Clarins Double Serum

It’s product review day!!! I’ve been using this for about 4 months or so now.

If you can’t tell, I went on a huge Clarins buying spree a few months ago. I’m not even done showing off what I got. Clarins is a French luxury skincare line. For French skincare that’s considered luxury its fairly affordable and also relatively new to the skincare world. I know which brand you’re thinking of, La Mer isn’t French it was started by an American physicist after a lab accident and was acquired by Estée Lauder, another American company, and La Prairie is actually Swiss. Clarins was founded in 1954 in the middle of the skincare boom that occurred after WWII. What made Clarins different than many skincare companies, is it wasn’t someone with a recipe from ‘my uncle in France’ that worked. The company was found by Jacques Courtin-Clarins who was a medical student who based his skincare line entirely on plants. This natural skincare approach is what really pushed me into its folds a few months ago as I decided to go a bit more plant based with my skincare routine.

Clarins Double Serum claims to revive radiance, visibly reduce wrinkles, promote skin firmness, visibly tighten pores, and hydrate and smooth.  So does it live up to the promise?

If you look at the ingredients list it is full of ingredients that are listed with the genus and species name. And it’s LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. Some of the signal words you’ll hear that other companies are pushing really hard is ‘squalane’ which Biossance has been pushing and I really like one of their moisturizers. There’s also Kiwi 🥝 fruit extract which has been finding it’s way in sheet masks and clay masks. There’s also Turmeric which has been used as an antioxidant in clay masks for years now and everyone has probably seen the turmeric shots at a health food store or a recipe at least one.

Odd ingredients:

• Banana Extract
• Mango LEAF Extract
• Java Tea extract, which is an herbal tea not from the same plant we get green, black, and white tea from
• Goji berry fruit extract
• Jania rubens – a red seaweed found in European waters.
• Edelwiess- cue anyone who likes the Sound of Music 🎶

Goji berries (or wolf berries) and seaweed have been used in skincare for eons in Asia. Goji berries and seaweed are packed with antioxidants and trace nutrients so are typically consumed through drink or food to create radiant skin. The oils that make up lipidic system are common moisturizers but they’re heavy.  Avocado oil can get rather heavy so those with severe acne issues, this might not work for you.  Thistle oil is also in this. I have zero clue what that is.  I work with thistle, mostly trying to kill it because by Oklahoma law I’m required To kill three different species of it so people freak out and kill all thistle in this state when they see it.  I didn’t even know thistle oil was a thing till I sat down to write this.  Some plants with milky sap like milk weeds and rag weeds produce compounds that are toxic to human and can induce rapid heart rates. I’m not worried about the amount in this product because you typically have to drink the sap directly.

Double Serum gets the name from having a two phase solution. You can see the oils from the outside of the packaging and the inside that is another system for second system. Clarins calls this a hydric + lipidic system. Water based + fat based. That’s solves

a lot of problems that could arise. Water and oil obviously don’t mix. In order to do that for skincare you add emulsifiers to it and some people are sensitivity to those chemicals. They can be rather harsh and in order to keep the oils in the water solution or vice versa you end up having to drop the oil content or the water content. This delivery system allows you to maximize that ratio Clarins was hoping to achieve without the need for emulsifiers thereby removing another chemical(s) from the ingredients list. Oils can also go rancid and that process is sped up in the presence of light and water. For example, you’re not suppose to store your butter on the counter top. The oils that are in this can degrade in sunlight, much the same way plastic gets brittle and degrades when left in the sun too long. When mixed with water bacteria will feed off the oil. By using a pump that helps to seal it from the air and the brown packaging decreases photodegredation.

The packaging is brilliant. You have two dosing options. Not going to lie I 💕 this a lot. A bigger pump or smaller pump. You just turn the dial and then press down. Problem with the pump system, it is strong. That serum will be forced between your fingers if you’re not careful. The exterior of the package is brown helping decrease the likelihood of photodegradation. The antioxidants in the hydric phase are in complete darkness and sealed from the air due to the pump meaning they stay active longer and increases the shelf life. For this product its 18 months.

Beware of the first time you use this. When starting a new Serum ALWAYS avoid the corners of your lip. The product gets bound in that little area and you look like you’ve got a cold sore. It isn’t the best of looks. I know this and still it happened to me when I changed to this serum for weeks. The perk of that is that I know my skin is turning over more quickly. Retinol did the exact same thing to me when I added that and retinol increases cell turnover rate.

So for the claims. Did it

• Revive Radiance?  Yes
• Visibily reduce wrinkles?  NA, I still don’t have wrinkles so I guess that’s a plus
• Promote skin firmness?  Yes, after a month my skin was visibly tighter
• Visibily tighten pores?  Big fat no.  And my pores are huge.  There’s plenty for them to be decreased.
• Hydrate and smooth skin?  This I feel was also a yes.  It feels like my skin is 5 years younger or so.  I don’t have teenage skin and to be honest I don’t want it.  But it does feel more supple and feminine even though I’ve spent more time outside this summer than the past few combined.

Final Thoughts: I really like this.  I bought the smaller size because I always worry about using the entire product within the expiration time with plant-based skincare systems.  But after seeing the packaging up close and using it I don’t think I’m going to have a problem with the larger size.  Price wise its in line with other luxury brands.  A 1.0 oz bottle is $89.00 whereas the 1.6 oz bottle is $122.00. Compared with Lancôme Genifique, Lancôme is $78 for 1.0 oz and $105.00 for 1.7 oz. Lancôme Genifique also comes in 2.5 and 3.4 oz sizes.  I do have a huge problem with the Lancôme line but that’s for a separate post.

Who else has used this one?  I know it’s been on the market for awhile and has been reviewed before.  Sound off and let me hear how you like it.  Did you get the dreaded lip irritation?  It’s the worst thing about changing to a more powerful skincare regime.