Shiseido The Skincare Rinse-Off Cleansing Gel Review

You know, the whole day, while I’m going about my daily chores etc, I have thousands of things going on in my mind about what to put on the blog. I keep writing stuff in my head to put down on the blog….but when I finally get the time and I fie up my laptop/ipad….poofff…..my mind suddenly goes blank!!! Does this happen with you too?

Anyway, I digress. With the advent of winter (well it DOES get cooler and drier in bombay too so that counts as winter for us), I realised that usual Clarins cleanser that I have been using since about 4 months, was making my skin drier. (I must remember to review that soon. It is a wonderful cleanser for combination-oily skin). And since Clarins has discontinued its PureMelt cleanser, I bought the Shiseido Cleansing Gel.

What Shiseido says:
A refreshing gel cleanser that effectively absorbs makeup, oil and impurities while maintaining vital moisture in skin. Rinse away for a thoroughly cleansed, perfectly comfortable complexion.

My experience:

This cleansing gel comes in a 200ml bottle with a flip-top cap. Though it is a gel, the texture is quite thin and runny, almost like watery gel. It is colourless and has a very pleasant fragrance. To me it smells like narial pani (tender coconut water) with a touch of alcohol (well that’s just how my nose describes it to me. Your nose might want to differ.)

A small amount of gel is needed for the entire face. I start by first applying it to my eyelids and under eyes and letting it sit there melt the makeup while I apply and massage the cleanser on the other areas of my face and throat. Once that is done, I gently massage, with feather-light touch, my eye area. It truly dissolves the makeup pretty well. Instead of directly rinsing this off with water, I remove it with a wet wash cloth so that I can actually see the makeup come off on it. If I have been wearing heavy makeup, I cleanse a second time too but on a regular day, on cleanse is enough. Then I rinse my face and it is really clean and fresh.

This cleanser does live up to its claims of maintaining moisture in the skin coz after cleansing, my skin feels soft, clean and smooth. There is no dryness or tightness on the cheek area and even if I take my own sweet time in applying my moisturiser/night cream, my skin doesn’t feel stretched (though this might not be the case for girls with very dry skin or those living in very cold areas.)

I have not tried this on waterproof mascara so I cant say how effective it would on that but it removes foundation, eyeshadow, blush, liner etc very well. I am so glad that I decided to splurge on this cleanser coz i certainly feel it is worth the money. And you dont need too much at a time either so this one bottle is sure to last me at least 4-5 months.

Price – Rs. 1950 for 200 ml.

My rating: 4.75/5 (had to take a it off for the price)

PS- on a totally different note, if anyone knows how to change the fonts, colours etc in the blogger ipad app, pls do email me. Also, with this app, the pics only come at the end of the post. Anyone know how to insert pics in the middle of the post in this app?