REVIEW: Patanjali Saundarya Swarn Kanti Fairness Cream

Patanjali Saundarya Swarn Kanti Fairness Cream

An advanced blend of purified gold with natural oils, herbs, vitamins and fruit extracts. Provides visible fairness, even skin tone, reduces blemishes and dark spots. 

Swarn Kanti means golden glow in Sanskrit. After having launched a number of useful skin care products, I wondered why, in a nation and world ( a fair part of) obsessed with fairness, Patanjali had not introduced a fairness cream? I thought that they were probably discouraging the notion of fairness. But here they are with a fairness product that skips all levels of ordinary and is infused with the precious metal, Gold! Bam! There are so many fairness products already in the market. 99% of them are chemical based, and very few are herbal or ayurvedic composition. So, what did Patanjali need, apart from its brand name of course, to produce a fairness cream that not just sets it apart from the rest, but makes it superior? Gold, of course. They are here to cash in on the number one beauty product rage that sells no matter what - FAIRNESS!

Priced at INR 399, it is no ordinary price, and is pretty much on the expensive side. Especially when compared to the rest of the Patanjali products that are budget friendly. But with a product that incorporates gold, what else could one expect? I never think twice before going for a Patanjali product just because they are easy on the pocket, but this one compelled me to think twice. First, because it is expensive. Second, because it is a fairness cream. Not that I am crazy about fairness, but I just don't trust them anymore. They obviously don't help any fairness, but they don't even help to even skin out. But this one is by Patanjali. Probably it is different? Probably it will work? These were my thoughts before I plunged for it. 

The box and the jar

It comes in a white carton box and the jar itself is all golden in colour with a golden cap as well. It is much smaller than the box. It comes sitting in a padding inside the box, so don't be fooled by looking at the box. It is so tiny, it is hardly 2 inches in height. It is a 15 g product which is about half an ounce or a tablespoonful to be exact. So, you can imagine what a tiny little jar it is. 

The tiny jar that contains 15g of the product

The cap is a screw on type. The insides of the jar are white plastic. The cream itself is off white in colour. It doesn't shimmer, nor there is any glitter in to say that there is any gold in it. The cream melts into the skin and is quite a good moisturizer. 50% of the cream's composition is aloe vera, Aloe vera has very good moisturizing and healing properties. It also has wheat germ oil which is known for its deep nourishing and skin lightening properties, jojoba oil which is known to make skin super soft and supple, and chironji or Cuddapah almonds which are rich in vitamin E which helps to repair damaged skin, protect it from free radicals, and also lighten skin. These 3 oils combined make up just 6 % of the composition. It also has turmeric oil (1% of the composition) which is great to fight acne and reduce scars and blemishes. It has banana extract, and I love banana. It is a great skin conditioner and removes roughness of the skin and makes skin smooth and glowing. It is a wonder food, not just for the body but for beauty as well. It is quite a unique ingredient as I have never ever seen any other product containing banana extract before. It is present as just 1 % of the composition. It also has rhubarb, an astringent, licorice which is one of the best skin lightening agents, and manjistha which helps maintain skin's lustre and health. All these three ingredients are just 1.5% of the composition. So, you can see that the herbal ingredients in this fairness cream are just a fraction of the composition and even then they are mainly for skin softening and smoothening and not primarily for skin lightening. The base material is cream base, purified gold, vitamin B3, C, and E (keeps skin healthy, moisturized and glowing), fruit extracts (help skin glow and lighten tan), soya peptide, fragrance, diazolidinyl urea and IPBC (preservatives), water q.s.

White insides of the jar and the off white cream

I have been using this for at least two weeks, and I don't know how long I have to wait to see the "visible fairness". It is not even helping reduce discolouration or pigmentation on my face. I have few acne scars and they are still the same as they were before using this cream. I don't rely heavily on moisturizing creams on the face, so I don't really need this cream because that is the only thing that it is doing well. Even home remedies for skin lightening or sun tan/ pigmentation removing work much better than this over priced cream. Home remedies wont cost more than INR 50 or so per application (even the most indulging, luxe ones), but one single application of this cream will easily cost INR 60 if you are using just 2 grams of the product. In fact I am so unhappy with this product that I forget to use it. If you see results, you will be attracted to use it again and again, but if it does not work, who will keep on using it?

If you have had good results with this cream, do comment below. Who knows that it might work on some skin types?