Product Review - Makari Night Cream

Makari's skin lightening line is relatively new (debuted about 4 or 5 years ago). It's popularity has slowly ascended throughout the years, and is quite well known through the various skin lightening communities on the internet.

One of the star products of Makari is their Night Cream. It is strong, but mild in comparison to the other products in the range (i.e. The Caviar Cream). After reading reviews about it, I decided to purchase it in January of 2006. I used the product from the span of January to early May of that year.

I should note that I actually used the Caviar Cream first, but it only ended up causing my skin to have awful breakouts, and really irritated the condition of my skin.

My experience with Makari Night Cream was a mixed one, but it definitley leans more toward the negative. It comes in an elegant looking jar, with a golden lid. To be honest, I could care less if the packaging is fancy looking, I'm more interested in the fact that the design can keep the product fresh for a longer period of time. I'm not a fan of creams/serums that come in jars due to the sanitary aspect. I know there are other ways to extract the product out instead of constantly dipping your fingertips in them (i.e. Q-tip, mini spatula) but I just don't like it. Also jar creams are constantly exposed to air which can overtime degrade the active ingredients in them.

The consistency of the product is thick. It is a night cream, so it usually is quite rich and emollient. One thing that I noticed was that the packaging stated the product was geared towards dry skin types. I must have not read that when I was in the process of purchasing it, because I most likely wouldn't of bought it if I knew that beforehand. My skintype is really oily.

Now in terms of results, letme just say that the product does indeed work. It does lighten the skin. It actually does a good job of lightening the skin due to the concentration of botanical extracts like licorice, mulberry and arbutin. i found my skin was getting really light, really fast. I start seeing results in the first 2 weeks of usage. At that time, I was not using retinoids so my cell turnover rate was slower than what it is now. I'm sure I would have seen even more rapid, intense results if I was using a retinoid along with Makari Night Cream.

So the product does work. The only problem is that the condition of my skin suffered. The product really is not designed for ANYONE that doesn't have dry, non-acneic skin. The product is not oil-free, has some silicones and has fragrance.Now, not all of these are necessarily problemtic ingredients for oily,normal, combination or acne-prone skin types - but the concentration of oils is quite high. You can feel it in the consistency of the product.

I started getting breakouts shortly after the second week of usage. While I was initially elated at the fact that my tan from my summer vacation from France was fading, and my skin was literally glowing, my acne just increased. As the months went on, I was getting depressed with the condition of my skin. In all honesty, what is the point of having bright, even toned, luminous skin when it is littered with acne?

The product proved to be too comedogenic and was clogging my pores too fast. I even tried to use exfoliators like microdermabrasion and peels to offset the acne but it wasn't enough. Finally by May of that year, I had enough and just stopped using the product on my face and neck. It took me about a full month to get my skin back to its clear, acne-free state.

In the end, I just used the leftover on my knees and elbows to correct some mild hyperpigmentation there. It lightened those areas well.

So...it's an interesting verdict. The Makari Night Cream without a doubt works. It has potent natural skin lighteners in there that do a decent job inhibiting melanin production. The problem is the inactives in the cream. They are very acne inducing and really can cause some serious damage (luckily I was wearing sunscreen everyday, or I probably would have ended up with lots of acne scars!). If you have dry skin that rarely ever gets pimples, I would recommend this product for you. It costs about $50.00 over at Amazon.com. It will get you to your goal skin tone for sure. But for anyone with normal, oily, combination or acne prone skin, the Makari Night Cream is only going to give your skin more problems.

Rating: 4.5/10

Ingredients:

Water, Hydrogenated Polysobutane, Hydrogenated Coco-Glycerides, Hydro-genated Coconut Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Avocado Oil, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Lauric Acid, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Propylene Glycol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Ammonium Dimethicone Copolyol Sulfate, Glycyrrhetinic Acid, Arbutin, Carrageenan, DMDM Hydantoin, Carrot Oil, Retinyl Propionate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Allantoin, Licorice Extract, Escin, Mulberry Root Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Fragrance