With reports as early as October of last year, I am almost embarassed to admit that I knew zilch about Clinque's Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector until I hit my local Clinique counter yesterday. I was curious to see what my shade would be in Clinique Even Better SPF 15 Foundation in the winter.

The sales rep adamantly assured me that Ginger was my shade both in the winter and the summer. If I went any lighter, the foundation will turn ashy on me. So I guess I should stick with Ginger to find out if the foundation will truly even out my skin in conjunction with the original Clinique Even Better Dark Spot Corrector and Clinique Skin Tone Correcting Moisturizer with SPF 20.

The clinical version is something else, based on an article at Moodie Report. Declared as "a breakthrough for technology," but more specifically one in the field of hyperpigmentation, Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector features the brand's patent-pending CL-302 Complex.

The CL-302 Complex can be seen as a sort of potent pentagon, consisting of "five synergistic brightening ingredients:"

>>the Dianella Ensifolia plant (originates in southeast Asia)

>>ascorbic glucoside (stable form of vitamin C)

>>blackout yeast (digests excess melanin)

>>salicylic acid (normalizes cell turnover/anti-inflammatory agent)

>>glucosamine (assists in the departure of surface pigmented skin cells)

While all of these ingredients sound great, I am a bit surprised that they forgot to include sunscreen. However, Debbie D'Aquino, one of Clinique's skin experts, revealed that Clinique is considering marketing body/hand products that contain this technology.

She also hinted that adding a sun protectant is possibly in the works "for maximum effectiveness." I hope so because with all these brightening ingredients, it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about whether or not if the Clinique Skin Tone Correcting Moisturizer with SPF 20 would provide adequate protection. I think they should increase the SPF to at least 30 if not 50. Better safe than remorseful, right?

Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector is scheduled to hit the shelves around March-April timeframe. Can't wait to see how it truly measures up since the skin experts in the article claim that clinical tests have proved that the performance of Even Better Clinical is comparable to hydroquinone. Not only that, but you should see 42%-46% improvement in skin tone within 4 weeks with consistent use, twice a day.