The Vital Sap Hydrating & Brightening Essence

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My first impression of The Healing Sap from Orveda was that it has lovely packaging. The glass bottle has nice weight to it and gives off a high-end feel. I also thought it was a nice touch that it came with its own cotton pads... until I tried to actually use them. They are useless & wholly unnecessary. The actual pads themselves are very thin, but that's not even the main issue. The aforementioned glass bottle is nice to look at, but functionally it's really hard to dispense any product, so trying to get enough product shaken out to soak an entire cotton pad takes FOREVER. And by the time you actually get the pad soaked, it's so flimsy that you can barely even swipe it across your face without it immediately rolling up into a soggy little wad. Next, the directions are super confusing. It says, "Use morning and evening, for 3 minutes (maximum) after the end of the cleansing routine and before a treatment routine. Once applied, complete with hand application and self-massage." What? Apply it for three minutes MAX and then... apply it some more by hand??? Whatever. After checking online to see if anyone else was having the same issues (spoiler: they were), I ended up ditching the pads and simply applied it with my fingertips. The texture is a little tacky to the touch, but it absorbs fairly quickly. My skin looked pretty nice after that first use, but it was all downhill from there. My skin started breaking out, first with one large pimple, then quickly joined by a few more ENORMOUS ones. I was hoping it was just a quick little purge, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. My continued use of the product seemed to only feed the pimple beasts more, and they nearly doubled in size with each passing day! Finally, I had to call it quits on this product for my skin's sake & for my own sanity. I don't know what "healing" was supposed to take place with this sap, but now these giant pimples are taking WEEKS to clear up & I'm having to "heal" from the utter distress using this product has caused. TLDR: Directions are confusing. Cotton pads are useless. Glass bottle is nice, but product is hard to dispense. Skin looked good immediately after first use, but experienced major breakouts with continued use. 100% would NOT recommend.