LUSH Ultra Bland Cleanser
From www.lush.co.uk:
The most gentle but thorough cleanser ever.
Forget convenience and simplicity! Bring back an element of ritual to your bathroom habits. This brings us to Ultra Bland, the finest cleanser in the known* universe. To use this one you must melt a dollop of this peanut oil and beeswax cleanser between the palms of your hands. Then you must smooth it over your face so that the rose and benzoin oils soften your skin and the honey soothes it. Then you must run some warm water, wet a cotton wool pad or a face cloth in the water and gently wash off the Ultra Bland thoroughly. After that, stroke your lovely skin, marvelling at how soft it feels and how clean it looks. *Known to us at Lush.
My Skin Type:
Ranging from very dry to normal/dry. Generally dehydrated, very sensitive.
Packaging:
Black screw top jar made from 100% recyclable plastic. Mine is the old one, the cap doesn’t fit well and it can’t be 100% sealed. Very cute, yet poorly designed packaging.
However I recently bought LUSH Dark Angels cleanser and the jar is much better. It fits and can be properly sealed from water. So maybe right now they’ve re-engineered all of their jars.
Texture:
Creamy, easily spread around the face.
My General Review:
I bought this because LUSH is cute, and Ultra Bland have high rating in MUA. I checked the ingredients and found a couple of irritants in it, typical LUSH. Rosa damascena and Styrax Benzoin, for example. I persevered, thinking it’ll be washed away by water, but my skin disagreed. Oh well. It cleansed well, but with just a couple of uses, my skin was irritated and dehydrated.
Furthermore, this stuff is a hassle to use. You’ll need to wipe it off with a towel soaked in warm water. Rinsing it with warm water won’t do, it’ll leave greasy residue on your face. Okay…so the question is: why would I go toward all the hassle, when you can have an effective, non-irritating cleansing oil, which gets the job done in 1 simple step?
People said that Ultra Bland is very cost effective, but I disagree. I ran through half of the smaller jar in about 2 weeks. I’m pretty sure I didn’t use that much, I only took a blob with my index finger each time. So cleansing oil is more economical, I think.
And the final nail on the coffin? This stuff smells awful. Seriously. Nutty from the peanut oil, but it’s disgusting.
Application:
Take a bit of product with your finger, warm it up and spread it to your face. Then wipe it off with washcloth soaked with warm water.
Price:
At LUSH USA, a small 1.5oz tub is priced at US$14.45, while the bigger 3.5oz tub is worth US$29.95.
Availability:
LUSH already pulled out of Indonesia from 2009, it’s not available in Singapore either. However, LUSH UK provides international shipping service.
Ingredients:
VEGETARIAN, Peanut Oil (Arachis hypogaea), Rose Water (Rosa centifolia), Beeswax (Cera alba), Honey, Fresh Iris Extract (Iris florentina), Glycerine, Rose Absolute (Rosa damascena), Tincture of Benzoin (Styrax benzoin), Sodium Borate, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.
*Occurs naturally in essential oils
Overall Rating:
1 out of 5. This product cleanses well, but it’s expensive, a hassle to use, and irritating for sensitive skin. I threw mine to the bin after 2 weeks.
There are better, more efficient cleansers out there.
*This review will be cross posted in www.makeupalley.com under username Crescent_Shadow.
