Clarins Skincare Guide: Double Serum, Cleansers and Whether It's Worth It

Clarins is a French, family-owned skincare company that Jacques Courtin-Clarins founded in Paris in 1954, starting with a single beauty institute. It's known for plant-extract formulas such as Double Serum, the Extra-Firming range and gentle cleansers. The formulas are carefully made and pleasant to use, but almost all the face products we checked contain added fragrance, and the prices are high: Double Serum costs $96 for 1 oz.

Before you buy, you can scan a product's barcode or label with the ingredient scanner in Pori to check its ingredients against your skin type. Pori flags ingredients; it doesn't diagnose skin conditions.

Below we cover who owns Clarins, what its plant-based positioning means in practice, which products contain fragrance, the cleansers, Double Serum, Multi-Active Glow Serum and Extra-Firming, and whether the brand is worth the price. We compared published ingredient lists, brand claims and listed prices; we did not test these products on skin. Prices are clarinsusa.com list prices as of November 2026 and change often.

Who owns Clarins, and when was it founded?

Jacques Courtin-Clarins, a former medical student, opened his first Clarins institute on Rue Tronchet in Paris in 1954. The company listed on the Paris stock exchange in the 1980s, and the Courtin-Clarins family later bought out the outside shareholders. Today Clarins is wholly owned by the family, and members of the next generations work in the business.

Clarins used to be in perfume as well. In October 2019, L'Oréal agreed to buy its fragrance division, including the Mugler and Azzaro fragrances. Clarins said it wanted to focus on skincare. The group's brands now include Clarins, ClarinsMen and My Clarins.

What does "plant-based" mean at Clarins?

Clarins built its name on plant extracts. Its early products included plant-oil body treatments such as Tonic Body Treatment Oil, and the current face range leans on named botanicals. Double Serum lists 22 plants. The newer cleansers share a "Gentle Complex" of golden gentian and lemon balm extracts, which Clarins says it grows on its own farm in the French Alps.

Look at the ingredient lists, though, and the base is ordinary modern cosmetic chemistry. Water, glycerin, squalane, light esters such as hexyl laurate, and mild surfactants come first. The botanicals usually sit lower, in smaller amounts. That's normal for a good emulsion. It just means the plants are one part of the formula, and the base does most of the work you feel. Plant-derived also doesn't mean gentler; our guide to fragrance and essential oils in skincare explains why.

Do Clarins products contain fragrance?

Most of them do. Every face product we checked on clarinsusa.com lists "parfum/fragrance." Here's where it falls, alongside the first ingredients and price:

On the plus side, none of the lists we read named the common fragrance allergens linalool or limonene. If you have a diagnosed fragrance allergy, though, any product with parfum is a risk. If your skin is simply reactive, patch test first; our patch testing guide shows how.

Which Clarins cleanser should you buy?

Clarins rebuilt its cleansers around the same plant complex, but the bases differ a lot. Pick by the base, since that decides how your skin feels after rinsing.

• Gentle Renewing Cleansing Mousse ($34 for 5.5 oz) is a light foam for all skin types. Clarins says it is soap- and SLS-free; the main surfactant is disodium cocoyl glutamate, a mild amino-acid cleanser. It also contains tartaric acid and tamarind extract, a mild AHA touch in a rinse-off product. It's the most versatile pick for normal, oily and combination skin.
• Hydrating Gentle Foaming Cleanser ($33 for 4.4 oz) is sold for normal to dry skin, but its list pairs fatty acids with potassium hydroxide, which is soap chemistry. A review of soaps and syndets notes that soap-based cleansers are more alkaline than synthetic detergents. Dry skin may find it tighter than the name suggests.
• Soothing Gentle Foaming Cleanser ($33 for 4.2 oz) is aimed at very dry or sensitive skin. It's built on sodium cocoyl isethionate, a gentle syndet surfactant, with shea butter and chamomile extract. It also lists fragrance, an odd fit for the skin type it's sold to.
• Velvet Cleansing Milk ($36 for 6.7 oz) is a lotion cleanser for dry and normal skin that removes face, eye and lip makeup. You can rinse it off or wipe it away. It contains fragrance as the 9th ingredient.

For a broader look at cleanser formats, see our guide to types of face cleansers, or browse the cleanser catalogue.

Is Clarins Double Serum worth it?

It's a well-made, pleasant serum, and an expensive way to get its core ingredients. Clarins describes it as a two-phase formula, two-thirds water-soluble and one-third oil-soluble ingredients, blended in one bottle. After water, the list starts with squalane, hexyl laurate and glycerin. Further down are the peptides palmitoyl tripeptide-1 and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 (sold together as Matrixyl 3000), sodium acetylated hyaluronate and a vitamin E derivative, plus the 22 plant extracts.

The headline claim is that its organic harungana extract is "as effective as retinol" against wrinkles. The footnote describes a comparative clinical study of 46 women over 56 days, run with bases containing either ingredient at the product's concentrations. Clarins doesn't publish the results, the retinol dose or the study itself, so treat it as a brand claim. The other numbers are a 7-day self-assessment by 388 women and a 28-day consumer test with 353 women.

Prices are $96 for 1 oz, $142 for 1.7 oz and $192 for 2.5 oz. If you want proven results on fine lines, a retinoid has far more evidence behind it; see retinol for beginners. Our guide to peptides in skincare explains what the peptides can and can't do.

What does Multi-Active Glow Serum do?

It's a two-layer serum that pairs a water-soluble acid with an oil-soluble vitamin C. Glycolic acid is the 6th ingredient and ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate, also called tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, is the 8th. Clarins doesn't state the acid percentage. It's $68 for 1 oz and listed for all skin types.

The claims come from small brand tests: instant brightness and smoothness measured on 32 women, and brighter skin and smaller-looking pores after 28 days on 30 women. Glycolic acid makes skin more sun-sensitive, so pair it with daily sunscreen. Our guides to glycolic acid and vitamin C serums explain how to fit it in.

Does Clarins Extra-Firming work?

Extra-Firming Day is a rich moisturizer with niacinamide as the 6th ingredient, plus oat kernel extract and a long list of plants. It's $105 for 1.7 oz in a refillable jar, with $85 refill pods. Clarins reports +32% firmness after two months in a clinical test on 30 women, and 109 women in a consumer test said skin looked firmer in 7 days.

Moisturizers can make skin look plumper and smoother while they're on. Lasting changes in firmness come mostly from sun protection and retinoids. Niacinamide is a sound, well-studied ingredient, and our niacinamide guide covers what it does. Clarins also sells an Extra-Firming Day SPF 15. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends SPF 30 or higher, so you'd still want a separate sunscreen.

Is Clarins worth the price?

It depends on what you're paying for. Per ounce, the cleansers run about $5.40 (Velvet Cleansing Milk) to $7.90 (Soothing Gentle Foaming Cleanser), Extra-Firming Day is about $62, and Double Serum is $96. Glycerin, squalane, niacinamide and peptides are all available in drugstore and budget brands for a fraction of that; see our Inkey List guide or The Ordinary guide for examples.

What Clarins adds is texture, scent and a polished routine, and for some people that's what keeps them consistent. It's a harder fit if your skin reacts to fragrance, since nearly every face product we checked lists it. If you want a prestige brand with a fragrance-free policy, see our Clinique guide.

What should you buy from Clarins for your skin type?

Dry skin

Velvet Cleansing Milk to cleanse, and Extra-Firming Day or another rich cream if the price works for you. Skip the Hydrating Gentle Foaming Cleanser if soap-based washes leave you tight. Our best moisturizer for dry skin guide has cheaper options.

Oily and combination skin

Gentle Renewing Cleansing Mousse and, for dullness or rough texture, Multi-Active Glow Serum a few evenings a week at first. Follow with a light moisturizer and sunscreen in the morning.

Sensitive skin

Be selective. The Soothing Gentle Foaming Cleanser has a gentle base but lists fragrance, so patch test it first. For leave-on products, a fragrance-free brand is the safer start; our best moisturizer for sensitive skin guide lists some.