Review: Clarins Vital Light Day Cream, Super Restorative Wake-Up Lotion

Your tired skin wants a quick pick me up, and there’s nothing more you’d like to do than transfer that energy from your giant pot of coffee directly to it.

Clarins’ new Super Restorative Wake-Up Lotion ($40) is a new product that complements the already existing Super Restorative Collection, and I can truly say that it energizes the skin in a way no Red Bull can.

The promise of the bottle: it can erase sleep marks, fine lines and puffiness since skin becomes thinner with age and cellular renewal slows down. Clearly more apropos for the 35+ crowd, this lotion gives your body a quick “wake up” call.

The lotion is light, and a bit thicker than a serum. Its key ingredients of green coffee extract (you got it, to re-energize the skin!), ginseng root, oat sugars (for skin tightening), hibiscus extract (for hydration and brightening) all combine to create a slightly fragranced lotion (yes, you really smell the fragrance, so if you’re not a fragrance kind of gal, this is not for you!).

I applied this lotion, as the bottle instructed, to a perfectly cleansed face and then followed it with the new Vital Light Day Cream. Let me tell you have miraculous this Day Cream is!

If your skin is really, really dry…I mean seriously dry, then you need Vital Light. The light peach-colored cream lives up to its full name which is the “anti-aging Illuminating Comfort Cream” that reminded me so much of the oldie but goodie Pond’s Cold Cream I used to apply way back when I was in India.

Vital Light is the most heralded and luminous product to step forth from the Clarins R&D labs in recent years, and the secret is the proprietary use of pioneer plant extracts.

Deep luminosity is the skin’s ability to reflect light and give a lovely, youthful glow. But this is not what makes this product a truly blockbuster, life-changing one. The secret of this product is how the network of collagen and elastin fibers which are deep in the dermis weakens over time, and how the three pioneer plant extracts work to address this weakness.

For all of you who are really into the science (I know I totally am a science junkie!), behold the wonder of the pioneer plants. These are plants that grow in the most desolate conditions, and despite that, they have the ability to initiate a new life cycle. So, on skin, they recreate light and life.

What are these pioneering plants?

Cochlearia Officinalis & Waltheria (Vital Light Day & Night)

Spergularia (Vital Light Day)

Palmitoyl Glycine (Vital Light Night)

My skin definitely looked a million times more luminous and refreshed after I applied Vital Light Day. There’s no question that the benefits of this new technology are sound, and judging from the science behind it, the collagen and elastin fiber network should surely be repaired and promote a healthy metabolism.

Note to those who are fragrance sensitive: this cream IS fragranced, and you can detect it (notes of freesia, peony and jasmine are combined). The Day Cream retails for $85 and the Night Cream for $90 at Clarins counters and clarins.com.

Tell us…we want to know, what comfort cream do YOU find solace in?

Charu Suri

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