On Trial : Clinique Superdefence SPF 20 Age Defence Eye Cream

Behold! A suncream for the eye area. It’s from Clinique, a brand that I vowed to never buy from again, thanks to a poor experience with their Anti-Blemish range and a toner that burnt my skin. (*hiss*)

You’re probably thinking err, girl do you live under a rock? All brands make eye creams, most have SPF yo. Thats true, but so far none have what I’m looking for - a physical suncream (one with Zinc Oxide & Titanium Dioxide). All the brands I’ve looked at (like Origins, Kiehls, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Skinceuticals, Dermalogica, Philosophy, Ole Henriksen, Dior blahblah and even other Clinique products) make eyecreams with chemical filters, which I’m trying to avoid.

I came across Clinique's Superdefense SPF 20 Age Defense Eye Cream by chance on House of Fraser’s website and had something of a Hallelujah moment when I saw it described as an 'all physical sunscreen'. Woo wooo! I bought it earlier in the week and will test it out for a week or so before reviewing it in full.

These are my first thoughts:

• It's SO EXPENSIVE!! It’s £30 for the tube, which doesn’t seem too bad by itself, but at £30/15ml that makes it £2 per ml!
• The ingredients. No list of ingredients online (*glare*), so I looked to Beautypedia. The thing is that the UK product seems to be slightly different from its US counterpart, which is described as “broad spectrum”. Are they one and the same? I certainly hope so and I’m waiting for a response from Clinique to confirm :/

Update 29.May.14
As mentioned in a later post (somewhere), I ended up returning this because I didn't think it contained Zinc Oxide and because of the broad spectrum difference. I've had a response from Clinique, who very kindly provided a full ingredients list:

Water/Aqua [] Isocetyl Stearoyl Stearate [] Titanium Dioxide [] c12-15 Alkyl Benzoate [] Butylene Glycol [] Cetyl Clcohol [] Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) [] Dimethicone [] Laureth-4 [] Cetyl Esters [] PEG-100 Stearate [] Polyethylene [] Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract [] Sea Whip Extract [] Padina Pavonica Thallus Extract [] Sigesbeckia Orientalis (St. Paul's Wort) Extract [] Algae Extract [] Lecithin [] Micrococcus Lysate [] Caffeine [] Astrocaryum Mmurumuru Seed Butter [] Isohexadecane [] Tocopheryl Acetate [] Trehalose [] Glycerin [] Isostearic Acid [] Caprylyl Glycol [] Polyhydroxystearic Acid [] Polysorbate 80 [] Phytosphingosine [] Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate [] Sodium RNA [] Lauric Acid [] Linoleic Acid [] Sodium Hyaluronate [] Hhydrogenated Lecithin [] Ascorbyl Tocopheryl Maleate [] Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) [] Acrylamide/Sodium Acryloyldimethyltaurate Copolymer [] Hexylene Glycol [] Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid [] Tromethamine [] Alumina [] Disodium EDTA [] Phenoxyethanol [] Mica [] Iron Oxides (ci 77491, ci 77492, ci 77499) [] Zinc Oxide (ci 77947 nano) [ILN 40151]

And look, there's Zinc Oxide waiting at the end of the list! I checked this list against the ingredients list on Beautypedia, and they are in fact the same. However, Clinique do not claim that this product (the one sold in the EU) is broad spectrum, unlike the product sold in the US. So they may well be the same product, but end up being classed differently because of different regulatory systems. C'est un mystere.