I took a gamble with this facial cleanser. I hadn't read any reviews beforehand but since I had had only positive experiences with Burt's Bees products, I figured I couldn't get it that wrong with this cleanser.
I'm still faithful to MuLondon's face cleansers and I've been alternating between the
MuLondon Organic Fragrance-free Foaming Face Wash and Burt's Bees Radiance Facial Cleanser for the past half a year or so. The former gives instant foam and smells raw and earthy while the latter is slimy lotiony and smells milky-honey. Both are gentle, cleanse well and are not drying. To cut to the chase, I like both.
Here's what Burt's Bees says about its Radiance Facial Cleanser:
• Lightweight lotion cleanser
• Formulated with a plant-based cleansing complex to remove dirt, oil and make-up
• Exfoliates to help encourage skin cell turnover with Jojoba Beads and fruit acids
The cleanser is housed in an opaque plastic bottle (which I believe is made from 80% post-consumer recycled materials) and it has a lockable pump. For one cleansing session, you just need one quick, shallow pump to dispense a blop smaller than any typical five cent coin. That's all. When I used this cleanser for the first time, I did four (!!!) pumps. That was way, way too much. Trust me, just one shallow pump each time and this 175ml bottle will last a long time.
As mentioned earlier, it has a slimy texture. The Jojoba Beads are not that detectable as they tend to melt off quickly. It lathers okay and it rinses off fine. The face feels very clean and fresh after a wash but I wouldn't use just this cleanser to remove eye makeup. I prefer to precede that with an eye makeup remover.
I believe some ladies feel it does bring radiance to their skin. I'm on the fence about its exfolating qualities but that's okay. If it contains good ingredients (yay for royal jelly!), cleanses well, doesn't strip my skin of all its oils and doesn't break me out, I'm a happy camper already!
It's a thumbs up but that's not all I want to say though.
Firstly, the bottle packaging. Although there has been a minor change in the look of the bottle (according to the website), I don't see major changes in the list of ingredients. All the core ingredients are still present.
List of ingredients:
Water, decyl glucoside, safflower oleosomes, sodium cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein, glycerin, royal jelly, jojoba oil, hydrogenated jojoba oil, bilberry fruit extract, sugar cane extract, sugar maple extract, orange fruit extract, lemon fruit extract, fragrance, glucose, xanthan gum, citric acid, sodium chloride, lactoperoxidase, glucose oxidase
Burt's Bees says that this product is 99% natural.
Secondly, its interesting similarity to one of Burt's Bees body care products. When I first started using the Radiance Facial Cleanser, I was surprised by how it reminded me of the
Burt's Bees Radiance Exfoliating Body Wash - same colour, similar texture, similar scent and both have what Burt's Bees calls Jojoba Beads suspended in the liquid.
Of course, I had to take another look at the list of ingredients and I compared it with that of the Body Wash. Similar! All the star ingredients are there - safflower oleosomes, royal jelly, jojoba oil, hydrogenated jojoba oil, bilberry fruit extract, sugar cane extract, sugar maple extract, orange fruit extract, lemon fruit extract - listed in pretty much the same order.
At that time, I still had some of the body wash left and decided to try washing my face with that for a few days. Yup, the Exfoliating Body Wash works fine for the face too but I thought a couple of its Jojoba Beads were less subtle during lathering between the palms.
I wasn't in the laboratory when they formulated these two products, so I won't claim that the Body Wash is
exactly the same as the Facial Cleanser. Burt's Bees may or may not have tweaked the basic formula here and there so that one is more suited for use on the body and the other on the face. I can only say that they are very similar and I just thought you should know.
The Radiance Exfoliating Body Wash costs USD8.00 / £9.99 for 350ml while the Radiance Facial Cleanser costs USD10 / £9.99 for 175ml. You can do the math. Over here, the facial cleanser is going for around €15-€16, depending on which store you get it from.
Burt's Bees website
