Sunday, 16 October 2011

Cleanser Empties - Alpha-H & Snowberry

I am on a serious skincare no-buy at the moment, I cannot buy an item unless I have used up all the ones I have, so until I finish all my cleansers, I'm not buying another one (as I am writing this a MuLondon newsletter has arrived in my inbox to inform me of the launch of their new foaming facials cleansers, and I have to resist the urge to not put in an order, but boy do they sound lovely).

Just for reference I have combination/dehydrated/acne-prone skin with acne-scarring and am 28 (so use more preventative/fixing acne devastation skincare).

I have used up 2 cleansers so far - Alpha-H Balancing Cleanser and Snowberry Instant Deep Cleanser.


Alpha-H Balancing Cleanser
I have always been curious about Alpha-H products and bought a set from QVC a while back which this cleanser was a part of. While I haven't really been taken so much with the other products (I don't quite understand the fuss with Liquid Gold), the Balancing Cleanser is not bad.

This is a slightly runny white cream that is easily rinsed off with water. It does a good job of removing makeup and leaves the skin feeling clean but not stripped. I think this helped a tiny bit with skin clarity but unfortunately I found it slightly irritating around my eye area. Overall it is a solid cleanser but I am not likely to repurchase.

Ingredients:
Aqua, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Sorbitan Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Cetyl Alcohol, Lauryl Glucoside, Phenoxyethanol, Glycerin, Methylparaben, Sodium Hydroxymethyl Glycinate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Citric Acid, Parfum.

Snowberry Instant Deep Cleanser
This is quite an unusual looking cleanser as it's a bright orange colour with an slightly oily-serum thin cream like texture. This does allow for the product to be massaged well into the skin and it rinses off very cleanly with water so with all these elements it offers quite a unique cleansing experience. Packed full of natural oils and extracts (some more unusual then others - I didn't know a Cloudberry even existed).

It does a very thorough job of cleansing, leaving the skin clear and pores feeling less 'cloggy'. I hadn't noticed how much this was the case until I finished it up. The saying 'you don't know what you have until it's gone' rings true for this cleanser.
Having said that it's not a repurchase as it is the most expensive cleanser I've ever bought at £46 for 50ml. While it lasted much longer then I thought it would (about 3 months, mostly using in the morning as you only need 1-2 pumps for the face), it doesn't quite beat the Ren ClearCalm cleanser for me.

Ingredients:
Melia azadirachta linn (Neem) seed oil, Plukenetia volubilis (Inca Inchi) seed oil, Macadamia Ternifolia seed oil, Olive Oil Squalene, Glyceryl Oleate Citrate, Passiflora edulis (Passion flower) seed oil, Polyglyceryl-6 Caprylate, Candida Bombiola extract & Glucose & Methyl Rapeseed Ferment, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides & Cymbium grandiforum flower extract, Asboryl Tetraisopalmitate, Rubis chamaemorus (Cloudberry) seed oil, Echium plantagineum oil, Lonicera Japonica (Honeysuckle) flower extract, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Gluten extract, Polydecene & Solanum Lycopersicum (Tomato) extract, Coleus Forskohili (Coleus) oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis leaf extract, Lycopene extract.

3 comments:

  1. I bought and used up that Alpha-H Balancing Cleanser as well but I found it leave my skin feeling very dry, my skin sure is fussy! I'm planning to go gluten free in a weeks time, just for a month, as I have heard it helps with acne. I looked into it and as well as food its recommended to change skincare/haircare and lisptick as well, its going to be a costly experiment ;)

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  2. I need to go on a skincare no buy too! I just spent alot of money at Space NK today...

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  3. Hi Replica
    I'm interested to hear how you get on going gluten free - I tried cutting down on gluten but I couldn't cut it out completely although I think I still saw some positive benefits. It hadn't occurred to me about gluten in cosmetics until I read a post somewhere on it. I suppose it helps having multi-use products like those W3LL people/Vapour cosmetic sticks so hopefully it's not too costly!

    At the moment I am much more focused on working myself out internally rather then just with products and have some posts coming up with that journey.

    Hi Product Doctor
    Space NK is a dangerous place; there is a lot there I would like to try.

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