I use Clinique as my main skin care brand, but I have a rule of only buying products when there is a free gift offer on somewhere, which is quite often to be honest. I ended up with several free gifts on my holiday to New York last year when I stocked up on several items at the Clinique counter in Bloomingdales, so I have have a good stash of Clinique freebies now.

One of the items I seem to have in a few shades now is the Clinique Superbalm Moisturising Gloss. I always end up with the miniature 7ml size, the normal full size product is 15ml but I find these 7ml tubes last me ages as I'm not a big lip gloss person. It's not that I don't like lip glosses or lip balms, I just always forget to re-apply them!

My lips are quite often dry, and I do have a couple of lip balms and lip butters which I often carry around in my handbag for use at work. I don't really associate lip glosses with being very moisturising, but this Clinique Superbalm really is different compared to your average lip gloss. Clinique call it a lip balm with a colourful twist, and at the moment there are 4 different shades available from Clinique. I am currently using shade 10 Grapefruit, a lovely pinky colour, but I also have the Apricot shade.

So Clinique promise that this lip gloss will instantly relieve any dryness whilst protecting your lips with anti-oxidants. I can safely say that Clinique's claims of eliminating dryness in an instant are 100% true. This lip gloss instantly makes my lips feel soft and smooth, and they look it to! The bonus is that this feeling does last for some hours, and I don't have to keep re-applying. This is brilliant for me as mentioned before, I always forget to re-apply lip gloss, or I simply can't be bothered to dig around in my bag looking for it.

The gloss gives a lovely shine to the lips, and I was concerned the colour might be too bright a pink, but it's actually a very subtle colour which isn't over the top or tacky looking. This is the same for the gloss, it's not too over bearing and it's not sticky, to me there is nothing worse than a sticky lip gloss so I'm pleased to find this one doesn't fall into that category. There isn't really a scent or taste to this lip gloss, which means it will appeal to most people as I've come across some awful smelling lip glosses before.

The gloss does have a good staying power, I've noticed photos recently where I'm surprised to see my lips looking shiny and smooth quite some hours after applying the gloss and after having things to drink. I don't really notice it once it's on either as it's not too thick, and means I'm not worrying about how it looks on my lips. My lips staying looking and feeling soft too, even when the shiny appearance of the gloss is starting to wear off, the balm has done it's work and left my lips feeling much softer than before.

I would say that Clinique's Superbalm Moisturising Gloss is one of, if not the best, glosses I have ever used. It has a great added bonus of it working exactly like a lip balm, and the gloss itself is subtle and not overbearing or thick. It's a perfect gloss to wear during the day, giving a subtle amount of colour and keeping those lips moisturised.

I have the miniature size of this lip gloss which often comes in free gifts, but the full size is 15ml and costs £13. It is quite expensive but it's a lip balm and a lip gloss in one, and because it has good staying power you won't be frequently re-applying so it should last quite a while. Overall I strongly recommend this lip balm, and it's something I'll certainly keep using!