The 11 Best Drunk Elephant Products We Tried and Loved
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Its extensive range of effective skincare, body, hair, and makeup products is always on our top shelves.
InStyle / Jaclyn Mastropasqua
While Drunk Elephant's colorful packaging and adorable designs may catch your eye, the beauty brand's commitment to high-quality, effective skincare products is what solidifies it as a staple among top shelves everywhere. Since its debut over a decade ago with only six products, the brand has expanded its line to touch every inch of the beauty space, including everything from face oils and bronzers to shampoos and body washes.
However, each product centers around the brand's core philosophy: "A troubleshooter for anyone who wants to solve an issue with their skin or just feels that their skin is not its healthy best," says Drunk Elephant founder Tiffany Masterson. Every item benefits users through its innovative formulas, and we went down a deep Drunk Elephant rabbit hole to uncover the best ones we won't ever retire from our beauty rotation.
Best Overall: Drunk Elephant Wonderwild Miracle Butter
What We Love
It’s incredibly lightweight and quickly sinks into skin without leaving a sticky residue behind.
What We Don’t Love
It feels a little greasy on very oily-prone skin.
Think of the Wonderwild Miracle Butter as a more luxe, far less sticky, version of Vaseline. As an occlusive — infused with ingredients like nourishing marula butter, soothing meadowfoam oil, and moisturizing cupuaçu and shea butters — it is a fantastic option for practicing slugging. Pro-tip: We like layering the Wonderwild Miracle Butter on top of our other serums and moisturizers to lock in hydration and make our other skincare products perform better. Plus, its unscented formula is suitable for all skin types, including sensitive ones. That said, we recommend those with very oily-prone skin work with smaller product amounts to avoid a greasy feel.
Key Ingredients: Marula butter, meadowfoam oil, and cupuaçu and shea butters | Size: 2 oz
Best for Redness : Drunk Elephant Beste No.9 Jelly Cleanser
What We Love
It works extremely well to remove face, eye, and lip makeup.
What We Don’t Love
It’s fully unscented — there’s not even a natural fragrance — so it’s not as invigorating as some face washes.
Even on our extremely reactive, redness-prone skin, the clear, non-sticky Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser feels incredibly gentle. Yet, it's still effective enough to remove our makeup, including stubborn waterproof eyeliner and lip stains without any stinging in the process. We're all for giving up a sweet-smelling fragrance in favor of this sensitive-skin-friendly formula, which taps a mild surfactant blend, alongside moisture-replenishing glycerin, and soothing cantaloupe fruit extract to cleanse and hydrate our complexions.
Key Ingredients: Glycerin, cantaloupe fruit extract, and a mild surfactant blend | Size: 5 oz
Best for Dry Skin : Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream
What We Love
It deeply hydrates and soothes skin.
What We Don’t Love
It can pill if you don’t let it dry down before layering over top of it.
The key behind this super buzzy Drunk Elephant moisturizer is its rich formula filled with plumping and firming signal peptides, which boost collagen production, according to NYC-based dermatologist Dr. Jaliman. Beyond that, the moisturizer includes skin-soothing pygmy waterlily stem cell extract, and anti-aging soybean folic acid ferment extract to help minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles over time. Overall, the gel-cream texture feels extremely lightweight and doesn't interfere with our other skincare and makeup as long as we allow it to fully dry before layering other products over it.
One of our favorite parts, however, is the application itself: The teal-lidded moisturizer features a press dispenser that reveals plenty of product per push (one full press is enough for our entire face and most of our necks) while keeping the rest of the formula airtight. Additionally, the dispenser area is slightly concave, designed specifically for cocktailing the cream with other serums.
Key Ingredients: Signal peptides, pygmy waterlily stem cell extract, and soybean folic acid ferment extract | Size: 1.69 oz
Best for Anti-Aging: Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Night Serum
What We Love
It effectively sloughs away dead skin cells, revealing brighter, smoother skin.
What We Don’t Love
Those with very sensitive skin may experience a little stinging.
Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Resurfacing Night Serum gently sloughs away built-up dead skin cells to reveal smoother, softer, clearer, younger-looking skin after every use. Alongside salicylic acid, the brand formulates the serums with chemical exfoliants, including glycolic, tartaric, lactic, and citric alpha hydroxy acids to achieve these instantaneous results. Rounding out the ingredient list is antioxidant-rich raspberry extract, which soothes the skin and prevents irritation. However, Dr. Jaliman says the serum is best for those with oily, acne-prone, and normal skin because the acids could irritate sensitive skin types and those with eczema.
Key Ingredients: Glycolic, tartaric, lactic, and citric acids | Size: 1 oz
Best for Wrinkles : Drunk Elephant A-Passioni Retinol Cream
What We Love
The formula uses vegan retinol alongside firming peptides to smooth away fine lines and wrinkles.
What We Don't Love
It's very potent.
After years of perfecting its formula, Drunk Elephant finally entered the over-the-counter retinol market with the A-Passioni Retinol Cream. The formula exfoliates the skin and reduces the appearance of crow's feet and marionette lines with one percent vegan retinol. Meanwhile, Vitamin F pumps skin full of fatty acids to plump out fine lines and wrinkles. “It also has peptides to stimulate collagen (production), and glycerin for hydration,” adds Dr. Jaliman.
However, even with its more moderate retinol concentration, the formula is pretty strong so we recommend very gradually incorporating it into your skincare routine.
Key Ingredients: Vegan retinol, peptides, and fatty acids | Size: 1 oz
Best Eye Cream: Drunk Elephant C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream
What We Love
It deeply hydrates the under-eye area and contains vitamin C to reveal a brighter visage.
What We Don’t Love
It dries up a bit in the dispenser between daily use.
We're constantly hunting down the best eye creams for dark circles, and with five forms of vitamin C at the helm, this lightweight eye cream addresses darkness and dullness under the eyes from all angles. What’s more, the cream refreshes the under-eye appearance with firming signal peptides and hydrating cucumber extract and glycerin. Beyond that, the lightweight texture blends effortlessly into the skin and never leaves a sticky, tacky residue in its wake.
Be aware that in between uses the formula can dry in the dispenser, which results in old product flaking off the tube when you use it next.
Key Ingredients: Vitamin C, peptides, cucumber extract | Size: 0.5 oz
Best for Acne-Prone Skin: Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial AHA + BHA Mask
What We Love
It reveals clinic-quality facial results that are smooth, even, and bright.
What We Don’t Love
Sensitive skin types may experience some redness after use.
Like the T.L.C. Glycolic Night Serum, the Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial AHA + BHA Mask is formulated with a blend of complexion-perfecting chemical exfoliants that clears away acne and evens out the skin tone. Our skin radiates with a bright, youthful glow with each once-a-week application and we often see our breakouts significantly diminished. Plus, we appreciate how it applies in a non-sticky, thin layer, making it comfortable to wear for 20 minutes before we rinse it off and reveal our stunning results.
However, it contains a stronger salicylic acid strength than most OTC products, which works wonders at unclogging pores but could trigger a reaction for those with sensitive or redness-prone skin.
Key Ingredients: Glycolic, tartaric, lactic, citric, and salicylic acids | Size: 1.69 oz
Best Hair Product: Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Happi Scalp Scrub
What We Love
It stimulates the scalp to remove built-up product and dead skin cells.
What We Don’t Love
It takes a bit of effort to rinse out of your hair.
Drunk Elephant formulates this popular scalp scrub with the same glycolic, tartaric, lactic, and citric acids we see throughout its T.L.C line. Except here, they gently loosen built-up product and dead skin cells from the scalp, promote blood flow circulation to stimulate hair growth, and help prevent dandruff. In turn, these ingredients boost volume by regulating oil production and removing debris that weighs down strands. Additionally, the scrub deeply hydrates dehydrated hair with fatty acid-rich mongongo oil to condition brittle , according to Dr. Jaliman.
To fully rinse the scrub out of your hair, you’ll want to spend a few extra minutes in the shower, though — it takes some effort to wash it fully from your mane, but the results are so worth it.
Key Ingredients: Glycolic, tartaric, lactic, and citric acids | Size: 6 oz
Best for Sensitive Skin : Drunk Elephant Kamili Cream Body Cleanser
What We Love
It has a gorgeous subtle almond scent we'd obsessed with.
What We Don’t Love
We use up a lot of product – fast.
This subtle almond-scented and creamy body wash leaves our skin clean, soft, and hydrated from head to toe. Not only does it smell similar to a delicious Parisian pastry, but more importantly “It’s a mild cleanser that doesn’t strip the skin, making it especially good for sensitive and dry skin,” says Dr. Jaliman. The lotion-to-foam formula works into a gorgeous lather and conditions skin with plant-based oils, while gentle surfactants cleanse dirt and other grime away. Needless to say, we use this body wash often, and plenty of it, so we hope the brand will consider making it in a larger bottle.
Key Ingredients: Passionfruit oil, amino acids, and a mild surfactant | Size: 8 oz.
Best for Rosacea: Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops
What We Love
The bronzing drops give skin a natural, tanned glow that doesn't upset our rosacea.
What We Don't Love
They feel a little sticky when you apply them to bare skin.
Practically anything can trigger our rosacea to flare up, so when we find a product that helps conceal our redness and soothes our angry skin, you better believe we're hanging on tight to it. These liquid bronzing drops are a skincare makeup hybrid, acting as an illuminating liquid bronzer that flushes our complexions with a natural-looking warmth from the golden tint. Meanwhile, its vitamin-rich formula calms the redness around our cheeks and a potent peptide blend leaves our skin looking plumper and refreshed. For the most part, the drops seamlessly melt into the skin, although we'd suggest mixing them with your moisturizer for the best results because the standalone texture is a little sticky.
Key Ingredients: Cocoa extract, peptide blend, vitamin D | Size: 1 oz
Best for Oily Skin: Drunk Elephant Bouncy Brightfacial
What We Love
Salicylic acid unclogs oily pores and clears away our acne while azelaic acid calms inflammation.
What We Don't Love
Layering it with thicker products causes some pilling.
So many products for oily skin strip it of its natural glow in an attempt to sop up shine, but the Bouncy Brightfacial mask illuminates, hydrates, and cleanses our skin with one ingenious formula. First, it contains one percent salicylic acid which tackles the culprits behind its oily appearance by unclogging the dirt, grit, and grime in our pores. The formula balances this beta-hydroxy-acid (BHA) with niacinamide, a powerful hydrating agent that also helps reduce excess sebum. Additionally, azelaic acid not only soothes the skin, combatting any redness, but the ingredient brightens dull complexions, giving our skin a fresh-from-a-facial look and feel.
Word to the wide: Give the product time to dry between layering other products or you could experience some pilling.
Key Ingredients: Azelaic acid, salicylic acid, niacinamide | Size: 1.69 oz
Your Questions, Answered
Is Drunk Elephant a clean brand?
Yes, Drunk Elephant formulates all of its products without what they call the “Suspicious Six”: Essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens, fragrances/dyes, and SLS. As a result, Drunk Elephant has earned Sephora’s Clean at Sephora seal.
That said, the brand doesn’t market itself as a clean brand. “Clean is not a regulated term and while we were the first brand to use it for marketing purposes in the beauty space, it is now used in a variety of scenarios that don’t all mean the same thing, so we don’t use it anymore,” Masterson says. “It’s confusing to the consumer in my opinion. (Instead) we use the term ‘biocompatible,’ which better describes Drunk Elephant. 'Biocompatible' means ‘not harmful to human tissue.’”
Is Drunk Elephant cruelty-free?
Yes, Drunk Elephant is Leaping Bunny-certified, meaning it doesn’t test ingredients or finished products on animals.
Why Shop With Us
Rebecca Norris has covered beauty for over eight years. She’s been a committed Drunk Elephant user for the past five. For this story, she referenced her own insights and reviews as well as those of shoppers to determine the best Drunk Elephant products of 2024. She also spoke with Drunk Elephant founder Tiffany Masterson as well as board-certified dermatologist Debra Jaliman, M.D., to determine what sets the brand apart.
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