A pioneer in customized skin care, Clinique is placing a big bet on its newest skin care launch: Clinique iD, a custom-blend hydration systems that offers consumers 15 unique combinations through patent-pending packaging that enables personalization of bases and separate actives, and exact dosing, too.
 
Having dug deep into women’s concerns about moisturizers, and developing its own packaging solution, the Estée Lauder heritage brand is rolling out this new line on Dec. 1 on Clinique.com, reaching its entire distribution on Dec. 26.
 
The brand has been promoting iD on social media ahead of the rollout, working with influencers around the world on platforms like Instagram.
 
While an influencer push on social media is somewhat unchartered territory for the venerable brand, Clinique is no stranger to the “hot” concept of personalization in beauty care. It has been offering consumers their own customized three-step skin care regimens through a dermatologist-developed sliding computer that has sat on its department store counters nationwide since 1968.
 
But this is 2018, not 1968—and 50-year old Clinique is looking to better connect with younger customers.
 
With iD, Clinique is also addressing the major concerns women have with moisturizers, noted Julien Moignard, senior vice president of global marketing. According to Moignard, 68% of women still feel that they haven’t found the right moisturizer and it can take one to two years and five different products trials to find the right one.
 
Just what do women want?  The “right texture and they want to see results in the mirror,” noted Moignard.
 
With iD, “we can co-create with our customers,” he said.
 
The Clinique iD system incorporates the brand’s workhorse product, Dramatically Different Moisturizer (DDM), in three textures: lotion, oil-control gel and new hydrating jelly. The latter—which was developed specifically for iD, but was rolled out ahead of the main launch—has a light, water-weight texture, according to the brand.
 
The performance of Clinique iD is driven by Active Cartridge Concentrates that are designed to address primary skin concerns—irritation, pores/uneven texture, uneven skin tone, fatigue and lines and wrinkles.  
 
Clinique’s R&D team took a less-is-more approach and developed five concentrates that contain pure, concentrated levels of key ingredients and have water-like viscosity.
 
 “They didn’t need to formulate with the kitchen sink,” noted Janet Pardo, SVP of product development at Clinique.
 
The five Active Cartridge Concentrates are:
 
• Irritation (green cartridge), which contains Lactobaccilus ferment, a probiotic ferment that helps boost skin’s natural defenses against external stressors to help keep skin in balance, as well as other ingredients that calm and comfort skin (white tea leaf extract, yeast extract, licorice root extract, algae extract, red seaweed extract, phytosphingosine and more).
 
• Fatigue (orange cartridge), which contains concentrated levels of taurine—a new-to-Clinique ingredient. This amino acid is said to boost cellular energy. Additional ingredients include caffeine, acetyl carnitine and adenosine phosphate, mimosa bark extract, sodium RNA fragments and more.
 
• Pores & Uneven Skin Texture (blue cartridge), which contains alpha hydroxy acids (glycolic and lactic) as well as laminaria saccharina extract to improve texture and reveal fresher bright kin and tighter-looking pores.
 
• Uneven Skin Tone (white cartridge), which relies on Japanese angelica root extract to help even complexion as well as molasses extract, scutellaria baicalensis root extract, licorice root extract, ascorbyl glucoside, salicylic acid, caffeine and taurine.
 
• Lines & Wrinkles (purple cartridge), which relies on whey protein and other actives to smooth and plump. It also contains argireline (acetyl hexapeptide-8), palmitoyl tripeptide-1, palmiotyl tetrapeptide-7, sweet almond seed extract, red algae extract and micrococcus lysate.
 
Clinique official told Happi that the company developed its own packaging components for the iD line. The patent-pending mechanism allows users to easily insert the active concentrate cartridge directly into the main base bottle, and then, with a simple pump, the bottle dispenses the precise dosage of product, which is a 90/10 ratio of base to active.
 
The cartridge package is manufactured in Korea and filled in the US and the UK, according to Clinique.
 
A lot went into the design of the package to dispense the precise ratio, but it means there is no change to the typical user experience of using a pump moisturizer.
 
“What we really want is compliance,” said Pardo about the ease of use for customers.
 
Clinique iD has a $39 price point (for a three-month supply of product that can be used twice a day).
 
Officials from the Estée Lauder brand said the company conducted numerous studies on both the active concentrates and bases to insure the performance that would mirror the brand’s heritage.
 
“Clinique is one of the most authentic brands; it has to work,” Pardo concluded.
 
For more on skin care, be sure to check out the January 2019 edition of Happi.