One of the most popular products in the lotion category for many years has been Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion. The name has long been a source of amusement for cosmetic scientists. It really should have been called a Boringly Unoriginal Much Like All The Rest Moisturizing Lotion. It’s formulation was basically the most obvious thing any formulator would come up with when asked for a lotion. But that didn’t stop it becoming one of the most popular products on the shelf.

If success is measured by longevity then this was undoubtedly a success. It was around since the 1960s. It sold well and it worked well. The only people who were unhappy were those who think that innovation and creativity should be rewarded.

But everything has to be replaced eventually, and when you have a product that was formulated before the Beatles broke up it has to be time to have a look at it. Clinique have now reformulated this product and relaunched it, and have remained true to the brand heritage of doing the bleeding obvious by giving it a name which builds on awareness of the previous one. The new Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion is now called Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion Plus.

The new formulation is also remarkably similar to the old one. Urea and sodium hyaluronate have been added as new moisturising agents. The main oil is still mineral oil, but they have added in some petrolatum – a heavier grade of mineral oil. This would probably increase the moisturising effect somewhat. There are some nods in the direction of the modern desire for naturalness. We now see barley and cucumber extracts appearing further down the ingredient list – coupled with one I don’t recall seeing before: sunflower seedcake. It sounds like something you’d feed a budgie to me, but I dare say focus groups have been deployed to check that it meets with approval in the target market.

Parabens have been dropped in favour of a blend of preservatives that don’t have too bad an image. It is always a problem moving away from parabens in a big selling product. Whatever else we all think of them, they are undoubtedly the preservatives that give people with sensitive skin the least trouble. I think Clinique have chosen well with their replacement – though with the amount of consumer data they must have on skin reactions I’d be rather disappointed if they hadn’t. Nonetheless I imagine that as the new formulation rolls out there will be some people who had no problem before who will react to the new one. But they were in no win situation on this one given the level of animosity against parabens.

The addition that did surprise me was that they have added a colour. And this is no subtle tint. It is the colour of English custard. I am not sure what the thinking on this is, though it does make it easy to tell the new one from the old and signal that something has changed. That decision may not look so good in ten years time. Colours are one of those classes of ingredients that have a habit of getting themselves into trouble and attracting bad press.

So how does it perform? I haven’t given it an exhaustive test but it seems to be a pretty good moisturiser. It rubs in easily and quickly and has a quick effect. And having soaked in, I found the effect to be quite long lasting. Choice of a moisturiser is a very personal business and it depends hugely on the state of your skin and what you do with it. But I’d be happy with this as a daily moisturiser personally. They have gone in the direction of giving it a stronger moisturising effect than the old one. This makes sense in a number of ways. Regular users might well appreciate a bit of a stronger effect, and with an ageing population there is more dry skin around.

Apart from the name, there is nothing dramatically different about it. But it does the job and I can easily see it being on the shelves for as long as its successful predecessor.

Here is the ingredient list.

Water, Mineral Oil, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Stearic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate, Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Oil, Urea, Lanolin Alcohol, Triethanolamine, Hordeum Vulgare (Barley) Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seedcake, Propylene Glycol Dicaprate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Butylene Glycol, Pentylene Glycol, Trisodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 33.

For comparison here is the old ingredient list

Water Purified, Mineral Oil, Sesame Oil, Propylene Glycol, Tea Stearate, Gylceryl Stearate, Lanolin Alcohol, Petrolatum, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.









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