Current Cleansers: First Impressions and Review
Hi all, nice day isn't it! As you can see from the above picture the sun was on full blast today and as I was coming home in glasses I was squinting loads. On Friday we had a fire drill in the office and even then the sun was glaring, most people had their sunglasses out and I'm starting to think I need to pop a pair in my bag too. Anyway today's topic is cleansers - loads of them.
I wanted to share with you my current cleansers, purely because I just tried the Perfect Whip Foam cleanser this afternoon and wanted to give a first impression, then thought I may as well review my others. I have no idea why I own so many cleansers, but some I use way less than others.. the reasoning will be explained below.
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| L:R: Shiseido Perfect Whip Foam Cleanser, Garnier PureActive 3in1, Burts Bees Radiance Cleanser, The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil, Michael Todd Charcoal Detox Cleanser |
First up for no particular reason - Perfect Whip Foam cleanser. I was looking forward to trying this because it's a real hype product in Japan and for Asian bloggers/youtubers. So I made sure to look for it whilst I was in Tokyo, and managed to get a larger tube of 150g for only 410 yen! Plus I visited a duty-free store for this so it had no tax. But anyway, I tried the product earlier this afternoon so I can only provide a first impression, but so far so good. My skin type is normal/combination and very low maintenance. Products rarely do a lot for me, so I'm starting to think that's just the way my skin is.
Consistency was unexpected, but fits with the 'whip' in the name. It's got quite a gummy consistency, but is still very light. After testing it with some water I decided to wet my face and massage a pea sized amount all over my face. The smell is nice - a rarity these days! Why do my products not smell nice. Fragranced products aren't very good for you I guess. It spreads on my face well and goes quite white the more you massage onto the face, but then sinks into the skin and disappears within a few seconds, leaving the skin feeling a little tight (but not in the dry sense). I waited a minute and then wet my face and gradually washed off with cold water.
Verdict: Skin felt really clean and nice, but different to how my other cleansers treat my skin. My skin felt moisturised and really smooth - a different feeling to some of my tougher cleansers which leave my face feeling squeaky clean but void of moisture. I like this cleanser, my face feels clean but not stripped. Really good!
★★★★ 4 stars
2. Garnier PureActive 3 in 1 Cleanser, ~£3
This cleanser I believe I've been using for over a year now, the appeal was that it contained salicylic acid which is known to deep clean pores and is great for getting rid of spots/acne. It's not 'suited' to my skin type but Ted has oily/spot-prone skin so I bought this to try and help him. He used it in the beginning but really took to my Michael Todd stuff and abandoned ship.. sigh.. effort wasted! I still use it often though and it's my go-to cleanser because it's more like a face wash and scrub together, I feel like it cleans my skin relatively well.
Smell is quite like cucumber, leaves slight fresh feeling on face. Consistency is like toothpaste, with microbeads. I use in the shower every few days, I don't need to cleanse every day .. just not necessary. I don't think I'd repurchase though, and with my growing collection of skincare I'll be phasing away from this and trying others more.
★★★ 3 stars
3. Burt's Bees Radiance Facial Cleanser, ~£5
This cleanser was one of the first I bought - I overkeep my products I know. But I don't use this one much anyway. I kept it by the sink to use on days where my face feels gross and I want a deep cleanse but yeah, started placing others by the sink and using those instead. This cleanser isn't bad, it works like a traditional nothing-special kind of cleanser would, lathers similarly to Perfect Whip and creates a temporary white mask on your face. When I clean off it leaves a very squeaky clean and very smooth face. But does strip of moisture, my face is smooth but dry.
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| Has tiny white microbeads. I hope they are microbeads. |
★★ 2 stars
4. The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil, ~£10
This was my first experience of a cleansing oil, it's a not-so-new trend for products to be oil-based, and I was interested in being able to just massage all the makeup off my face and still leave my skin feeling soft and moisturised. The product itself is a very watery kind of oil, a lot like the consistency of the Kiehl's Serum.
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| became very messy just for a picture |
Product doesn't change consistency when massaged on the face, I apply it onto dry skin and let it absorb for about a minute. Then I gradually wash off with water whilst massaging, and it lathers a little when in contact with water. I try to avoid getting it into my eyes but it's hard since that's where the majority of my makeup is, it doesn't hurt in my eyes but it leaves them all blurry until I blink/wash it out. Smell is pleasant, but I'm not good at describing. A bit spa-like, reminds me of christmas more than anything though because I bought it in December hehe.
I wanted to see if this would be any good compared to the Shu Uemura cleansing oils, not that I can compare but I've heard they work similarly. Not a dupe, but does what a cleansing oil is supposed to. Don't love enough to repurchase, will take me ages to use in the first place! Keen to try others when this gets low or I can justify using them enough. Shu is pretty cheap in Japan though. Also the squirty dispenser of this product is rubbish, it squirts too far and too suddenly and that is not good at all with oil. It can get everywhere.
★★★ 3 stars
5. Michael Todd Charcoal Detox Gel Cleanser ~$25 (~£17)
One of the best till last. This is the MT Charcoal Detox Gel cleanser, and who doesn't like the sound of a 'charcoal detox' or dead sea/kaolin clay/whatever-cleanse? I feel like everyone should have a skincare product in their arsenal that is a deep cleanser and does 'detox' and clear your skin when you need it to. Pores are always going to clog up and build-up of dirt on the face is unavoidable unless you strip your face everyday, so having heavy-duty products to clear up your skin once in a while is important.
Saying that though, this cleanser may sound serious, but the feeling of it on the skin is far from abrasive. Enough so that I think this is gentle enough to use daily, but I save it for once or twice a week (usually a Sunday, where I pamper more to prep for the week). Being a gel cleanser makes a big difference, this product is actually more suitable for ted's skin type - oily peoples. Because the gel is gentle enough, and creates a better balance for their skin than using water-based or oil-based cleansers. I think he likes this well enough, but the product he fell for (not very characteristic of him to love skincare) was the MT Tropical Fruit Scrub, which smells a bit like a yakult/citrus crossover and has thousands of tiny crystal-like exfoliators in a light scrub. It's a good scrub though, I admit.
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| not as black as you think! |
I do really love this product, the smell is really pleasant, I can't describe but it smells pretty natural. The product is also 70% organic which is reassuring, because most of the ingredients are recognisable and their non-sciency names are displayed alongside so you can be reassured that the product doesn't overload your skin with chemicals, and if you ever want to go back to basics... this is obviously not a fresh-from-the-earth product like your own honey-scrub or oatmeal face wash or anything.. but it's not invasive, your skin feels nice without being stripped of oils, the consistency is really smooth on the skin and feels therapeutic and spa-like. Lathers quite a bit when combined with water, and slowly washes off the skin. I think my skin is quite glad for this product. This is my second bottle.. so that can be a testament of how much I like it!
★★★★★ 5 stars
What is your holy grail cleanser?
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