Clinique’s Lid Smoothie Antioxidant 8-Hour Eye Color ($19.50) is a creamy eye shadow that promises no creasing for up to eight hours and says it will “coax fine lid lines into a blanket of smoothness”. The only thing Lid Smoothie coaxed my eye lids to do was itch like crazy.

I tried Clinique’s eye color out over several days, with a day off in between to be sure that it was the culprit for irritating my skin. It was/is. I am officially allergic to Lid Smoothie. Perhaps I am unusually sensitive because I have read that Clinique allergy-tests every product 12 times on 600 people and reformulates if a single application out of those 7200 incites an adverse reaction.

I think that the culprit might be an anti-caking agent. Ironically, since this is likely responsible for the much vaunted no crease of Clinique’s Lid Smoothie. There isn’t much information on HDI/trimethylol hexyllactone crosspolymer, but its material safety data sheet (MSDS) says that it may cause eye and skin irritation, including itchiness and redness. MSDS information refers to 100% concentrations and I am clearly not being exposed to it in its pure form. However, there may be enough in Lid Smoothie to make this product too uncomfortable to continue to wear.

It has a couple of potential partners in crime, including dimethicone/PEG-10/15 crosspolymer, which should not be used on damaged skin as it is suspected of skin and sense organ toxicity, according to the EWG. Another common irritant in Lid Smoothie is bismuth oxychloride, a white pigment whose tendency to cause allergic reactions is increased by sweating due to its molecular crystalline shape.

As far as the antioxidants go, I don’t think I’m going to be missing much. There’s a handful of perfectly nice botanical extracts, including antioxidant-rich spinach. Clinique has also given Lid Smoothie a bit more anti-aging oomph with the peptide that reduces expression lines, acetyl hexapeptide-8.

Performance of Lid Smoothie is a bit moot in my case, since the discomfort of using this product and an overriding concern that things that irritate should never be used anywhere near the eyes puts it firmly on the reject list. However, I can say that it does what it says on the can – it doesn’t crease. And the color I tested, pinkgo biloba, is a subtle pinky brown that gave a rather good highlighter effect that made my eyes look wide open. I’ll miss that part.

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Ingredients: Water, Dimethicone, Isododecane, Methyl Trimethicone, Trimethylsiloxyslicate, HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Polysilicone-11, Glycerin, Magneseum Myristate, Copernicia Cerifera, Wax, Silica, Microcrystalline wax, Butylene Glycol, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Cucumber fruit extract, Carrot Root Extract, Spinach leaf extract, Broccoli Extract, Blueberry Fruit Extract, Caffeine, Aloe Barbadenisis Leaf Water, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Dimethicone/PEG-10/15 Crosspolymer, Ozokerite, Ethylhexylglycerin, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Hexyl Laurate, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Tocopheryl Acetate, Dipropylene Glycol, Sodium Chloride, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, | +/- Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Bismuth Oxychloride, Iron Oxides