Clinique 3-Step Skincare (After 1 week)

Hi fellow makeup fans!

Today I am going to be talking about the Clinique 3-Step Skincare system that they have. I bought mine in skin type 2 which is the dry combination with oily T-zone. It took me a while to figure out which skin type I was. I was confused by the fact that my T-zone was oily, but the rest of my face tended to be on the dry side until I started looking further into the Clinique 3-Step Skincare system. It made me realize that it was possible to have dry skin with some oil problem areas. I went out and bought the Clinique 3-Step Skincare system last Saturday, May 19, 2012. I paid $53.14 with tax for all three products. I got a 20% discount for signing up for a Carson's department store credit card, otherwise it would have been over $60. I brought it home and immediately started using it. I have been using it twice daily, the first sometime early in the day when I wake up and then second at night before going to bed. I must say that I am very impressed with what it has done in just about one week. After the second use my skin became very soft. I have had issues with large red looking pores on my cheek areas and sometimes my nose on the sides would get large red pores. It was very embarrassing. I will admit that I do have redness to my skin, especially around the cheek areas. It is not quite rosacea. I want to say that I never really had a redness problem until after I went down to Florida and got a very bad burn some few years ago. It seemed like after that I had redness as well as large pore issues.

My Skin Type:

Just to reiterate. According to the Clinique 3-Step Skincare system I have type 2 skin which is dry combination with an oily T-zone. To add other problems about my face skin is that I have large red pores near the cheeks and side of nose areas, and some redness to my face, especially the cheeks area, and I have had issues with dryness on my face where foundation would look cakey/flaky. I am thankful to say that besides the occasional pimple here or there I do not have any sort of acne problems. As a teenager I had very bad acne on my forehead, but since then I have not had any issues. I do have very sensitive skin, at least on my face.

How I use the product:

I am thinking in order to shock my skin I am going to use these products at maximum for two weeks, then see what happens after, and probably use less product or less often so it lasts longer. As I mentioned above I use it once when I get up and once before bed, so twice a day. With the facial liquid soap I use two pumps. It usually more than covers all of my face. With the liquid toner I usually turn it over into a cotton ball twice and hold it for about 5 seconds each. That usually gives me enough to cover my face. I use two pumps of the moisturizer. 

  

The Positives of this skincare system are:

• My face and cheeks feel soft and smooth rather than dry and rough. I am really liking the way my face feels. It feels like baby soft skin.
• My pores are still in the works, but so far have decreased in size, at least to the point of being able to look at my face to see more than just large pores staring back at me.I would even say that my face even looks smoother.
• As far as the redness is concerned I feel that it has brought down the redness somewhat. I am not going to say it took it completely away, but it evened it out. My redness is not the focal point when looking at my face. You look at it and say, "oh I notice some redness/imperfection," instead of, "what the heck happened to her face, she looks like a lobster." If my redness is caused by the very bad sunburn I had some few years ago then the toner might actually be stripping my face of the burn and turning it into a tan. Maybe one day I won't have this redness issue anymore which would be nice.
• I had 2 small pimples on the start of my nose between the eyebrows. They had started healing before I started this skincare system, but it seemed to have helped them get better faster. After a couple of days they were gone.

 The Negatives of this skincare system are:

• I did not realize how sensitive my skin actually was until I started using this skincare system. I am currently using Clinique's mild liquid facial soap and even that has irritated my skin some what. It is not as bad as it could be, but it is a bit uncomfortable. After the third use I had some pain on the right side of my cheek. I think it was a combination of the soap and the washcloth I was using that caused the irritation because when I don't use the washcloth I don't feel the burning/stinging. I was rubbing my face with the washcloth normally, I wasn't doing it very hard or anything. Now I use more of a dabbing motion. I have not experienced pain to that extent since switching from rubbing to dabbing. After I am done with this soap I might have to switch to their special extra mild soap. I will see what happens in week 2.
• I have this one spot on my face on my cheek near my nose where if I am going to get a pimple that is where I would usually get it. On Monday or Tuesday, a few days after starting the skincare system, I did notice that I had a pimple there. It seemed like a red bump. I tried to pop it, but it hurt too bad, and I couldn't get the right angle so I left it alone. Then on Wednesday I tried to pop it and it worked. There was a lot that came out. More than I have ever seen come out of me before. Apparently some more was still in there that I could not get out. I left it alone and continued with the face routine. I still have it, but it's a lot smaller and seems to be on it's way to healing. The Clinique website does say that if a few pimples occur within the 2 weeks that it is normal because it is the product working and getting things that are underneath the surface up and out. I guess we will see what happens in week 2 and I will try to update about that. 
• The smell of products, especially the mild liquid facial soap. It smells like a clean laboratory that had been disinfected. It's not an overbearing smell, but it's still there. Once you wash it off the smell goes away so it's not too bad. It could definitely be worse. Since I have dry skin my liquid toner is probably made up less of alcohol because alcohol tends to dry things out so there is a little bit of an alcohol smell to it, but mine is not overpowering. It doesn't bother me. From what I can tell the moisturizer does not have much of a smell, for me anyway. 
• The price of the products. Individually the prices are about twice the amount of drugstore products which isn't too bad, but when you buy all three products it really adds up quickly. Without my discount I would have paid about $65 with tax. With the discount I paid about $10 less, but that was a one time discount. At a month price of $65 it is pretty expensive, but if you can get it to last about 2 months then it may not be so bad. I definitely think with the liquid facial soap and liquid toner could be bought every two months. The moisturizer I'm not sure about yet. 

 

Rating:

Now I will rate this system on a 10 point scale on certain criteria. 0 being the worst and 10 being the best.

Overall effectiveness: ?

• I can't say yet

Would I buy this product again:

• Can't say yet

Price: 5/10

• I think it is fairly expensive

On pimples: 7/10

• I think this system is designed for people who don't have acne problems, they have a different 3-step for that, but for the occasional popups it works well

Smell: 9/10

• Unless someone is extremely sensitive to smell it should not be a bother

Product size: 7/10

• The product size for the liquid facial soap and toner (especially if use 1 pump which after the two weeks I might switch to or use once a day could last about 2 months)is good. The facial moisturizer is small and more expensive than the other two products. It lost some points for that.

Packaging: 8/10

• I like the packaging on the liquid soap because you can lock it to prevent it from being pumped when not using. I don't like the packaging of the liquid toner because it is really easy to spill it. I tend to be a bit clumsy though. It is kind of a cute idea that they made the moisturizer into a box, but if you don't keep the cap on then it doesn't have a stopper for the pump.

Sincerely,

Marina