The most potent skincare potions usually get the revered label, “Sleep in a Bottle”. As someone who doesn’t get a lot of sleep on the regular, the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Intense Reset Concentrate (P4,800 for 20ml) promise of waking up to better skin certainly appealed to me. I especially I wondered how it could possibly improve on a routine that already included the iconic Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II (P4,200 for 30ml) which made my skin smooth and glowy despite being sick.

For the skincare-obsessed there are, shall we say, rites of passage: first active, first “luxury” product, first “exotic” ingredient, and, perhaps as a result of all those other firsts, first time you over-exfoliate. Despite having been warned by several PV articles and every last K-beauty blog I could find, that “first” recently happened to me: my oily, naturally “chok-chok” skin became dry as a bone almost overnight, causing my cheeks to flake and my skin (which is naturally as white and pale as paper) to look dull and almost…is it possible for skin to look brittle?