Review! Clinique Cleansing System

I received a trial sample of (what is supposed to be) a two-day trial of Clinique's cleansing system.  This was given to me as a free toss-it-in-the-bag sample with another purchase.

The inside of the rigid cardboard envelope contains 12 blister packs, four each of "liquid facial soap", "clarifying lotion" and "dramatically different moisturizing lotion", as identified on the outside of the package.

Inside the package, the "clarifying lotion" is now called the "exfoliate" step.

Liquid Facial Soap:  I didn't like it.  It comes out of the package with a reasonable thickness, but once I started using it to clean my face, it felt like dish soap, without as much slip.  It does not feel moisturizing, and it did feel like it dried out my face a little.  During the next step, more makeup came off of my face after using this, so it did not do a good job of thoroughly cleaning my face of makeup.

Clarifying Lotion:  Holy rubbing alcohol, Batgirl!  This stuff had so much alcohol in it that the vapors made my eyes water (I did not get the product in my eyes, but applying to my cheek was close enough, apparently).  It did remove the rest of my makeup that the soap left behind, and my skin did look nice afterwards, but it was drying and OMG, the vapors!  Overall, I didn't like it.

Moisturizing Lotion:  My skin was glad for this heavy cream after the previous two steps... but then an hour later it felt like an oil slick on my face.  This lotion was too heavy for me to even think about wearing it underneath my makeup.  It is intended for combination-dry or dry-very dry skin.  This was just way too much for my current needs.

I really don't like how drying the first two steps are, and I don't recommend those products at all.  If you have really dry skin, you might like the moisturizer, but I'm going to pass on it for now.  It might make a good winter moisturizer for me.