Preliminary Review: Clinique Age Defense BB Cream SPF30/PA+++

And we’re……baaaaaaaaaaaack! I’m still searching high and low for ksuan but I’m back from Outward Bound School Lumut and it was a blast! I’m thinking of doing a post on camping survival but will need to get my thoughts in order first. Hope all of you had a great weekend and here’s to a merry Monday ahead!

So I’m back at work, and the first thing I see at the KLCC concourse area is a huge Clinique roadshow to showcase their new Age Defense BB Cream SPF30/PA+++. Here’s how it looks like in its 40ml tube:

Clinique Age Defense BB Cream. Photo: Google.com

Since everyone is jumping on the BB bandwagon, I went along to see what Clinique had to offer. The first one I heard from was BRTC’s BB cream which is currently sold in Watsons (that must’ve been eons ago!), and now I hear from fellow bloggers about Lancome, MAC and Bobbi Brown’s offers which I hope to check out very soon.

The first time the SA applied it on me, it was quite chalky and a little dry. She then said, “Oh, it’s meant to be put on after moisturizer – see, let me put it on you and you can see it’s much smoother” and proceeded to do so. Personally I found the texture a tad hard to spread and sad to say, it’s only available in one color.

Despite most of the press releases, I don’t think the color looks as good in real life. By good I mean ‘neutral’. In the pictures, the color seems to be more beige-y but on me it was too fair with a gray-pink undertone. So not cool.

I think I’m rather disappointed at this initial stage, and I expressed my doubts with the SA. The SA mentioned that she put some on an Indonesian client whose “skin is much tanner, and after it oxidized it was OK”. I felt like she missed the point – I prefer not to have my foundations or powders oxidize to that extent – I don’t want to go around with a geisha face for an hour or so or have people notice my foundation.

Would I get it? I don’t think so, but I might see if I can get a sample to try for a week or so from my usual counter. At RM105.00 for 40ml, I think it’s a bit of a rip-off considering that I can get my foundations for cheaper, and if anything, it looks like I can’t skip moisturizer if the SA says that I need moisturizer to make it spread more smoothly. I thought BB creams were supposed to be all-in-one? I’m not sure about spending money on color that’s a little off and makes me look dull. Hmmm. I think this would be better as a make-up base, and since it has purported anti-aging properties, it may not do so much harm. Overall though, as much as I’m a Clinique fan and have been waiting eagerly for this, I gotta give this a huge ‘Meh’ and run along.

Edit: If you’re still interested in purchasing, my suggestion is to purchase it at our Clinique counters instead of StrawberryNET. I found out that it’s selling for a hefty RM142.00!! Oh dear.