Then I saw my face... but I'm not quite a believer.

I was sent several samples of Vichy Idealia Life Serum from Crowdtap to use and share with friends. According to Vichy's website, the Idealia Life Serum is  "Vichy's first treatment to combat behavioral skin aging. In just 8 days, skin quality is transformed--tone is illuminated, pores are visibly refined, skin is moisturized and complexion is more youthful-looking."

The idea is simple; This is from Crowdtap's website "For 8 days, Crowdtap challenges you to live your life to the fullest--eat that 2nd piece of cake, pull an all-nighter, even have that extra drink. Just use Idéalia Life Serum twice daily to see your skin quality transform. You have Vichy’s #LifeproofSkin assurance that you’ll still see a transformation in skin quality in 8 days. And the best part? You get to include your friends in the challenge, too. As one of Idéalia’s biggest fans, you’ve also received 5 additional sampling sets to share with your friends." 

I used the samples and distributed them amongst my friends and family. We (almost) all had similar results....in that we didn't see much by way of results.  The general consensus was that the Vichy Idealia Life Serum is a great moisturizer.  We all enjoyed the fragrance of roses, and thought the pink sparkly minerals made it look pretty. However, no one experienced such a dramatic changes as refined pores, or dark spots fading.  I will let the pictures do the talking. 

This is me, age 33.  I have quite large pores across my nose and cheeks.  I did not see any difference in the size of my pores.  I quite liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum as a moisturizer, my skin does feel soft and I did notice far less dry flaky areas, but I was disappointed in the lack of pore refining. 

This is my friend S, age 57. She suffers from dry skin as well.  She liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum as a daily lotion, and also remarked on a noticeable difference in the feel of her skin. She said "My face feels 'wetter' but in a good way.  I don't feel the itchy dryness in the middle of the day like I used to.  I don't notice any difference in appearing younger though, darn it!" 

This is my little sister, L, age 21.  She actually thinks the Vichy Idealia Life Serum caused her to break out.  Over the course of the 8 days, her face became more and more splotchy and itchy.  She said "I didn't see any remarkable improvement, actually, I broke out worse and worse. As soon as I stopped using it, my face calmed down and the breakout stopped." 

This is my bestie, M, age 32.  She had the opposite reaction, in that she started out with a break out and saw it clear up as the days went on.  She was actually the most impressed with the results, saying "I really loved the Vichy Idealia Life Serum. I felt that it did what it said it would do." 

This is my friend, L, age 20. She started out with pretty darned near perfect skin, and stayed that way throughout the sampling.  She didn't have much to say one way or the other, she liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum fine, but since she didn't have much to improve on, her opinion wasn't strong either way. 

Finally, this is my "adopted mom" C, age 62. She only used the Vichy Idealia Life Serum once and had a severe allergic reaction.  She is very allergic to lavender, and while that was not listed as an ingredient, it might have snuck in there. She was not able to continue the sampling, as her face burned and was extremely painful. 

Overall, my friends and I were not overwhelmed by this product. We generally liked it just fine, and felt that it was a good product, but not necessarily amazing or life changing. Taking a survey amongst my samplers, no one was planning to purchase Vichy Idealia Life Serum in the immediate future.