Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief

Update Friday August 24, 2012.

After I finished up hubby's travel sized tube of Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel, I got him started on this GWP 0.5 oz./15mL jar of Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief. Hubby used to love this, and so did I. However, after the umpteenth GWP jar and a couple of full sizes (yes, despite my protest with the price tag I caved), we both got bored and branched out a bit to experiment. Fast forward a couple of years, we are ready to go back ^.^

Good stuff, I tell you. Very light but provides effective hydration. Absorbs very quickly and leaves behind no traces of itself, not even slight stickiness in this humid weather. No wonder hubby prefers it over everything else he's tried. I get bored easily though, so after this jar I will probably move on again.

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Original post Friday, April 10, 2009.

As promised, -taadaa!- the review for the Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief :)

This is a translucent pinkish gel-cream hydrator (see my post on Moisturizers VS. Hydrators) that can be used over or under moisturizer and/or makeup. It has a somewhat alcohol-y smell that was kind of off-putting, but I quickly got over this as the hydrator does its job rather well. In addition, the gel-cream texture is super light and very spreadable, so I never needed any more than a little dab. With this product, a little goes a loooong way indeed. I haven't tried it over my makeup and I don't think I will, but I have tried it both over and under my moisturizer, the Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream, and found it worked best over my moisturizer.


***Picture from Clinique USA.

In fact, the Clinique Moisture Surge is so wonderful over my moisturizer I think I will continue to use it whether or not my skin is dehydrated! When I tried it under my moisturizer, it made my otherwise semi-matte Allie Comfortable Sunscreen EX WaterTouch greasy after a few hours. But wrap your head around this - when I tried it over my moisturizer, it made the same semi-matte sunscreen completely matte! Don't bother asking me how, because I have absolutely no clue what the hell happened there! A chemical reaction, I guess, but holycrap, it was totally awesome!

I'm super excited now because the discovery of this hydrator and learning about moisturization versus hydration opened up brand new opportunities for me to explore and experiment with my skincare routines. Remember my complaints of "dryness" with past sunscreens? Now that I know the difference between dry and dehydrated skin, I'm not so sure anymore whether it was those sunscreens that caused my "dry" skin. I don't know if I will give Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection another chance, but I will definitely try Sofina Perfect UV again with this Clinique Moisture Surge hydrator to see if anything changes. And of course I will go back to Allie EX Perfect too. I need a substantive sunscreen anyway for the upcoming horridly humid summer because the current lovely EX WaterTouch version and its non-waterproof-ness won't cut it.

So, now the rant :) I love this Clinique Moisture Surge hydrator, yes. But will I buy its full size at retail? Hell no. Not at that price. This nifty little gel-cream is, rather unfortunately, waaaaaay too overpriced. According to Clinique USA, the 1.7 oz./50 mL jar is $34 and the 2.5 oz./75 mL jar is $46.50! They must think I'm stupid or something! That, or they think I'm rich, which I'm neither. At that price, hell, I think I'll just go drink my 8 glasses of water!

That said, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for GWP's that have this particular item :D The jar I'm using now is a deluxe sample size from a GWP, but then I've been using that tiny little jar for the past 3+ months and it's still half full! Yes, what I'm about to say sounds very ironic, but spend that $21.50 and get that GWP. Provided you like and will actually use whatever you bought, it's worth it because you get the item/s you buy plus whatever else in the GWP. It's a win-win situation, really. Clinique successfully suckered you into spending your money with their GWP's, but in return you get a good deal, right? Sounds fair to me :D