Review: Clean & Clear Essentials Foaming Facial Cleanser - Sensitive Skin
Hey guys! So today I'll be reviewing the Clean & Clean Essentials Foaming Facial Cleanser for sensitive skin. So just before I begin breaking down the product, I think I should introduce you to my skin. Personally I have extremely EXTREMELY oily skin. Now you make think I am exaggerating, but I'm sadly not. If I don't powder the crap out of my face my skin will be shining like a big 'ol grease ball 3 hours after moisturizing. I know, it's disgusting. On top of all of that, I also deal with breakouts and uneven skin texture. Thankfully my acne isn't that bad and I only get the occasional breakouts, a few hormonal breakouts, and big painful pimples thrown in the mix every once in a while. Well now that I have gracefully explained my wonderful skin to you, let's head back to the review!
So the cleanser (with the ridiculously long name) claims to be "an oil-free formula that gently removes dirt, oil and make-up" it also is "formulated to cleanse without over-drying and reveal healthier-looking skin" according to Clean & Clear's website. You're supposed to use the cleanser by first wetting your hands and face, then lathering a dime sized amount of product up in the palms of your hands, then applying it to your face and using circular motions, massage it into your face with your fingertips.
(insert image of dime size drop)
First of all, the cleanser has a scent to it which seems rather weird considering the product is made for sensitive skin. Personally I don't have sensitive skin, but I prefer to use gentle face washes to not irritate my acne. Now, I'm really bad at describing scents, but to me, this cleanser smells kind of florally, like jasmine, mixed in with an old grandma smell with a hint of the soap that doctors use to wash their hands. So if you do have sensitive skin I would recommend you to test the cleanser on a small patch of your skin before using it to wash your entire face. The scent does linger on your face for a bit, but after a few minutes the scent disappears.
The cleanser claims to not be "over-drying" which I thoroughly agree on. After using the product my skin feels soft and clean without being stripped of moisture. The cleanser doesn't put any added moisture into my face but it also doesn't make my skin feel dry like the Sahara desert. I can resist from putting on moisturizer for a good few minutes and have no problem at all. The cleanser cleanser my face rather well and all my gross oils from the day are washed away along with the translucent powder that I put on everyday.
On another note, the website claims that the cleanser will be able to be worked " into a rich lather" which I find highly misleading. After vigorous rubbing, the cleanser barely foams up and is definitely not a rich lather. When massaging the product into your face, most of the bubbles disappear so you are just left rubbing a clear semi-milky cleanser into your skin.
Finally, one of the most eye-catching claims (at least for me) was that the cleanser could remove make-up. Now this seems almost to good to be true right?! So I put this to the test against a variety of makeup products.
I first tested it on normal face products: foundation, concealer, and a foundation powder. With each of these tests I let the make up set for a bit then proceeded to splash some water on it. Then I "lathered" the cleanser up in my other hand, and rubbed it over the makeup covered hand.
As you can see the powder disappeared but the concealer and foundation were still there. The foundation was applied with a beauty sponge and the concealer was applied with my finders. While washing the powder melted away within seconds, but I could barely get the rest of the products off.
Moving on to eyes I applied eyeshadow, mascara, eye-liner, and liquid eyeliner to the back of my hand. Again the powder rubbed away easily and with some extra work the mascara disappeared and the eyeliners faded. However, I would never recommend to rub your mascara as hard as I did just to remove it from the back of my hand. So therefore I wouldn't consider the cleanser as effective when removing mascara or eyeliner.
Back to the face, I applied cream blush on one side and normal powder blush to the other side of my hand. The powder blush disappeared but there was still a little bit of cream blush left.
Last but not least, lips! My fave!!! So for this test I applied a lipstick, tinted lip balm, a creamy gloss, and a normal gloss. Going into this, I anticipated that the lipstick and lip balm would disappear along with most of the glosses, however that was not the case. The lip products barely budged even with extra force. I was quite disappointed to say the least.
So in all, I believe that the cleanser is great at removing any powder makeup, but for the rest its not very effective. I think that if you double cleansed and used the Clean & Clean face wash as your second cleanser you would experience much better results than if you went in just with the Clean & Clean face wash.
So a recap on everything, the cleanser is amazeballs even though it doesn't live up to its claims. It cleans my face and gets rid of all the oil, dirt, and who knows what that's been on my face for the entire day. It softens my skin,prevents breakouts, and I mean come on, it's about $4-$7 for 8 oz of product! I use this everyday 2 times a day and I'm only HALF way through the bottle and it's been 4 entire months! You definitely can't beat the price. I would give this product 4 1/2 stars out of 5 and would certainly buy this product again and also recommend it to a friend. So next time you run out of cleanser, instead of going to Sephora, head on over to your local drugstore or Walmart and pick this baby up. It's definitely worth a try! :) So keep on slaying and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Sincerely,
Kat
