Beauty Tips For Body Care
It's the review no-one asked for: every cleanser I've ever used! My 15 year hunt for a perfect cleansing step condensed into a couple of hundred words, only a few of them sweary. For reference my skin is pale and freckled, oily/combination and dehydration prone. My main concerns over the years have been cystic/hormonal acne, oil control, sebaceous filaments and lare pores. I'm based in the UK but a lot of these products are available in other countries too.Clearasil 5-in1 Pads - £6.35Although a few years later these were a great introduction to BHAs (minus the alcohol), these are absolutely *not* a cleanser. I used to scrub at my face with these, not moisturise, and wonder why my skin was oily and sore all the time. They did help my acne to some extent but worsened my scarring as my skin was so flaky and dry. 2/10 as a cleanser, 5/10 as an introductory BHASoap and Glory No Clogs Allowed Detox Mask - £10...So I made a habit of trying to cleanse my face with products seriously not meant for cleansing with! Again this was drying, abrasive and had a harsh minty scent. It made my sebaceous filaments disappear for about an hour until they refilled with the oil my skin was furiously producing in order to counteract - you guessed it - not moisturising. 2/10Soap and Glory Ultimelt - £10This was when I discovered hot cloth cleansing and finally backed away from harsher products. Thank fuck. Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish was all the rage in the UK so I gave this cheaper alternative a go, and my life was changed. It contains essential oils however I'm not sensitive to these at all and it added to the spa like experience of not treating my skin like utter shit. I found using a muslin or flannel every day too harsh on my skin eventually, and it left a slight film on my face even after a second cleanse. 6/10Soap and Glory Face Soap and Clarity - £8Ah, my first ever second cleanse. Fragranced as fuck, stripping, and contained microbeads (though I think it has been reformulated without). Considering how badly I used to abuse my skin, this is the tightest and most uncomfortable I have ever felt after cleansing. I started to moisturise around this point so kept going with this cleanser, however I don't think I ever finished the bottle. 3/10Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil - £7This will probably get me a lifetime ban from SCA, but my skin *loves* coconut oil. I used the OCM and gave myself gorgeous facial massages often, and I felt like my skin was finally getting the moisture it needed. It's mega cheap too! However, as above my skin just couldn't cope with a flannel every day, and started getting shiny and sore. I still use this once in a while when I want to massage my face. 8/10Superdrug Naturally Radiant Hot Cloth Cleanser & Superdrug Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser - £5.99/£4.99I used (and still use) these two interchangeably as they are very similar, with identical results. These were hyped as dupes for for Liz Earle C&P, and I found them to glide on beautifully and feel really luxurious on my skin for the price. Superdrug's own brand skincare is regularly on offer so I waited for deals and usually paid no more than half price, making it excellent value. Loads of UK beauty gurus started talking about these at the same time so I had issues repurchasing at times, but the buzz appears to have calmed down so I have less of a hard time getting hold of them. I still use one or the other of these fairly regularly, usually when I'm having a pampering day. 8/10 RPSuperdrug Vitamin E Dual Phase Cleansing Oil - £2.99I still get angry thinking about this product. It smells like an entire ass, does not cleanse in the slightest, and leaves the dirtiest, greasiest residue after use. I sometimes dream of buying a case of these just to pour them down the sink so that fewer of them exist in the world. 0/10Botanics Rosehip Hot Cloth Cleanser - £8.99This cleansing balm comes in a tiny size compared to my Superdrug favourites above, and is harder to spread around the face. Even though I kept it out of the bathroom and it showed no other evidence of having melted and re-set it took on a gritty/grainy texture once open for a couple of weeks. It takes a lot of rubbing with a flannel to remove as I found a muslin wasn't abrasive enough. The smell, due to the inclusion of essential oils, is divine. 4/10Botanics Rosehip Softening Cleanser - £5.99The same gorgeous scent as the above product, in an easy-to-spread, easy-to-rinse formula. The packaging suggests 'wiping off with tissues' but this seems wasteful as well as gross so I just rinse with a little warm water. This isn't much good for makeup removal and doesn't seem to work well as a second cleanse, but it makes my skin soft and bouncy so I had to find somewhere to include it in my routine. I use this as a morning cleanse just to remove any sweat or remaining occlusives, and it sets up my skin beautifully for the day. 8/10 HGCosrx Low PH Good Morning Cleanser - £9.50This is a really popular product on here so I was ready to fall in love. I got a few small sachets of this as part of Cosrx's 3 step kits and I'm *really* glad I didn't spring for a whole tube of this before trying it. I found the smell so overpowering it hurt my nose, and it stripped my skin almost as much as my first attempts at cleansing. Like, it was so drying my skin felt like a rubber mask after using it. I used this about 4 times before admitting it was absolutely not for me, despite its cult status. 2/10Superdrug Naturally Radiant Complete Cleanser - £5.99My go-to second cleanse. I only use half a pump as that is plenty to remove any trace of my cleansing balm, so a 150ml container lasts forever. The foaming pump makes it feel creamy, thick and luxurious, and it smells beautiful. As with the other Superdrug items this is on offer more often than not so I never pay full price. 9/10 HGHeimish All Clean Balm - £14This product is beautiful. It removes make up without any harsh rubbing, glides across my skin with no effort, and has a delicate scent. A jar lasts me about six months of daily use and I am *very* liberal with application, so it would probably last others even longer. It makes cleansing feel like a treat rather than a chore and leaves my skin clean but not stripped. My only criticism is that it leaves my eyes slightly blurry even after rinsing, though it does not sting them at all. 9/10 HGBotanics Hydration Burst Dual Action Cleanser £6.99This cleanser leaves my skin feeling fresh and hydrated, but the formula is terrible. It feels like a gel when first applying but is very thick and sticky, making it almost impossible to spread over my face without using twice as much as I would like to. More than once I have irritated my skin by dragging it over my face, and even warming it between my hands has no effect on the thickness. I wish I could love this as it has some great ingredients and emulsifies into a lovely hydrating milk, but I'm not about giving myself wrinkles trying to get it across my face. 5/10What I've learned while devoting my life to cleansers:- My skin *hates* SLS. When I stopped using anything with sulphates I noticed my acne formed only around my mouth and on my chin, and reduced massively when I started using an SLS free toothpaste.- My skin is pretty tough when it comes to fragrances and essential oils, but has a no tolerance policy for anything too stripping or drying. I used to love the squeaky clean tight skinned feeling, and now I'd rather not wash my face at all than feel dried out.- I want cleansing to be a pleasure. I want to feel like I'm having a facial at a spa. Utilitarian cleansers are probably cheaper and more convenient, but I love the feeling of washing the day (or night) away and starting over with a clean face.- Washing my face with just water doesn't work. I wish I could be one of those 'splash with water then apply SPF' kind of people, but my skin clogs at the drop of a hat and never looks or feels clean with just water, whether it's the morning or at night. I'd rather use a small amount of cleanser and preemptively fight dehydration than deal with dull, dirty skin.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by ChemicalsAndGenitals
No comments:
Post a Comment