What is it?
Farsali Rose Gold Elixir (RGE) is facial oil made from rose hip oil with tiny gold flex suspended in the oil designed to hydrate the skin and give the skin a beautiful glow.
Prior to stumbling across this product on instagram, I honestly never heard of Farsali. This is one of those products that is #instafamous. So apparently youtuber Farah Dhuka had an array of beauty concern so her husband Sal Ali created this oil to address said issues. This product has been on the market for over a year now, but I’ve been happily living under a rock and didn’t come across the craze till this year. So it’s not a brand new product on the market, only new to me.
What the brand says it’s for:
The website lists a multitudes of uses: daily moisturizer, hydrating the lips, mixed in with foundation for glowy look, and to revive dried cream products.
“A fast absorbing, light-weight beauty oil. Infused with 24k gold, rosehip seed oil and pure botanicals.
Gold is a natural mineral used to help skin look visibly younger and radiant. Rosehip seed oil and pure botanicals moisturize the skin, so that complexion looks supple and youthful. Beneficial for all skin types.
It is widely known that products created with gold have many benefits on the skin. Among to various benefits, Gold slows collagen depletion and the breakdown of elastin to prevent sagging skin. It also stimulates cellular growth to regenerate healthy, firm skin cells and provide a visible tightening effect.”
Formulation
Ingredients listed: rose hip oil, pumpkin seed oil, 24 K gold, vitamin E, lemongrass oil, orange peel oil
Rose hip oil and pumpkin seed oil contains essential fatty acids to help regenerate skin cells and help repair damages skin tissue. It helps promote natural oil regeneration. Oil is important to help keep skin work its main function – a protective barrier, without it the skin becomes dry, can crack opening up an array of possible infections and diseases. Lemongrass oil has antiseptic and antibacterial benefits, it may be present to help prevent microbial growth in the product. Listed as the last ingredient, orange peel oil was probably added to give it a pleasant scent more than anything (generally ingredients list are listed from highest concentration to lowest concentration).
Vitamin E has anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidant properties helping neutralize free radicals (basically free radicals = signs of aging i.e. wrinkles and sun spots) and is also found in pumpkin seed oil. Gold also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties so it is often added to skincare as an anti-aging ingredient. In this case it also reflects light to give your skin that glow without being greasy. Gold however is known to be a contact allergen, so you should probably avoid this if you have sensitive skin or are known to be allergic to gold.
Looking at the ingredient list, I am pleased to see they’ve used minimal ingredients and not an array of chemicals to create the product and its all in plain English (don’t you just hate it when companies give you an ingredient list and you can’t pronounce 95%of them).
Packaging
The oil is stored in a sturdy, (what feels to be like a ceramic bottle) a glass bottle with a dropper. I like the feel of the bottle, and being opaque it can be sure it is protected from light and reduces the chances of it being oxidizing and loosing its potency. The packaging feels nice and luxe, the gold writing gives it a nice elegance and class to the product.
How to use:
I find you need to give the bottle a good shake, if you forget when you pull out the dropper all you get is oil and none of the gold flex (as the formulation doesn’t contain any suspending agents, the gold flex does settle.
I apply the contents of a full dropper into my hand and then apply to my face and neck in the morning (I like to use my other face oils at night).
Performance:
The oil easily absorbs into the skin, and you are not left with large flexes of gold glitter on your face. This is one of the few oils you can use as part of your morning routine, which I don’t generally recommend, especially if you’re an oily girl – or man as it can lead to your makeup slipping right off. However I find this oil gives you the hydration of oil but then a smooth enough canvas to go right in with make up.
The glowy look from the oil if your not going make up free doesn’t linger long, and then I find myself being back to normal as though I just moisturize with any moisturizer. That super hydration feel does not linger the same way other oils do either.
I can’t comment if it gives me a true glow under my make up, as I always go in with a liquid highlighter under my foundation and top with more powder formulation (yep I’m more of a strobing, highlighter kinda girl than contouring).
It does have a strong scent, the orange comes through quite strong but does give you this uplifting morning wake me up kind of feel – which I like, but if your not a fan of strong scents you might want to pass.
Value for money and availability:
Farsali RGE retails at $54 USD (about $72 AUD) on their website (they do provide shipping to Australia however with a $14 USD shipping fee that would take about 20 days to reach you). Instead, I picked my bottle up from BeautyBay (retailed for $99 AUD) when I had a 30% discount code, so it came down to about $69 with free shipping that came within a week (I happened to have made a large order that got me free expressed tracked shipping).
Its not stocked in stores at any Australian beauty shops, so unfortunately you can’t go in to have a test and feel for the product before shelling out said $72, which for most people kind of ridiculous, and you would be relying on a hell of a research and review in hopes that people are giving honest reviews and not jumping on the band wagon of all the craze.
Alternative Options:
The Gurelain L’Or comes to mind when I think of a similar product – both can be used as a radiance primer with 24K gold in the formulation and both provides added hydration to the skin. The feel of the products are completely different. Guerlain has a more water-based formulation and has a thin gel consistency instead of oil. Guerlain retails at $97 AUD at David Jones, but you can pick up a bottle at international online retailers at around $70 so it’s more readily available than Farsali RGE.
Warrant a repurchase?
Overall I like the oil, but after using for a week or so, I don’t think I can say I absolutely adore the product that I’m rushing out to buy back ups in case I run out (trust me – I have done that before with other products). By the time I finish this bottle, there will be something else in the same category that will catch my eye and I will give that product a go before pick up another bottle.
