Innoxa Organic Gentle Cleansing Gel

 

I may have mentioned before that I can sometimes struggle with cheaper face washes. I find that they can dry out my skin horribly - especially those that are also exfoliators. I'll never the forget the time Andy and I went away for a couple of days and I either forgot my face wash or thought I'd use his. BIG MISTAKE. Whatever cheap product works for your significant other may not work for you. My skin dried out after using it for just two days.

For a while I spent the money on high end face washes. But these days I'm always on the lookout for something cheap and skin friendly to use in between the samples of fancy face wash I get from my mum!

I actually won this Innoxa Organic Gentle Cleansing Gel from Innoxa (thanks!) but it retails for $15 and you can grab it at Priceline.

As it's a gel, it's clear. It has a pale greenish tinge to it and it's neutrally scented (note - neutral does NOT mean it smells disgusting!). You only need to use a tiny amount - pea sized or less even so this makes it great value for money. It doesn't foam up a lot but it certainly does a good job of cleansing without drying out your skin. My skin felt clean after using it but not that horrible, drying 'squeaky clean' feel.

I used the whole lot without my skin drying out, so it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

In terms of ingredients, it's an interesting read. The main ingredient is organic aloe juice followed by glycerin - so that's why it doesn't foam up at a great rate of knots (seriously, I have seen cleansers where sodium laureth sulphate - SLS - is the FIRST ingredient). It's not until ingredient three that we see decyl glucoside listed. This is the surfactant (the ingredient that does the foaming) - and it's a completely different beast to SLS. Not only is its manufacture renewable and plant based, a big feature is that it doesn't cause dryness. So, if like me, you find cleansers can dry out your skin, keep an eye out for it in the ingredients list!

After these three, there are lots of plant derived ingredients. The free-from list is almost as lengthy - for example, it's free from parabens, mineral oils, silicones, petrochemicals and sulphates.

This cleansing gel definitely goes on my repeat purchase list. If you're looking for something gentle and effective, I'd recommend giving it a go.

I'm including this post in Ingrid's weekly roundup of beauty posts. Thank you to everyone who commented last time and hopefully soon I will work out how to actually reply to comments rather than just add to them!

Skin Physics Pore Away Overnight Perfecting Cream

I picked this cream up from Priceline at 50% off. It was marked down to just $30 from its original $60 and I snaffled (I guess) the last tub.

I've not used Skin Physics products before and, in my mind, the brand has a pretty good reputation. The Dragon Blood line seems to rate quite a few mentions. So I had high hopes for this cream. Skin Physics products are made in Australia and that's something I'm always on the look out for.

Sadly, that's mostly where the love affair started and ended. The cream itself actually did a good job of night time moisturising and hydrating - so it definitely gets a big tick on that point. Whether or not it minimised pores - I can't say (which suggests that if it did any pore minimising it was only a little bit!).

However, there were a couple of real downers with this cream. Firstly, while I generally love creams that come in pots, as this did, the Pore Away was so loose it was almost a liquid or lotion rather than a cream. When the pot was full, this meant I had to be careful opening it, because it was too likely to spill out otherwise!

The other thing I really disliked was that this appears to be 'fragrance free' which is fine in and of itself but not great when it actually translates into 'smells decidedly average, verging on off'.

In terms of functionality, I loved that it was so light. It meant it went a long way, it was easy to put on and my skin absorbed it quickly. As I've mentioned, it also did a great job of moisturising.

I suspect that this product has actually been discontinued as it's no longer listed on the Skin Physics website. I'm not surprised - for me at least if I'd paid $60 for it I would have been disappointed. If only because when full so much of it ended up on the bathroom bench!