Clinique Age Defense BB Cream

Ok, so by now we've established that BB creams are not just for girls and they're my Achilles' heel, my exception when it comes to the 'British' and 'Natural' products I normally choose. (Show me a British BB cream and I'm on it!)
I'll be honest and admit, I'm not really a fan of Clinique skin care. Ever since using it in my late teens and finding it just a little too harsh and drying for my skin, I turned my back on the brand and never looked back.
That was until a couple of months ago when they brought out their Age Defense BB Cream.
Following recommendations from fellow beauty bloggers, male and female, I decide to give it a try.

I hit my first hurdle when I couldn't get hold of any samples to try before I committed to a full size. I hit my second hurdle when I was told it was only available online and certain stockists, mainly in London, certainly none near me, so couldn't sample / swatch any of the colours.
With online being my only option I decided to order from Boots.com. As there wasn't much in the way of colour guidance I used Clinique.co.uk as a reference, to help choose the shade that was right for me. I was given 3 shade options to chose from. Shade 01 - Very fair complexions with pink undertones, Shade 02 - Very fair to moderately fair complexions with golden undertones or shade 03 - Moderately fair to Medium with golden undertones.
I would by no means put myself in the 'Very fair' category, not even 'Moderately fair' really, plus having had problems with BB creams being far too light for me in the past, I decided to order Shade 03.
When it arrived and I used if for the first time, it was too dark....and slightly orange!
I decided to put it away until my holiday in June, hoping that my holiday tan would help boost me into the 'Moderately fair to Medium with golden undertones' category.

I used it in the evenings on holiday and as hoped, with a tan it suited me much better colour wise. I still wasn't completely happy with it though unfortunately. I have oily/combination skin, however with my sun parched holiday skin, I found the product didn't provide the level of moisture it needed.
So much so, that my skin seemed to suck it up like a sponge on contact, which meant it was really difficult to blend. It looked quite patchy in places and also quite heavy.

Which as a guy wearing a BB is not great. Maybe girls can get away with a BB or foundation being 'visible', but not for a guy who wants it to be discreet and who wants it to look like skin.
I carried on using it on holiday, however I had to apply a thin layer of moisturiser underneath (Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream which I'll be reviewing soon) and it worked great.
I thought "it's fine, it's just because my skin is drier than normal, it will be fine when I get home". After all, with my tan the colour suited me quite well.
Sadly, it didn't work out like I thought. At home my skin was back to normal, much less drier than it had been on holiday, however I was still having blending issues! It looked quite heavy and 'caked' on the skin.
At £25 for a 40ml tube I was determined to not let the product go to waste, so I resorted to using the same method as on holiday 'blending / diluting' it with another product. However because I use this during the day, rather than using my Elemis, I use a single pump of my Kimbery Sayer SPF30.
The plus points being that I'm not 'diluting' the sun protection, as I'm blending it with another SPF30 product AND I'm not wasting a £25 BB cream!
It's not all bad news, as someone who is acne-prone, the product didn't cause me to breakout which is always great AND blended with the Kim Sayer, I am quite happy with the results. It's a natural coverage and suits my skin tone well. However, you shouldn't need to blend a BB cream with another product, just to make it work for you. The whole point of a BB cream is that it's an 'All in one' solution.

Pampered Prince