Odacité – Papaya Geranium (Pa+G) Serum Concentrate

What is it? A one month Pa+G serum/oil treatment for hyperpgimentation from the luxurious, organic skincare line, Odacité. The serum comes in a small 5 ml bottle, and is a concentrated treatment that targets and reduces brown spots, acne marks, preventing the formation of additional wrinkles and further pigmentation.

Price: $39/5 ml

Where to purchase? Odacité or The Detox Market.

Ingredients: Extremely short – only 3 oils (Papaya, Geranium and Lemon), Vitamin E for preservation I’d think.

While Papaya Oil gets to work on the hyper pigmentation and dissolving dead skin cells, Geranium and Lemon oil even out skin tone and encourage wrinkle reduction.

A very cool “Table of Pure Elements” leaflet is included with each serum – Reading this leaflet reminds me of my Chemistry textbooks in school for sure. Pa+G, just like other serums, has been assigned a unique “origin number” that explains the extraction method (cold pressed virgin), cultivation method (grown without chemicals), and the countries of origin (Papaya oil from Ecuador and Geranium from Egypt). The OCD in me simply loves this level of transparency.

Length of usage before review: 5 weeks, used twice daily (one drop every AM and PM). Completely out of this first bottle.

My experience: In all honestly, I held off on purchasing anything from Odacité for the longest time, due to various reasons, and reading the list below, I’m sure you’ll identify with some of these too –

• I had way too many face oils (and still do…problems of a hoarder) that were begging to be used up;
• Each blend in Serum Concentrate range usually contains only a couple of ingredients, and sometimes only one (for example – Vital Glow Wild Carrot Serum);
• The pricing was a little too steep for an extremely precious quantity (5ml) of oil;
• Besides, I’d mostly been spoilt rotten by green beauty brands that combined multiple ingredients into one bottle of magical elixir, and if I were to go the Odacité route, I’d need to purchase MANY such serums to target all my skin related issues.

So…it was hard to justify purchasing an extremely expensive serum concentrate that contained only 3 ingredients. But I did, because although the quantity provided is less, the upfront investment is not very high, and if it doesn’t work, there isn’t a need to repurchase. I read some amazing positive reviews online, from various green beauty bloggers, and I was out of Yuli’s Cell Perfecto PM and wanted to try something new that would tackle my leftover scars. And also, I knew I wouldn’t have any problem using up this bottle (without getting bored) because finishing 5 ml seems much less arduous than a 30 ml bottle (standard size for most face oils) – there’s something about adding an extra empty to the pile that gives me a tremendous sense of self achievement! A 30 ml bottle takes at least 3 months, and I am an extremely fickle minded consumer – Thanks to my huge stash, I end up rotating quite often.

So, did it work? In one word, Yes. And FAST. This serum concentrate gets right to work and the difference in scars is very noticeable. Within a week, I could see the dark scars left behind by random and hormonal acne lighten from purple to red. By week 3, I was struggling to identify some older scars.

There is an old scar on my right cheek that has distorted the skin around it to crepe like consistency – the only treatment that has yielded some improvement is this serum. The scar is barely noticeable, unless I look very closely.

The texture of the oil feels heavier, but since I stuck to combining only 1 drop with 2-3 drops of my regular face oil, it wasn’t that noticeable. For oilier skin types, it might make sense to just spot treat, which I did do a couple of times. Odacité also says that this serum can be used  on its own for a more concentrated treatment – I wanted to make this bottle last for as long as possible, which is why I stuck to combining it with my regular face oil.

The fragrance is definitely dominated by Geranium. Just beautiful and very relaxing. Whenever the hot water in the shower would hit my face, I could still smell the lingering fragrance.

One word of caution – Papaya Oil is very high in oleic content, and if you’re acne prone, then you might experience additional breakouts. I’d suggest starting off with 1 drop nightly and then ramping it up after your skin adjusts. Thankfully, this wasn’t an issue for me (combination/oily, acne prone). Also, due to the presence of lemon oil, I’d suggest using a sunscreen during AM and limiting sun exposure.

Final Recommendation: Definite purchase for normal, dry skin types. Oilier skin types would need to exercise some caution due to the thicker consistency. I loved using this oil so much that I have a backup ready. I am extremely excited about putting the second bottle to use on my left over scars and hyperpigmentation. There’s no escaping the fact that this is still an expensive product, but after using the serum continuously for more than a month and experiencing these amazing results, I can tell that a lot of thought and hard work has gone into sourcing only the best and highest quality oils out there. If you can afford it, definitely consider getting a bottle to start off with. Or, like me, ten more…yeah, I went a little crazy and bought nearly 10 different serum concentrates. They usually include small samples with purchases (like I received a sample of Rosehip +Ylang Ylang blend with this purchase) that allow you to explore more from their range before committing to a full sized purchase.

Have you tried anything from Odacité yet? What’s your favorite serum concentrate?