Hydrating Fresh Face Scrub

I have sensitive, irritable skin. I'm apprehensive about any kind of scrub or exfoliating agent but recently I've been struggling with larger pores and downright flaky skin. Tried several non-abrasive products but no visible difference. I had a sample of this and decided to use it as the last resort. I'm so glad I did. Even though you can feel the beads and I was barely massaging it because I was scared, it did its magic and I saw the difference literally the first time I used it. My serums and creams were absorbed so fast and the next morning, my skin felt and looked amazing. I used up the sample in a week and bought the full tube and have been using it every 2-3 days ever since. I stopped for about a week because I ordered the second tube a little too late and the pores and flaky skin came back. Nothing else in my regimen changed so I can confidently attest to the efficacy of this product. It makes all the difference in the world. Whatever else you're using, this will make it work better because it cleanses your skin so it's ready for them. My skin's also dry but this somehow puts a very light coat that keeps my skin soft and supple even an hour after washing my face. Normally my face is ready to crack the moment I dry it with a towel. I hope they never discontinue this but I have 3 backup tubes just in case.

Clarins discontinued the old gentle refining cream whose scrub particles (cellulose) and cream format resemble this product in terms of feel but this new formula with a change of ingredients is an inferior version. The old formula seemed to have somewhat larger or perhaos a denser concentration of exfoliator particles in a creamier more slippery base, especially when water is added, a better smell-one of Clarins' most long standing smells and possibly more luxurious ingredients (wouldn't be surprised). The new formula's grains seem to disolve or degrade more easily over time so that the tube at 50ml which is the same size as the old formula seems like poorer value. Really a once or twice weekly exfoliation is adequate and you need just a dab of product to do the job but the older product somehow seemed more concentrated and more durable. The basic idea is still there just a poorer manifestation. I would probably go for the one step cleanser and exfoliator over this one in terms of quality and efficacy but that is not a daily cleanser. I wish Clarins would stop discontinuing good products and replacing them with inferior ones. Clearly this replacement tied in to an overall marketing and product grouping strategy with the Hydra line whose new creams I also thought were inferior to the original ones. In some cases revisions work-such as the extra firming line-in others they don't. The old refiner was like the current hand cream. A familiar, reliable classic. If you're going to change a product the improvement should go to the essence of the product and not to a marketing scheme and be a very strategic improvement and not just a change.