actually think that each pearl will be dispense out with the press of the pump. Sorry, it doesn’t work this way. I don’t think these fatty pearls will fit through the small lil pump hole 😀

These encapsulated pearls are suspending in a clear gel which are the active ingredients. When you press on the pump, the pearls will be crushed while making its way through the pump tube, and mixing itself with the clear gel. You will then get an even dose of application.

Since I already have the pearls out on the back of my hand, I can’t help but to pop it *evil*. First pearl popping shock the heck of me. It burst so loudly, splashing the content of the pearl all over my work table. Then I know I have to pop the second pearl. This time I was prepared. It is definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. These encapsulated DuoPearl Technology is quite sturdy. The same ‘pop’ with splashing happened. So yeah, I’ve concluded you CANNOT use the pearl alone 😀 . What a fun experiment to do!

Like I said earlier, you need an even dose of application each pump. This is the result of pearl crushed inside the tube and mixed with the clear gel. I usually just use one full pump. For someone who have combination oily skin, I feel that the gel is a little bit sticky for my liking. Although the amount of a pump isn’t really a lot, but it’s the stickiness that I don’t prefer. But, if you do have normal, dry or T-zone combination skin, your skin will love this.

I started using this the next day after having Botox treatment on my forehead. My forehead feels a bit sore on the night after Botox so I dare not touch my face. Although I was told that the Botox will only take effect after 48 hours, I’ve always assumed that Botox is immediately. I really do hate the wrinkles on my forehead so I took out the strongest anti-aging skin care I have – that is this Transforming Pearl Serum. This serum is afterall developed by the world renowned celebrity dermatologist and it helps to optimizes cell respiration, jump starts skin metabolism, erases the signs of skin aging and minimizes roughness and wrinkles. Exactly what I need to get rid of the forehead wrinkles FAST.

I can’t say much about how this serum help with the rest of my face because honestly speaking I can’t see any changes at all. I have combination oily skin so my skin is not in the dry state that it will crinkle up. I do expect the kind of instant face tightening like how Madonna described it but there was none. Let’s face it. I only used one pump and she’s using more than enough so I can’t expect the same result as hers isn’t it? Can’t blame the girl for hoping 😀 😀

Somehow, I do think that this serum does help with my forehead wrinkles. It helped to smoothen my forehead wrinkles a little bit even before the Botox kick start it’s effectiveness. I’ve been using this serum since then up until today to help me to maintain the smoothness and the prep my skin for the day when Botox starts to face away. Now that I can start to frown and lift my eyebrows a little bit, I used this serum heavily on my forehead and there was no wrinkles forming after I’m done with makeup. I may not be able to tell you it works for my face but I can tell you it does help with my forehead. That’s the only part of the face that have wrinkles 😀

The question is, would you spend RM499 to give this serum a try? I would probably not repurchase this for the face but if I can, I would get it for my forehead. I wonder how many pumps do I need to use in order to get the same effect as Madonna? Any idea? 😀

Disclaimer: Product won from mini crossword puzzle game at the blogger event.