Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Review: Don’t Buy Before You Read This!

Expert rating: stars-icon     By Natalie K (Senior Reviewer) January 12, 2024       Advertising Disclosure

User Rating:

32%

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What is it?

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro is an anti-aging formula that is used to moisturize users’ skin while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

There are a few different formulations that the product comes in, from a traditional cream to a roll-on stick to a leave-on night mask. They all have the same basic ingredients that are designed to even skin tone, improve texture and tone, and help reduce redness and inflammation, regardless of how they are applied to the skin.

Our panel of beauty and wellness experts believes that Kremotex is the best skin care product on the market. It is directly designed to improve skin health at the core, so that it looks more beautiful naturally and safely. Click here to see what made our team score them so highly during the testing.

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Ingredients and Side Effects
Pro-Retinol Hydrolyzed Rice Protein Butyrospermum Parkii Butter
C13-14 Isoparaffin Sodium Hydroxide Benzyl Alcohol

Pro-Retinol: A type of concentrated vitamin A. Vitamin A is a key nutrient for proper biofunctionality in general, however it is especially key to the skin formation process.

Pro-retinol is thought to accelerate this process, although there is no data showing that it is any more effective than a general vitamin A supplement. Vitamin A is safe for the vast majority of humans when consumed in reasonable doses and it is not thought to have any negative side effects of note.

Hydrolyzed Rice Protein: An extract taken from the common grain that is thought to be high in cationic and anionic amino acids. It is believed to also help with skin moisturization, however the data regarding this application is somewhat lacking.

Rice-based products are generally relatively mild, but some individuals do have allergies or sensitivities to it, and those people should avoid products that contain rice proteins. Other than that there are few side effects that have been officially connected to rice proteins, but again there is not enough data to prove their safety conclusively.

Butyrospermum Parkii Butter: Another name for shea butter, a product of the oils taken from the pits of shea tree fruits. Shea butter is one of the most effective skin care products known to the industry.

Shea products are thought of so highly because it acts as an emollient, smoothing the skin and trapping hydration inside. Shea is also high in vitamin A, as well as E, F, and K. Its has been applied to the skin to help treat a number of conditions including:

  • Acne
  • Eczema
  • Insect bites
  • Itching
  • Rash
  • Scabies

It’s also a popular ingredient for its lack of side effects. There are very few people that react negatively to shea ingredients and it has no long-term consequences that users need to worry about.

C13-14 Isoparaffin: A petroleum derivative that is used as an emollient and thickening agent in many cosmetics products, despite all the controversy that has surrounded it in recent years.

C13-14 isoparaffin is, by itself, when processed perfectly, safe. However a study of products containing isoparaffins showed that the majority of the solutions were contaminated with carcinogenic impurities. The cosmetics database and EWG now both list C13-14 isoparaffin as a known toxin and may lead to cancer in some cases.

Our experts are not currently recommending products that contain C13-14 isoparaffin until there are more studies done that conclude the purifying process is revamped.

Sodium Hydroxide: Another name for lye, the caustic cleaning agent that was used as a skin whitener for a time in the 1800’s. Our panel of health and beauty experts are still surprised when it’s used in a modern skin care product although it does still happen from time to time.

Lye is extremely base on the pH scale, so much so that if pure lye contacts human skin it results in chemical burns and ulcerations. It used to be diluted and used as a skin bleaching agent, however it fell out of fashion as people realized that the bleaching effect was usually mottled and uneven, leaving the skin looking patchy and stained.

Today it is used to balance out the pH of skin care blends and as a color corrector, despite the fact that even diluted side effects that can be related to lye may include:

  • Cell death
  • Blindness
  • Neurological changes
  • Changes in genetic code
  • Cancer

Benzyl Alcohol: Another chemical that our team is surprised to still see in skin care blends. Benzyl belongs to a group of what’s known as simple alcohols – a group of products that disreputable companies use to trick consumers into believing that their products are more effective than they actually are. Simple alcohols are not to be confused with fatty alcohols, which are generally safe and beneficial for skin health products.

Simple alcohols make products absorb faster, so they look like they are having a powerful effect on the user’s skin. The downside is that the alcohol then evaporates, taking with it some of the moisture that was in the skin beforehand. Over time the skin gets more and more dehydrated and can become red, cracked, inflamed, and permanently damaged.

Follow this link to see how the top brands of skin care products stacked up against each other during our experts’ battery of clinical tests.

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Quality of Ingredients

In a world where Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro only uses shea butter, rice protein, and pro-retinol, we would probably be writing a very different review. If it were just those three ingredients we’d probably say that it seemed like a mildly effective if unremarkable skin cream product that is generally going to be safe for most users.

However Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro was apparently not satisfied with that, so they got greedy and added a bunch of cosmetic ingredients that may seem to initially make the product more effective than it actually is but in the long run do more damage to the skin than good.

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro has three ingredients that are on our “do not recommend” list, any one of which would have resulted in our team’s inability to endorse this product’s use for our readers. The fact that companies can still get away with using products like lye and simple alcohols is a testament to how little faith they have in the consumer’s ability to educate themselves about the products that they put in and on their bodies.

To see which skin care products make skin the stretchiest and most elastic, click here.

The Price and Quality of Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro is available in a number of forms from a variety of outlets. This is a sample of their prices and products:

  • 1, 1.7 oz Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Wrinkle Reducer + Moisturizer: $12.34
  • 1, 1.7 oz Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Deep Wrinkle Roller: $21.54
  • 1, 1.7 oz Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Night Cream: $11.09

These prices make Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro one of the least expensive products on the market, which may account for why they feel the need to use cheap, ineffective ingredients instead of higher quality ones.

Click here if you need information regarding the best brands of skin care products for unique skin types.

Business of Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro

Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro is part of the facial care line from cosmetics, hair care, and personal beauty products giant Garnier. They list their contact information online as:

Phone Number: Garnier does not choose to publish a telephone number online.

Address: PO Box 1010

Clark, NJ, 07066

Email: Garnier does not list an email address online, however they do have an electronic messaging feature through their website for the same purposes.

It should be noted that over the years Garnier has been involved in quite a few legal actions, including a recent class action lawsuit regarding the flammability of some of their products, which may have resulted in users’ hair being incinerated.

To learn which brands of skin care products were the best at increasing shine, reflectivity, and UV protection, click here.

Customer Opinions of Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro

There are literally hundreds of complaints online regarding the effects of Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro on users’ faces. Many are similar to these:

“I do NOT have sensitive skin, but this stuff tore me up! Do not use!”

“After about 15 minutes of applying this stuff it started hurting really bad. I ran and washed it off, but it left me with a nasty chemical burn that ended up scarring.”

“THIS IS THE WORST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER TRIED. BURNS THE SKIN. DO NOT USE.”

It should go without saying, but burning, redness, pain, and scarring are not the effect that quality skin creams should have on their users. There were plenty of more mild complaints as well, however those seemed insignificant given the frequency of reports of negative effects.

Follow this link to get access to our experts’ database of all the top skin care brands results from their third-party laboratory tests.

How Does Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Compare?
  • Product Name
  • User Rating
  • Good Company Reputation
  • Quality Ingredients
  • Money Back Guarantee
  • Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro
  • 32/100
Conclusion – Does Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro Work?

Our team has never encountered so many complaints of negative effects for a product as widely used as Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro. It is sad and disappointing that so many people have had their skin damaged and scarred by a product that they believed was going to help them.

Despite the exceptionally low price tag, there is no reason that anyone should use Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro as a skin care product. There will always be a safer, more effective option available, and although it may cost a couple dollars more we cannot encourage readers strongly enough to choose something other than Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro.

The product that our experts give their highest recommendation to is Kremotex. Its blend has been proven both safe and effective for all users. Click here to see why Kremotex is preferred by industry insiders.

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