marniemorgana review for Caffeine Eye Serum

I apologise in advance for comparing this to The Ordinary equivalent, but I bought this as a potential cheaper alternative to use. The reason for 2* is that in comparison to TO this formula does not sink in very well, I have very much tried to massage this in, but it seems to sit on top of my skin for quite some time. Then there is the colour, which is a little off putting, granted all caffeine serums (in my experience) have a beigey tint colour but this is full on brown and I’m sure that’s normal but it has you thinking like “is this out of date?” and that isn’t a pleasant experience. The packaging is also an issue to me, for one unlike TO you’re kind of restricted to using this as an eye serum because of the small amount of product you can get out and sometimes I like the refreshing sensation of putting caffeine all over sometimes but also, the product is a more runny and thin formulation in comparison to TO and the ball mechanism gets stuck on every application so you either get none or too much out and it’s just a bit of a faff. It’s also a bit scratchy. Another reason I have bought the product was the awesome soothing ingredient powerhouse (dare I say it topples TO) with green tea, collagen, cucumber and other plant extracts! But unlike TO I don’t get the instant cooling sensation or (near) instant depuff which is very disappointing and so far, I haven’t experienced much benefit and I was hoping for more. However, this is very reasonably priced and a contender for TO and I just wish it worked for me but may do for others. I still have half a tube left and will stop bye and update the review once finished and have also contacted Q+A to check on the quality of the product and packaging to see what they say! Update: they said they were sorry I wasn’t satisfied and they sent me a replacement within the week which is awesome and I’m super grateful but I’m having the same issues so either they have a batch problem or their quality expectations are just lower than mine.