Sunday Riley CEO Afterglow & Ice Moisturisers Review

Sunday Riley CEO Afterglow and Ice Review

We’ve got another two-in-one product review today, this time featuring Sunday Riley’s Hydration Heroes Moisturiser set which I picked up over Black Friday at Liberty. I’ve been a fan of Sunday Riley for years, but have always tried their serums and treatments, but not delved into their moisturisers so this little set had me hooked in to try some of the formulas from the brand.

I snagged this set for £20.40 during the black friday sales, which had a £40 value and contained a 15ml of the Sunday Riley CEO Afterglow and Ice Moisturisers. 15ml is a great size for me when trialling out a new product, it’s enough to see the effects and really give it a good few weeks of trial, but also not huge that I am potentially stuck working my way through a product I do not enjoy. The 2 15mls are available in trial sizes alone and do retail for £20 each, so I thought £20.40 for the two was a great deal.

  • Sunday Riley Hydration Heroes Set Review - Ice and CEO Afterglow Moisturisers
  • Sunday Riley Hydration Heroes Moisturiser Set Review - Ice and CEO Afterglow

To note with my review, my skin type used to be oily but dehydrated, but is now pretty balanced and can suffer during weather changes with periods of dehydration. When I was trying these out I thought my skin was in it’s normal, balanced state.

Sunday Riley CEO Afterglow Moisturiser Review

There are two similar products from Sunday Riley, CEO and CEO Afterglow. Both are Vitamin C based creams but it seems like the main difference between them is texture, with the CEO Afterglow being more of a gel cream texture.

I finished a moisturiser in December, and this was next on my dressing table to be picked up and trialled. This has a strong citrus scent, however a few times when I’ve worn this in bed, my partner has noted my face smelling like curry… personally – I just get the citrus notes, which make sense for a Vitamin C based cream.

The gel-cream texture of this applies nicely and spreads far, I find it gives the skin that faux-glow, when applied so it looks lovely on the skin on bare skin days. However, one thing I’ve noticed with this cream is that if my temperature rises a little, this really exits my pores in a way I’ve never really noticed with another moisturiser before, it’s almost like its melting out of my skin. For the most part, it’s not really an issue that I suffered with particularly in December in the cold, windy and wet UK, however I’d be hesitant to want to try this in a warm climate.

This with its lighter formula layers great with most serums that I’d tried it with at night time, but also in the daytime I was using it mostly alone and found that The CEO Afterglow mosturiser hydrated the skin well, however I didn’t really think that it was as brightening as I would like or expect from a Vitamin C based product or offer any additional effects such as plumping or more even complexion. But in that being said, Vitamin C isn’t an ingredient I’ve ever really noticed that my skin really positively reacts to/needs.

Key Ingredients in this are named for repairing signs of premature aging, attracting & binding water molecules for hydration and delivering anti-oxidants to the skin.

I liked this, I think it is nice enough and will be using it up until the end, however it’s not something I would choose to repurchase. For a moisturiser which for 50ml costs £60, I expect more than I got from this. If you’re on the fence of this and want a light moisturiser, live in a moderate climate and normally skin reacts positively to vitamin C, I’d say give it a try – but otherwise I’m saying to skip this one.

Sunday Riley Ice Moisturiser Review

Sunday Riley Ice Moisturiser Review

Out of the two moisturisers I was most excited to try Ice. Knowing it was a formula that highlighted Ceramides which my skin tends to absolutely love. I saved this until the New Year, and as I headed back to work on the 2nd, I cleansed my face and decided to crack this open for the first time.

Firstly the formula was thicker than I was expecting, I was expecting with the name for it to almost be more like a cooling gel cream formula that felt light on the skin, but it was quite the opposite and a very thick and almost balmy feeling cream. It goes a long way and you don’t need a lot of this at once as it spreads quite far when massaged onto the skin. I was also surprised as this was very heavily scented, and again – because of the name not in a way I would expect, with a heavy scent of sweet almonds which I associate more with baking than I do Ice!

I applied a healthy amount onto my skin and went downstairs and by the time I had made it to the living room, I found that my cheeks were very red and becoming quite uncomfortably hot. Looking in the mirror I could see that my skin was flaring up. I visited the ingredients to check, my known allergen is Lavender and Linalool (a blend of essential oils including lavender which if is included in high quantites will trigger too), neither of which were included in the formula, so I was unsure what had caused the reaction.

I decided to put the moisturiser down for a few days and revisit it to see whether it was a combination with the cleanser I had used, but the next two times I used it I also had the same reaction. The feeling lasted around 30 minutes or so and did eventually die down, however it is uncomfortable and isn’t something I want to keep repeating, so despite my initial excitement for the Sunday Riley Ice Moisturiser, it’s one I’m not going to be able to continue using.

The after effects on my skin, were nothing particularly notable in the 4 times I tried this, my skin felt moisturised however I did have some texture issues start appearing which are likely to have been reaction based.

I am going to try this on my body and see if I can at least get it used up from there, but will proceed carefully before slathering all over in case the reaction also occurs!


For me, the stars of the show so far for me from Sunday Riley are the Good Genes serum and the Luna Sleeping Face oil. So neither of these moisturisers are making my Sunday Riley hit list!

Have you tried either of these from Sunday Riley?

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Helpless Whilst Drying

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