I'll start with the most well known, the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish (the one in the picture is travel size). This product is cruelty free, vegan, made in Great Britain, and I do love it as a product. It works very well at cleansing your skin, removing all makeup and grim (as someone who volunteers outside my face can get very grimmy) without drying out your skin. At no point have I had any problems with tightness around my nose when using this and the smell is nice, but not overpowering. The biggest issue I have with products that you are meant to be able to use on your eyes to remove makeup is that I usually end up with puffy eyes the next day, but I didn't find this with the Cleanse and Polish. This is a product I would recommend and I will probably still use it when I go travelling, but the reason I don't still use it is because I've been looking for something more natural.
The next product is the Superdrugs' B Revealed Glycolic Cleansing Peel. I brought this when I was having a particularly bad time with dry skin, especially around my nose and mouth. It contains alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) and is designed to be used as a mask 2 to 3 times a week, but can be used as a cleanser on a daily basis. This product is also cruelty free, vegan, and made in the UK, and I had learnt about it through the YouTuber Rhian HY (WifeLife). This is another great product and was very effective in removing the dead skin on my face without overly drying my face. It was also very good at making sure I had removed all my makeup. The main issue I had with this product was that I couldn't use it to remove my eye makeup. So, while it was very effective at helping my get soft skin again, the fact that I couldn't use it on my eyes and the fact its not very natural it is not a product I would carry on using.
The last of the more conventional cleanser is the Burt's Bees Soap Bark and Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream. While the packaging says that it is 100% natural and they have the cruelty free bunny, their own website says that it is 99.9% natural and they have not been given cruelty free status by Logical Harmony. However, this product is free of parabens, phthalates and petrolatum. Not surprisingly, Burt's Bees isn't normally vegan, but I believe this is as it doesn't contain any animal products. I did feel it helped clean my face very well, removing the last of the makeup, and you definitely feel like it's done a deep clean (I didn't get any spots while I was using it). However, while it is meant to make your skin feel soft, I did feel tightness around my nose after a few days. I think this would be a great product if you have oily skin and need to deep clean your face without stripping it, but it was a bit too drying for my skin. This, coupled with the fact that you can't use it to cleanse your eyes and the question mark about it's cruelty status means that I won't use it again.
After hearing so much about the wonders Dr Bronner's Magic Soap (this one is Hemp Green Tea) I thought I would give it a go, not just as a face wash but also as a shampoo and body wash. This product is certified organic and fair trade, cruelty free, made from vegetable oils and contains no synthetic detergents. The package is also made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. A little of this goes a very long way and it was great being able to use this for everything. It was great as a body wash, but it did feel like it dried out my skin a little bit after a few uses and I wasn't able to use it to remove makeup from my eyes (though it was good at removing makeup from my face). It also felt like it left a film on my hair when I used it as a shampoo. I have heard that you can use apple cider vinegar to remove this so if I choose to use this in the future I will give this a go. As a face wash, the dryness made me decide to try other products and I prefer to use soap instead of a body wash. However, this is a good product to use when travelling.
Naturally Thinking is a company that I haven't heard too many people talking about and which I only found by a google search. I am surprised by this though as, ethically, this is a great brand. They are vegan and cruelty free, palm oil free, paraben and SLS free, handmade in Britain and a number of the products are grown here too. They also pay their employees the living wage and act proactively on a number of environmental issues. While they have a number of face cleansers I decided to get the simple Clay Facial Cleanser as it was the simplest cleanser and a non-irritant. I also liked that you could tailor this by adding your own essential oils. The bottle is small but you only need a pea size amount per application. This is a very nice product and felt great on the skin. However, I didn't feel that it completely removed my makeup and I started using this after I had done an initial cleanse with coconut oil. Once I started doing that doing that my face felt very clean, but still moisturised.
I decided to try some balms so see if they would be more effective at removing makeup as well as not drying out my skin, so I ordered some samples from Naturisimo. The first one is the Pink Boutique Hydrating Deep Cleansing Melt. This product is cruelty free, vegan, 100% natural, 87% certified organic, made in England, and paraffinum, paraben, and SLS free. This melt is designed for those of us with sensitive skin and can also be used on your eyes. While it is difficult to get a complete idea with such a small sample, I did really enjoy using this product. The texture felt really nice on my face and did a very good job of removing my makeup effectively, including my eye makeup, and didn't leave that much of a residue. It also left my face feeling moisturised without any issue of dryness. It is quite a pricey product, £40 a tub, but I would think about buying it as I think a little goes a very long way.
The next product is Balmology Neroli and Sweet Basil Cleansing Balm. This is another British brand which is made with 99% organic ingredients, hand made in small batches, the raw ingredients are brought from growers who are fairtrade and ethical, and cruelty free, but not vegan. Cheaper at £27, this felt great on the skin and was also very good at removing makeup easily. It did leave a slight residue on the skin, but nothing unpleasant, and the smell was also nice but mild. The main issue I had with this balm was that I couldn't use it on my eyes to remove makeup and I am looking for a product that I can use all over my face.
The next product I tried was the Herbfarmacy Wash Off Cleansing Mousse (now known as the Refining Cleanser). I thought it would be interesting to try a product that was more like a mousse than a balm and I had heard good things about Herbfarmacy. Made in Britain, the ingredients are also ground in Herefordshire. This product is paraben and SLS free, 80% organic, and cruelty free (but not vegan). The good thing about this product is that you don't need a muslin cloth or face towel to wash this off, unless you feel you need to remove the excess. At £16 it is quite tempting to buy a fall amount, but I think you would need to use more of this then the other balms. This felt great on my skin, was really easy to work in, smelt great, and I liked the fact that I could use it to remove my eye makeup as well. The only problem I had as that it didn't remove my makeup as well as I first thought and I was still able to remove more makeup afterwards.
The last item is the Suti Facial Cleansing Balm. Suti is another British company which makes products containing organic ingredients, of which this product is 84% organic. It is cruelty free but not vegan as they use beeswax. This balm also melted well onto the skin and was good at removing my face makeup, only leaving a small film on your face. However, out of all the balms I tried this cleansing balm was my least favourite as the smell was a little overpowering and I also wasn't able to use this to remove my eye makeup so didn't do the multi-tasking I was hoping for.
So, what am I using as a cleansing and makeup remover.
Well, funnily enough it's the very simple, quite cheap Organic Coconut Oil (this time I'm using the brand ). Not only is this easy to get, it works really well at removing my makeup and any other grim on my face. It's safe to use on your eyes and I've never had any issues with it causing puffiness the next day or any irritation. It does leave a slight film on your face and can cause spots on some people (though this has never been an issue for me). Either I would leave it like that and then use oil to moisturise afterwards or I wash my face with the Friendly Soap Cocoa Butter Facial Cleansing Bar.
I got this from one of The Vegan Kind subscription boxes and, worked with the coconut oil, works well as a double cleanse without drying out my skin. I have used this soap on its own when I didn't actually need to oil cleanse. It has a nice texture and I like that it doesn't have too many ingredients in it, but it is a little drying on my skin and wouldn't be something I could use on a daily basis without the oil cleanse. I believe this is only because I have dry skin though, and this would work well on normal to oily skin.
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