My Expensive Mistake: Clarins Double Serum

The title says it all. I bought this serum for 70€ in November 2013 hoping for the best. I ordered it directly from www.clarins.com and to be fair, my Clarins package came three days after I made my online purchase.


My Clarins Haul

I only paid for the Double Serum but I got a lot of freebies! Mini tubes of their Eye Revive Beauty Flash, Multi-Active Serum, Vital Light Serum, One Step Gentle Cleanser plus a full sized perfumed soap, a10 ml tube of the Eye Contour Gel and a 30 ml Hydra Quench Cream.



Why did I try Clarins? First, because I wanted to try an anti-ageing serum that could control my skin's oiliness. Second, because as per my constant googling, Clarins products use plant-based ingredients, and I figured, that must be good right? Besides, it is Clarins, a popular french brand.
To learn more about the product's potent ingredients, I read this blog.

Of course, I checked the reviews of the Double Serum and found most to be positive. It was also a bonus to know while I was ordering my Double Serum that I could choose the samplers I'd get. As I have ran out of eye creams, my priority was to get the Eye Contour Gel.

The Double Serum is supposed to be both an anti-ageing and a brightening serum. It is called the Double Serum because it has an oily phase and a watery phase. These two phases are stored separately in the serum bottle. To use, pump out the bottle to get a slightly unmixed suspension of the oily phase and the watery phase of the serum. Then you mix them with your fingers, and tap the serum to the face.



I bought the serum in early November and used it twice a day. I thought to myself, I will be able to gauge its effectivity if by December before coming home to the Philippines, my skin is better. Well, what do you know, the first thing I did when I arrived in the Philippines was to go to my dermatologist to have those little pesky whiteheads on my entire t-zone treated! Even the derma remarked how come I got so many tiny whiteheads, when the past year, when I visited her, she remarked how my skin improved :-(

I also tested the Double Serum on my neck, just to convince myself that it was the serum, not my diet or any other stuff I placed in my face, that was causing those tiny eruptions. And true enough, on the second day of my serum application, small rash-like eruptions have appeared on my neck.

The only good thing that came out of my Clarins purchase is the Eye Contour Gel which I am still using until today. I do think it helps with the puffiness. If only it were not too expensive for an eye gel (34€ for a 20 ml tube), I might just consider purchasing once my 10 ml tube is used up.

So goodbye and good riddance to my Clarins Double Serum! I wanted it so much to work but it just isn't for me. Now I am back to the Infracyte Protocol Program recommended by the dermatologist. I think if I ever run wild again, itching to try other products, I will stick with Bioderma and Vichy (which I have used before when I ran out of Infracyte) and stop being swayed by rave reviews of expensive products.