Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel

I recently got a sample of this, and I have to say I am really impressed with this makeup remover.

Please do not confuse this with any cleansing gel. It's not a soap-y kind of cleansing gel. It's actually more akin to a cleansing oil. Cleansing oil is probably the most efficient way to take off your makeup. Waterproof mascara doesn't stand a chance when you use cleansing oil.

However, not all cleansing oils are created equal. I have been on the search of a good cleansing oil for years. I started off with the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil - which is probably the most popular one out there. It does a good job of removing makeup. And it's quite cheap for the size that you get. However, I hate the smell of the oil and it breaks me out. So now I only use it to clean my foundation and concealer brushes.

I moved on to a cleansing oil gel from Iope (a Korean brand). The first thing that you'll notice with this is how nice it smells. It has a very floral scent. The texture is very gel-like, and you need to warm it up between your hands - otherwise it will not spread easily on your face. But I found that even if I warm it up between my palms, it is still not as easy to spread as the oil. And it didn't do as good a job with mascara as the oil ones.

So then I moved on to Shu Uemura's version of the cleansing oil. I actually started with Enriched version first, since I have dry skin. However, that proved to me too rich for my skin and it made me break out. The Light version proved to be a much better match for my skin. And I was quite happy with it, except for the price and the fact that it's hard for me to travel with the bulky bottle.

Which brings me to the Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel. It is basically a Gel Oil hybrid. So you'll need to warm it up between your hands, as you would with Iope's version. But I have to say that this spreads much better and it's almost as fluid as the oil. It did a great job with removing all traces of makeup, even the mascara. And it washes all easily, and my skin has not reacted so far. So I am very impressed.

I will have to do some calculation to see what the price/vol is for the Clarins version, but hopefully it will turn out to be cheaper than the one from Shu. And the squeeze tube is certainly more travel-friendly than the Shu's pump bottle.

So we'll see.