Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Relief Cream

For the past few years, I've had a problem with frequent redness and splotchy blemishes on and around my cheeks. It wasn't, as far as I'm aware, rosacea and it never exceeded the realm of 'sort of inconvenient and aggravating' so I didn't see a dermatologist about it. I hated the way it looked if I didn't conceal it, which I often didn't because I didn't yet have the skill to not make it look cakey or even more splotchy. I tried all sorts of face washes and skin care routines, from stuff with salicylic acid and fruit goops to using nothing but olive oil. Nothing worked for me and I had resigned myself to always looking kind of awful.

Luckily for me, a few months ago I went on holiday with a mate of mine. One morning while I was putting on makeup and opining my stupid blotchy cheeks, she took pity on me and, being the lovely person she is, gave me some Clinique Redness Solutions cream. She'd bought it for her wedding in case of a redness emergency but hadn't ended up needing it. After the customary round of Oh-no-I-couldn'ts and No-really-I-insists, I was persuaded to take it home. I didn't really have any real hopes that it'd work, but at the very least it was free moisturiser and I had just run out. 

Photo from Clinique's website

I used it every morning for the next few days and didn't see much of a difference.  But the cream was indeed moisturising and tingled in a not-unpleasant way, so despite still being as rosy as Jack Frost's girlfriend, I continued using it.  And...

Somewhere between day five and day nine, I looked in the mirror that morning and I realised I didn't look like I'd had a run in with a blush-crazy cosmetician. My cheeks were gloriously plain-old skin colour. And there were no irritated bumps! (Which upon reflection, I think may have been caused by dryness due to over-washing.) But, being my pessimistic self, I figured it might be a fluke and delayed celebrations until I'd had at least a few more days of clear cheeks.

Well, it's party time as my face has now been redness-free for a full month. That's 31 glorious days of not needing to slather on green-based concealer and being able to pop to the corner shop bare-faced without feeling like everyone is staring at me. I'm not exactly sure what this stuff is made of, possibly unicorn tears and hooves, but it is pure hammered-awesome. I use this every morning after washing my face and I don't need to use another moisturiser on top of it, except around my eyes as the directions say not to use it in the eye area. 

A tub of this is £37 for 50ml and despite the fact that I'm normally pretty averse to spending that much dosh on only one skin care item, I will definitely be buying this again when I run out. 

*Disclaimer: This item was given to me by a friend out of the goodness of her heart. She bought it with her own money. No one is paying me to review this, or any, product.