Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel is a spot-treatment offering from one of the largest cosmetics companies around. It comes in a super tiny bottle but the company assures us it packs a punch against acne.
Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel Ingredients and Potency
This formula, which is strikingly similar to the Clinique Clarifying formula, includes the following ingredient list.
- Salicylic acid 1.0%
- Alcohol
- Witch hazel
- Acrylates/c10-30
- Alkyl acrylate crosspolymer
- Benzalkonium chloride
- Farnesyl acetate
- Panthenyl triacetate
- Farnesol
As you may have noticed, most of these ingredients are synthetic and chemically derived. This typically reduces the cost of production for the company but often misses out on many of the benefits of natural ingredients. In any case, we were surprised to see only a 1% concentration of salicylic acid considering this is intended to be a fast-acting spot-treatment. Ingredients like witch hazel are good and can help shrink skin cells, but alcohol always has a tendency to over-dry.
Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel Results
Generally those using this product report fairly good success though it has a lower satisfaction rate than other Clinique products.
Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel Side Effects and Safety
These ingredients are safe barring any allergies you may have. In general this does appear to be a formula that may dry out your skin too much and many users report redness after use. Luckily this is a clear solution and doesn’t include any synthetic dyes like the clarifying gel, which are FDA approved but can sometimes cause further irritation.
Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel Value and Guarantee
As mentioned earlier, we were somewhat surprised to see what isn’t really that powerful of a formula in a bottle that contains only half an ounce. Large companies tend to be very good at cutting costs and increasing their margins, so perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised, but for $14 it really isn’t that great of a deal. It may work just fine if you have only a mild acne problem every now and again, but won’t last you long if you’re using it a lot. The company does offer a guarantee on the product, but by the time you factor in shipping costs, you may end up paying about $14 just to ship it back and forth anyway.
