Tried & Tested: The new serum that works for everyone

Clarins Double Serum won't be unfamiliar to you if you are a lover of good skincare. You'll have seen some iteration of it on counters since the original version came into being in 1985. As technologies have improved, Clarins have continually updated their universal serum and they issued the eighth generation version last August.

The previous version of Double Serum hit shelves over four years ago, and though I found it very effective and loved the product, readers contacted me with a very legitimate complaint – the product’s effective twenty plant extracts were contained in a mineral oil base. There are several issues with mineral oil, which you might recognise through its alternative names commonly used in ingredient labels – liquid paraffin, white oil, paraffinum liquidum or liquid petroleum. It is a liquid by-product of refining crude oil to make gasoline and some other petroleum products, and is the base ingredient in some familiar products we all know like baby oil and Vaseline. It is a very inexpensive ingredient to use, and can be congesting when used on the face and some other areas, so it was not ideal for a serum as expensive as Double Serum. I found that the serum worked for me in spite of the mineral oil – certainly not because of it – but many people who tried the product were disappointed by the inclusion of the ingredient in such significant quantities, and found it congesting.

Even before the new version of Double Serum came onto the market last August, I was determined to test it thoroughly before writing about it, and have now been using it for around eight weeks. The eighth version of the product is a huge improvement on the one that came before. The mineral oil is gone, and the same twenty plant extracts as before are there, with the addition of one more for good measure.

Double Serum is unique in that it is a universal product, suitable for all ages, all ethnicities and now thankfully given the removal of one controversial ingredient, all skin types. At €72 for 30mls and €92 for 50mls, it is firmly in the luxury product category. However, if you have the budget for it, and would like a universal treatment product which really does visibly improve skin condition at any age, this is well worth buying. Apply it after cleansing and before moisturising morning or night. The handy pump dispenses exactly the right (very minimal) dose needed to prevent wastage.