purity made simple by philosophy

Ok, so I said that one of the things I hoped that writing this blog would encourage me to do, is try products that I own but for whatever reason haven't gotten around to trying yet.

First up in this category is a sample of purity 3-in-1 cleanser for face and eyes by philosophy. I think I received this when I ordered some of the seasonal shower gels in last year's January sales. This week I finally tore it open, and have been using it as my evening cleanser every day. It's quite a generous sample (ie. you get more than one or two uses out of it), which I think is important when it comes to skincare (and haircare for that matter) because you can't really make a fair judgement if you've only used a product once.

Philosophy describe the cleanser as such:

Our award-winning daily facial skin cleanser is formulated to gently cleanse, tone and melt away all face and eye makeup in one simple step, while lightly hydrating the skin. 

• deep cleans pores and eliminated makeup build-up
• natural oil extracts help condition the skin
• fragrance-free formula

I really like the consistency: it's not too thick , neither too runny (I know I sound like Goldilocks here), so it's easy to get the right amount you want and distribute it evenly around your face as you're cleansing. As suggested on the packet I have been massaging it in for a little while rather than just quickly slapping it on and taking it off. The texture is quite creamy and it feels moisturising. It's very easy to remove with a few splashes of warm water, which isn't always the case with oil-based cleansers. It also removes make up quite effectively and doesn't sting the eyes when you're trying to get your mascara off.

However, it wasn't quite moisturising enough for me. The first time I used it, almost as soon as I had towel-dried my face I was running to the bedroom to find my Steamcream as my skin felt really tight. It's strange, because when you're massaging it in it does feel moisturising, but that feeling doesn't linger once you've washed it off. Now that I've used it a few times, my skin feels slightly less tight every time, but it just doesn't compare to my regular cleanser, Ultrabland, which is so moisturising I could probably get away with not even using a cream afterwards. The only area where purity comes out on top is the ease with which you can remove all traces of the cleanser really easily with water.

Looking at the ingredients in the cleanser I'm not too surprised that it's not ideal for my dry, sensitive skin, as there are some quite 'powerful' ingredients in there, like cinnamon leaf oil and black pepper oil.

For now, philosphy will remain all about the shower gels for me. Although I think I would be interested to try another product in the purity line - the mineral oil-free cleansing oil for face and eyes, which sounds like it could be more up my street. So maybe the next time I place an order I'll try and get a sample of that!