I'm always looking out for a great new antioxidant or Vitamin C serum. Clinique's new Fresh Pressed Daily Booster With Pure Vitamin C 10% seemed interesting. Details per Clinique:
What It Is
Unique de-aging Booster harnesses the full power of pure, fresh Vitamin C at our highest concentration to brighten, even and retexturize skin.
What It Is Formulated To Do
Just like your morning fresh-pressed juice or vitamin helps you stay healthy on the inside, this super-potent Booster was designed as a daily supplement to visibly rejuvenate skin from the outside—and a simple, seamless way to reinvigorate your de-aging routine without changing a thing. Simply mix 2 drops with your moisturizer AM & PM.
What Else You Need to Know
Fresh means powerful. Pure Vitamin C naturally degrades when exposed to oxygen, so it's most powerful when fresh. Stay-fresh packaging isolates the pure Vitamin C until activation, maintaining its freshness and full power for maximum results.
The packaging is unique. There's a rubber bulb you depress to release the Vitamin C powder into the solution to activate. Shake well for 15 seconds and again before every use. You also use the bulb to press and release the serum into your hand. You use two drops AM and PM. Add it to your normal serum or moisturizer to boost it with antioxidant Vitamin C. The tube is a 0.3 oz size for $19.50 or you can get 4 tubes for $76.50.
The serum is a lightweight liquid with a citrus scent like oranges-as expected. I felt no stinging or irritation from use. Of note: For full potency, use within 7 days then discard. Note: once activated, Booster retains full power for 7 days but may darken due to normal Vitamin C oxidation. This doesn't appear on a lot of sites selling it and I noticed it on the package. The Fresh Pressed Booster contains ascorbic acid which is the least stable version of Vitamin C. It works extremely well, but it oxidizes quickly. I'm going to paste a snippet from Deciem.com that explains this very well:
The best property of any powerful antioxidant is also its worst property—it oxidizes. Basically, antioxidants bind to free “radicals” of oxygen so that your cell's don’t. The problem is that they may bind to oxygen in the bottle before you even buy any product claiming to contain antioxidants. And since Vitamin C has a very strong ability to bind to free radicals of oxygen, as soon as it’s dissolved in water, it starts to oxidize and change the colour of the solution (from clear to slight orange and later to dark orange). When this change happens, two things occur: 1) the activity of Vitamin C becomes disabled and 2) far worse, the “antioxidant” formulation actually turns into a “pro-oxidant” formulation. Many clinical skincare brands have filed patents that claims to stabilize Vitamin C in water and many have fought amongst themselves on whether or not they have breached each other’s patents. These patents and fights are simply meaningless because these respective formulations continue to show oxidation and change colour, while consumers believe that since there is a patent, this colour change might be OK. A patent grant does not verify that the function described actually works—a patent is not a validation of a discovery; it is simply an exclusivity to a position claim. Very simply, if a Vitamin C formula turns colour, the Vitamin C is oxidized and the formula becomes potentially damaging to the skin.
So does this work? Yes. I noticed a visible reduction in discolorations and a more even tone in my skin after one week. It was easy and even fun and different to use. My only gripe with this is the 7 day lasting of the product once activated. I used 2 drops on my face and 2 drops on my neck AM and PM everyday to see how long it would last. I was hoping it would die and run out at 7 days. It kept going and lasted about two weeks. While that's nice it lasted, I felt if the product is no longer as potent and even recommended to use for only 7 days once activated, it should run out at 7 days. So a smaller package at a cheaper price needs to be done to make this something I would use on a regular basis. Buying a $19.50/week Vitamin C serum is pricey. Now, if you only plan on doing this once maybe after summertime damage and a few times a year, might be worth it for you. I don't think it's priced for a daily use product. It did work well and is worth trying if you want a fast way to brighten your skin.
Ingredients
water\aqua\eau [] ascorbic acid [] glycerin [] dimethicone [] squalane [] butylene glycol [] dipropylene glycol [] acetyl glucosamine [] cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract [] hordeum vulgare (barley) extract\extrait d'orge [] morus nigra (mulberry) root extract [] molasses extract\saccharum officinarum\extrait de mélasse [] laminaria digitata extract [] scutellaria baicalensis root extract [] acetyl hexapeptide-8 [] vitis vinifera (grape) fruit extract [] algae extract [] palmitoyl hexapeptide-12 [] palmitoyl tripeptide-1 [] palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 [] alcaligenes polysaccharides [] caffeine [] sucrose [] whey protein\lactis protein\protéine du petit-lait [] betaine [] salicylic acid [] glycine soja (soybean) protein [] sodium hyaluronate [] caprylyl glycol [] sigesbeckia orientalis (st. paul's wort) extract [] bis-peg-18 methyl ether dimethyl silane [] propylene glycol dicaprate [] helianthus annuus (sunflower) seedcake [] allyl methacrylates crosspolymer [] carbomer [] glyceryl polymethacrylate [] tromethamine [] xanthan gum [] potassium sorbate [] peg-8 [] polysorbate 20 [] sodium citrate [] disodium edta [] phenoxyethanol
Hope they'll come in Greece soon along with the sunscreen.