Before the big beauty stores swore off questionable ingredients, Drunk Elephant avoided what they call the Suspicious 6 ingredients they believe cause skin issues in their products. The ingredients you’ll never find in DE products include: essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens, fragrances/dyes and SLS, sodium lauryl sulfate. The flip side of their no-ingredient claim is the quirky ingredient specialty. The Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer packaging proudly declares that it contains 9 Signal Peptides, including something called Pygmy Waterlily, a flowering plant I’ve never seen listed as an ingredient in any another beauty product. If you’ve been intrigued with the Drunk Elephant brand but don’t want to shell out $68 for a face cream, there might be another brand worth exploring. SkinSkool declared Acure Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream a 91% match. It also costs less than $20 bucks and works really well. So how do these two stack up? We compared Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer to Acure Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream to help you decide. Here at Parade.com, we’re all about sharing products we love with our audience. When you make a purchase on an item seen on this page, we may earn a commission, however all picks are independently chosen unless otherwise mentioned.
Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer
Price: $68 The benefits:
Nine peptides in one cream. In other words, Protini is packed with the proteins necessary for new skin growth.Vegan, cruelty-free and free of most harmful ingredients. While many companies pay lip service to creating cleaner beauty products, the Drunk Elephant brand is built on cleaner, bunny-approved products that are gentler on your skin.A results-driven product. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t rave about how glowy their skin is after using Protini.
The tryout: With over 4,000 reviews on Sephora and an astounding 284.9K likes, this is a much-beloved product. The premise is that Protini is loaded with peptides otherwise known as the proteins necessary to keep skin healthy. It’s also said to bind moisture to skin so there’s a constant softening effect going on. I decided to try Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer as both a day cream and a night cream. I slathered it on after a shower and also right before bed. I used alone and also on top of serums and with eye creams. I tapped it in gently, used overly generously and in general, tried to find ways to replace my regular treatments with this one. The takeaways: My skin is hypersensitive, so despite trying every skincare product under the sun, I’m always happiest when using something that’s extra gentle, and Protini didn’t disappoint. It left my skin the slightest bit tacky to the touch, but also provided a very subtle glow, as if I was using a highlighter or luminizer. Though it has a slightly thick texture, the formulation is light, so more gel-like than heavy cream.
Acure Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream
Price: Varies, but under $20 The benefits:
Even if you know nothing about product labels, you’ll be impressed with the list of peptides on this one… I counted nine—along with extremely gentle ingredients.Acure is an American-family-owned-and-operated beauty business committed to sustainability. What’s not to love?In a word: texture. Unlike most heavy, skin-clogging night creams, this one feels lighter but provides intensive moisture.
The tryout: Since I’m prone to skin allergies when using new products, I was worried that this might cause me to break out. It didn’t. But it also didn’t moisturize quite as well as the Protini. Then I realized that with the weather getting colder, the heat was on indoors and was drying out my skin. I tried using it again after keeping the humidifier on overnight so the Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream could do its thing. It worked, but I can’t say that my skin felt deeply hydrated—more like soft enough, but not dewy. The takeaways: If your skin is parched right now, it’s possible that neither of these products will add as much moisture as you need. So while this might make for a great daytime cream, the Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream just wasn’t intensive enough for me, at least this time of year. I’m thinking this would be a great mask if I ever get on an airplane again, or a nice night cream for summer when I want something a bit lighter but still have to be mindful of the dry air due to air conditioning The verdict: Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a tie! To settle this one I actually used Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer on half of my face and the Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream on the other half. I saw no marked difference in the morning, though I’m convinced the Drunk Elephant half did have a bit more glow. I’m just not sure if it was worth the extra $48. P.S. Want to try some fabulous Drunk Elephant products on the cheap? Sephora has an awesome skincare set called Dewy: The Polypeptide Kit with some of the line’s top sellers for every skin type. ($75, $108.00 value at Sephora.com) Next up, how does the Wolf Gourmet $595 Pro-Performance Blender stack up to NutriBullet’s $92 blender?
