Review: Clinique Turnaround Concentrate

OK so I gave Clinique a bit of a smack with yesterday’s post on its BB cream. I do love this brand as they bring out a lot of winners such as Moisture Surge, DDMG/L, and my HG High Impact Mascara (you can check out our previous posts here), so I thought to balance it out today with a surefire Clinique winner – its Turnaround Concentrate.

Clinique Turnaround Concentrate. Picture: Google.com

With the byline “Visible Skin Renewer”, this serum has been a favorite of mine for the past two years. One of my colleagues first recommended it and it’s definitely one of my HG serums.

This serum is touted to unveil your “skin’s optimal radiance, making it brighter, even-toned and luminous. This is achieved through multi-level skin renewal process”. The formula itself is an “advanced cocktail of exfoliants to resurface skin for a brigher, more even appearance”. Best of all, it comes in an oil-free formula for those with oily skin concerns. Those with normal-dry concerns may not worry as well because the serum is always followed up with a moisturizer.

In a gist, this serum is meant to speed up your skin renewal process. With salicylic acid and rice bran extract as two of its key ingredients, I find this to be a very gentle exfoliator which left me with no red patches. It did however break me out a little bit as my skin was getting used to it but after a week the spots went away.

I use this in the mornings after DDMG (or any moisturizer will do), and complement at night with the EL ANR. As Estee and Clinique are from the same mother company, I have a sneaky feeling that Turnaround and EL’s Idealist are very similar in formulation and function. Then again, I have to check that out before boldly claiming anything! I’ve used Idealist but I prefer Turnaround as it has less of that silicone-y feeling whereas Idealist has heaps of it. Do note however that Turnaround does contain dimethicone which may react with some skin types.

So did it do the job?

Personally I felt that pairing it together with EL’s ANR really made a difference – in the day time my skin was working to slough off and grow new cells to hide my blemishes, and at night while at rest I was boosting the renewal cycle with ANR. I’m happy to report no side effects apart from the initial small breakouts (really, they were just tiny blocked pores) and the smooth feeling was excellent as a base for my moisturizer and make-up. I tend to buy the bigger pump bottle at 50ml for RM250.00 which is really expensive, but I use about half a pump so a little does go a long way. My skin was clearer with fewer dark scars and I don’t remember experiencing any giant zits like what I’m experiencing now (because I stopped using it haha).

The only gripe?

Packaging!!!! It’s so hard to get the last few pumps out, which stick obstinately at the bottom where no pump can reach. If you drop your bottle and get all the serum mixed up, you’ll have a hard time waiting for gravity to work its magic and bring it down where you can pump it all back again. Then again, a pump ensures better quantity control than a tube so I guess I’ll have to live with it for now.