Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2

I have been using this Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2 off and on since college, when my skin was much more oily and not dry combination as it is now. I picked the Lotion 2 over the Lotion 3 or 4 because, well, they scared me. Lotion 2 is chock full of alcohol as it is, with alcohol being the very first ingredient! Crazy, isn't it? This was the reason I stopped using it after going through a few bottles, first trying out the alcohol-free Mild Lotion for a while before losing interest in Clinique toners altogether. 

Coming to Taiwan, I knew I would be dealing with crazy humidity so I thought I'd give it another try. Let's just say I was quickly reminded of why I stopped using it in the first place. The moment it came out of the bottle, it reeked of alcohol. The menthol was overwhelming going on, and the alcohol burns wherever the skin surface is broken. To my surprise however, I actually kind of like it. Call me a masochist (or crazy), but in this weather, the tingling menthol mix with alcohol actually makes me feel like my skin is getting thoroughly cleansed. 

Perhaps the craziest part is that after Pond's Pore White Cleansing Oil and Rosette Cleansing Paste Kaidei Smooth, which would be double cleansing by some standards, the cotton still comes away a tad dirty, every time! I don't interpret this as failure on the cleansing oil or the foaming wash's part at all. Rather, I think it has something to do with Taipei's air quality, that microscopic dust particles just have their way of burying deep into your pores and I'm glad this Clarifying Lotion 2 is pulling them out each time. I guess no place is perfect, and as fun and awesome a place as Taipei, it just can't be good for you to live under a blanket of smog all your life. Even then, on that count Taiwan still loses the cake to several other countries, most notoriously, ahem, China.