After my first and only experience with a cleansing balm wasn’t that great (review of that here), I was dubious as to whether or not this highly favoured form of cleanser by beauty bloggers just wasn’t for me. If however, a brand was to do well on that front I knew it would be elemis! Ultra high end, the 200ml pots of the Elemis Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm are £79 (eek!) so with a high price tag comes high expectations, and I was really excited to get to try this as part of my selections from June’s Love Me Beauty Box.
The first time I used this I had a full blown summer cold and chest infection and because I couldn’t smell anything I didn’t realise that it contained my nemesis lavender (I hadn’t even opened the pot until a few minutes before to quickly photograph before I ‘ruined’ the perfect surface that made it look like a teeny pot of lemon curd). After rubbing into my skin and over my eye area it dissolved everything, after leaving it on for a minute whilst I just got ready to hop in the shower to wash it off, my skin became feeling incredibly hot, putting it down to last week’s great british heatwave! And it wasn’t until the second time I came to use it almost a week that I then realised the problem was the lavender not the weather.
Luckily the heat was the only reaction I had, so the effect didn’t last very long – but I wouldn’t want to change to using more regularly than that just in case. My skin did feel great the next morning feeling smooth and clean.
This did do an amazing job of getting rid all traces of makeup, including stubborn mascara and the incredibly long lasting OFRA liquid lipsticks which last 12 hours on my chatterbox lips. If you’re thinking of buying this, and you don’t have a lavender allergy – don’t let this put you off, I’m not used to checking facial skincare for lavender.
I will use the Elemis Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm up, but not frequently for obvious reasons. I will keep this to hand for if I’m wearing any particularly heavy eye makeup because this was a complete breeze to remove makeup with.
Let me know if you’ve tried any cleansing balms that you would recommend (especially at the less pricey end of the spectrum) I’m interested in these becoming more daily, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to splash the cash on popular favourites such as Emma Hardie’s just yet.
Instagram: @helplesswhilstdrying | Twitter: @helplessdrying
Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com
Too bad you have a reaction to it, it does sound like a lovely balm (although a bit pricy).
xxx Anne
Very pricey – it’s about on par with Emma Hardie/Sarah chapman etc for the 200ml is about double those – but you have to really like it to commit! X
Well, I definitely like your idea of trying a sample first, sounds like a lot of money to just go in blind 🙂 xxx
It sounds fantastic,I haven’t tried any skincare from Elemis x
Heather | Of Beauty & Nothingness