Dispatches from the world of high performance, science-driven skincare, each week

Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion is as much a constant to the beauty world as Joan Rivers is to entertainment. It’s just always been there. From the 1989 bathroom of my best friend’s terrifyingly beautiful mother, to the shared university make-up bags to those precipitous purchases at the duty free counter that made boarding a budget airline flight that bit more bearable.

That little yellow bottle is doing alright for 45 years old. 45! It’s mad isn’t it? It first popped up in department stores back in 1968 and DDML – as it’s known in beauty circles – is still the number one selling skincare product in the UK. And if you think that’s major, consider too, that one bottle is sold somewhere in the world, every four seconds. It’s just a piece of skincare gold. Pure and simple.

And lo, what’s this? Clinique has gone and done the unthinkable. The DDML formula has been reworked and renewed.  So what’s new? The new version, aptly named DDML+, now contains two unparalleled moisturising agents: hyaluronic acid and glycerin, which act like magnets to water, while the new barrier strengthening complex (barley, sunflower seed and cucumber) works to lock that moisture into the skin for longer. Crucially, though, the beloved light, lotion texture remains.

It sorts restores a bit of faith in big, global beauty brands, doesn’t it? Clinique could have easily just plodded along, minding its own business, but it didn’t. ‘The world has changed since DDML was launched in 1968, the consumer needs more from their daily moisturizer. It’s Clinique’s duty to find a solution,’ believes Janet Pardo, Senior Vice President of Global Product Development for Clinique.

Interfering with a universally loved formula is risky business. When fragrance and make-up formulas are tampered with (it’s happened dozens of times to my favourite lipsticks), it incites a Red Ross level widespread fury – if you fall in love with a beauty product, you don’t want it to go changing on you. 

‘It was absolutely fundamental for us to not alienate our existing users of DDML,’ explains Clinique’s resident skin expert, Dr Tom Mammone. ‘This is why the new formula underwent the biggest clinical testing Clinique has ever done; 1,600 people across 5 countries participated. The results showed DDML+  almost doubled the moisture levels in the skin.’

So it looks the same, feels the same, it even smells the same, but it does it’s job just that bit better.  Which goes to show, some risks pay off.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion +, £17, is available from 12 July at www.clinique.co.uk