Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator

I think that I finally have my spring skincare regime set in stone, Korres and Boscia (remember the black face gel that I reviewed last fall?  I have finally brought it out again!) will be ruling my skincare regime and I shouldn't really be needing new products until I begin self-tanning next month.  This is the last new skincare product that I will be trying for the next few weeks until my skin changes again for the summer weather.  Clinique's Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator is their newest facial moisturizer and is among one of their most hydrating.  Why this company choose to release this product going into the warm weather months is well beyond me since it would have been more appropriate for use in the cool weather months.  I received this product as a massive sample from one of my Sephora online orders, I recently ran out of night cream so I decided to try this sample and then purchase the full size product next fall if it worked out for me.

I used this product as a night cream, at this time of the year it is must too thick to wear during the day.  "Rich, oil-free cream-gel instantly rehydrates.  Skin stays comfortably plumped, even 24 hours after you put it on.  Daily use helps fortify and repair skin's moisture barrier to keep moisture in, environmental irritants out.  Better barrier, happier skin."  This product is only recommended for dry to very dry skin or skin that is very stressed out by climate change or recent air travel.  This product's recommended use for dry skin is once to twice a day or as needed to fight dry skin.  Otherwise, it is recommended to just as needed around climate change until skin returns to its normal hydration level.

This is one of the few Clinique moisturizers that I didn't love, this line has contained so many hits for me over the years that I actually just expected to love this product as much as I love the original formula.  The original is a gel product with a thick jelly texture that absorbs right into the skin without leaving a greasy residue on the skin.  This product has a thicker texture, closer to that of a balm than a gel or cream, I have to use very little of this product to hydrate my whole face.  You have to pay attention to the amount of this product that you apply to your face, it has the tendency to just sit on the skin if too much is applied at any one time.  The texture is nice and I like how well it hydrates but I just wasn't a big fan of it, I have used better products that provide the same hydration level and I would rebuy the original over this one.  This product doesn't moisturize all that much more than the original but the texture is harder to work with.  I prefer the original version of this product and would be much more likely to buy it than the new version.

I was very surprised that this product had a noticeable fragrance to it, Clinique's facial care products have always been fragrance-free in the past and that was the expectation that I had for this product.  My jar of this product had a strong, sharp chemical smell that I really dislike, I wonder if I got a bad jar of this product since Clinique makes only fragrance-free skincare.  Really disliked this aspect of the product, if I liked the texture enough to repurchase it I would have to make sure that my new jar doesn't have this smell to it. 

This is one of the few let-downs in the whole Clinique facial care line, as I already stated I typically love their facial skincare.  The texture of the product is nice but I prefer the original product's performance to this one.  The scent is what really did it in for me but I still wonder if I got a bad jar of the product...

photo courtesy of Clinique