Kiehl's Clearly Corrective: A New Hyperpigmentation Fighter

So, remember back when I posted about my Melasma issues (complete with embarrassing pics), and showed how everything went away in my Kiehl's Photo Age review? I may have been a bad girl.

My hormones are still out of whack due to breast feeding. So, I should have stayed on top of things with my Photo Age, but I didn't. With a baby, full time job, blogging, other products to test... the extra 30 second step each night was just a bit much. Plus, I did figure I'd have other things to test. So I stopped using it.

And look what happened.

Yup, the spots came back. These really fun, amazing pics of my skin (OMG, can't believe I've posted these) are me, in macro last week. I have Kiehl's Midnight Recovery on my face, and that is it. No makeup, no retouching (other than fixing a strange color cast in one of the pics).

You can see my areas of hyperpigmentation on my cheek bones, on both sides. Also any uneven tone issues, and a few freckles. I am pretty proud that I don't have wrinkles really, I think I look good for 34!

Why am I posting these? Consider this my "before" picture. I'm trying out Kiehl's newest product, Clearly Corrective.

Clearly Corrective is based primarily around "Activated C", a new Vitamin C derivative (read more about how Vitamin C works in skin care in this morning's post). It has been photostabilized, meaning it is much harder to inactivate, which makes this product particularly interesting. There are also White Birch and Peony Extract in the formula.

The idea is that the ingredient is able to penetrate the skin quickly and easily where it helps to work against discolorations and prevent new ones from forming. And, remember that bit about how Vitamin C only affects the pigmentation in areas where there are issues? That means that you can use this product all over your face without worry. It will take care of all your little pigmentation problems and you won't need to be concerned about it lightening everything else up.

Other things that make this product interesting:
1) It is 100% bioavailable. Meaning, what you put on the skin is the fully available for use. Most drugs that I use in the hospital aren't even 100% bioavailable.

2) There is no activation needed. Frequently skin care products contain ingredients that need to not only travel to their site of activity, but that need to be activated by your body once there. This is the active form, so it starts working sooner and there is more active form to work.

3) This formula penetrates the skin to slow melanin production. Then it helps to prevent melanin from clustering together and becoming areas of pigmentation, helps slow down the transfer of melanin to the skin surface (where it becomes visible), AND it helps to break apart any clusters of melanin already hanging out on the skin surface.

4) Formula allows continual use! This product is gentle enough to be used by even those with sensitive skin year round.


So, yes, it probably sounds like I've been drinking the Kiehl's koolaid. Which isn't really anything different than usual since I do really love this company. So, I'm proposing an experiment. I'll be posting a picture of my skin, like the one above, every Tuesday for the next month or so. Maybe more, we'll see how long I remember to take these pictures. I'll label them with the dates.

I started using Clearly Corrective every night on 1/20, though I'm looking at the paperwork and it says I should be using it twice a day. Oops! I'll start that tomorrow.

According to Kiehl's, here's what we'll see:
• 2 weeks: 55% of women have a reduction in dark spot intensity
• 4 weeks: 69% of women have reduction in dark spot intensity and 74% have a reduction in acne scarring. Reduction in other skin discolorations in 69%.
• 8 weeks: 87% have more uniform skin tone.

Consider this my "before" picture. We'll watch my results together and see if this product really does live up to the hype.


Kiehl's Clearly Corrective