Clarins Total Cleansing Oil Review – Does It Make The Cut To Be My Must Have?

Clarins Total Cleansing Oil Review

What Clarins claims : This wonderfully smooth oil which transforms into a milk on rinsing, eliminates all traces of the most resistant make-up (long-hold or highly pigmented make-up, fine pearl, mineral sunscreens, etc.). Very easy to rinse, it leaves no oily residue and preserves even the most fragile skin.

This makeup remover comes in a plastic bottle with a pump. There is a plastic clamp just below the pump to prevent accidental spilling of the liquid. I remove the clamp each time I use this and then put it back on.

A light weight, yellow oil, it does have a faint olive smell to it. It doesn’t feel very heavy or greasy on the skin, just a bit, well, oily since it is an oil!!! Two pumps are generally enough to cover my face and it seems to melt the sunscreen/ bb / foundation from my face! Just a few drops of water is what it takes to emulsify it into a milky lotion and when you rinse it off, clean, fresh skin! In one shot!!! Quite impressive!

I was told not to use this around the eye area and so I can’t say if it would work just as well with waterproof, long wear liners and mascaras. Clarins recommends using a separate eye makeup remover as this oil based one can be heavy for the delicate eye area and cause milia.

When I finally did read the ingredient list, however, I was a bit disappointed to see mineral oil as one of the ingredients. Wonder why Clarins, a brand that prides itself on its plant based products, had to have mineral oil in its product! Quite a turn off for me.

I have also been using a Shiseido cleanser these past few months, which I also love and if I had to compare the two, I would say the Shiseido one wins for two reasons: firstly, that can be used around the eye area while the Clarins one can’t be. Secondly, is the price. The difference though very marginal, does tilt the balance in favour of Shiseido for me. Clarins Total Cleansing Oil is Rs. 2100 for 150 ml while the Shiseido Cleansing Gel is Rs. 1950 for 200 ml. AND, Shiseido doesn’t have mineral oil as its ingredient (okay, that makes it three reasons).

This really is a very nice cleansing oil and since I’ve bought it, I’m definitely going to use it up (and that’s going to take long). But when it comes to repurchase, I’ll probably go for Shiseido.