Pink and Undecided: December 2013

Clean-O-Matter 02 : Oriflame Essentials 3 in 1 Cleanser

Hi, y'all!

This is one of the long-drafted reviews (obviously, from the first line you'd know it's almost 2 months old, i've been taking yoga classes for about two months now and loving every single session! Having a break right now-can't wait to start again next week!) and it's going to be my last review for 2013! This might or might not be the last post for this year as well (i have another post planned but i haven't write it and tomorrow i have plans with my family so i dunno if i can post it before new year!), if it is... I just want to wish everybody a very early (a day early hahaha) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope everybody's having TOP time at the day itself! Now, enjoy the post!

I've started working out again (well, it's the first day of the class when i typed this, but seeing the amount of drafted reviews it'll probably already second pay cycle when i finally post this!) after such a long time of no real, regular work out *lazy bum!*. I am the epitome of a creature of habit, once i take up a routine-i'd stick to it until something compromise it. In this work out case-my old trainer stopped having public classes (she's still accepting private classes but i'm way too afraid of her one-on-one LOL). After months of LL whining "Let's go for yogaaaaaa" but never actually took place, we finally started today.

It was a HOT yoga, #Undecided told me we're crazy *LOL* because she said "It's not for rookie BB!". Well, they didn't have any choice BB! It's not like they have non-hot and hot classes separately okay! LL looked like she was in a coma by the time we're done (actually since the beginning, as soon as we got into the sauna-like room) as for me, i apparently withstand heat better than her because apart from sweating like a roasting pig, i actually felt good and got a burst of energy afterward. I do love exercising, it's just that i tend to forget that (due to laziness) after being absent from doing it for too long.

One thing though, it's very often after i had a class, showered (not right away of course, i'm aware i should cool down before showering) and take a nap later-i'd develop a headache. Why???? Anyone knows??? (I just Googled, and i think the culprit's dehydration, damn)

Okay lah, i'm not actually writing about exercises in this entry, i just got carried away (what's new haha). I'm actually going to review a product from Oriflame : Essentials 3 in 1 Cleanser.

Picture courtesy of Google

Before we start with the actual review, i just want to talk a little bit about the brand itself. I've known this brand since like, forever (okay lah, since i was in University actually, but that's like a lifetime away) and i actually was a member once (coz my sis-in-law registered me so she'd have a downline or whatever they are calling it). I was always quite attracted to the shiny catalog and the (mostly) affordable price. Oriflame (taking over from Avon, which actually went bankrupt in Indonesia) blended so well with Indonesian that i started to forget that this is not a local brand *LOL*.

Like Avon, Oriflame has a unique selling system. They do not sell directly to the costumer, instead they have their own Beauty Consultants who sells them door-to-door (or so to speak), just like Avon ladies! Unfortunately, in Indonesia, there's this bad stigma about those Oriflame ladies. They have this tendency (not all of them obvi, but lots of them are like this...) to force other people to become a member, and lots of us became very apprehensive of this brand because of that. We prefer to avoid those BCs and in turn, we avoided the products altogether. A real shame.

I used to order Oriflame stuffs (because i quite like their stuffs, yeah i admit i mostly were more attracted to the promos and low prices than anything else-to a point where i never buy anything that's not currently on sale. Because i am Kiasu like that) from my old friend (who just took my orders, sent me new catalogs every month, never pester me to be a member and even gave me the BC's discount so she didn't get any profit other than points from selling them to me! It was about 30% off the catalog price?) like, every month (coz my own membership expired years ago and i have no intention whatsoever to renew it, so if you're thinking of ~~forcing~~ offering me to be a member-DON'T!), whatever's on sale that month but sadly she moved to Jakarta after getting married so for awhile i had no channel to get Oriflame products.

Then G (damn her) told me that her office mate sells Oriflame, and even though she offers less discount (anyone in Surabaya sells Oriflame with bigger discount??? I might buy from you! Haha) that used to be 20% off the catalog price but now suddenly became 15% off, my love affair with Oriflame continues on.

Because of the POV i had of Oriflame, i was *stupidly* pretty surprised to see beauty bloggers from UK to review Oriflame stuffs. It did came from Europe after all, #Pink! (It's a Swedish brand, right?) It's just that i am so accustomed to thinking that Oriflame is a cheap brand (do you know that in my employee's neighborhood they actually let you buy Oriflame-and Sophie Martin-stuffs and pay in installments??) with not-so-good products. It's wrong because they do have lots of LOVELY stuffs. There are hits and misses of course, but which brand doesn't?

OMG, i wrote so long and still haven't begun the review at all, what's wrong with me??? Okay okay here it is!

Oriflame Essentials 3 in 1 Cleanser

This exact same cleanser seems to be discontinued already though! I happen to have the latest Oriflame catalog with me (errrr... i recently got the impulse cosmetic shopping spree bug and really wanted to try out Oriflame's version of lip crayon, so i asked G to ask her office mate to lend to me so i can browse...) and i couldn't find this product anymore (which is a shame because it's quite nice!). Instead they now have this Essentials Fairness Balancing Cleanser instead (but i noticed Oriflame has different products for every countries, so maybe this cleanser's still available somewhere!). So if you want to purchase the other products from the Essentials line, hopefully this review would help you to measure roughly how their performance would fare.

Came with the normal squeeze tube with flip top, the tube itself was matte (which i hate because i cannot stand the sound of a dry hand brushing against matte materials *shudder*) and contained 150ml of products. That's normal, not too generous but for the price (i got it really cheaply, i can't remember how much but it was normally under IDR 50.000 and i got it when it was on sale so maybe it was IDR 30.000 something!), it was more than okay!

Consistency of the cleanser was light, like runny gelly lotion, very cooling and nice on the skin. The scent, however, wasn't exactly as nice. You know how horrible i am when it comes to describing scents, but for me-it smelled like a chemically-induced milky thingy *LOL WTF am i saying???*. It's quite perfumey, but the strong perfume couldn't really conceal the equally strong chemical scent so in the end it became really confusing *LOL*. I didn't exactly enjoy the scent, but i wasn't TOO bothered either. I always double (triple, actually) cleanse my face whenever i'm wearing any makeup (even loose powders) so the scent was always washed away afterward anyway.

I thought this would just perform like the usual milk cleansers (but lighter, i already noticed that it was more refreshing than regular milk cleansers when i first squeezed it out of the tube), but it was actually more special than that!

This is my cheek (i was wearing a light foundie+compact powder+blush on) after i slathered the product on generously

Then i massaged them lightly in circular motion, the runny lotion turned watery and whitish while dissolving my make up!

In the end it looked similar with oil cleansers, but it started more solid (since it was gellish lotion!)

I cannot find the official guide on how to use this lotion, i'm guessing you can either wash it off with water straightaway or wipe it with facial tissues/cottons? But i always opted for the latter.

The cotton, after i wipe my face off with them

This products claims to be a 3 in 1 cleanser, as it cleanse, refresh (like a toner/lotion) and moisturize your skin-so maybe they are saying that you shouldn't have to wash your face with other facial wash after you used this? That would be fine if you're not really wearing any make up, but then again in my case, if i wasn't wearing any make up i wouldn't bother using this, i'd just wash my face with a facial wash instead-so... Well, it just doesn't work that way for me. I actually find this product to be too weak to work by itself. I triple cleanse my face whenever i'm wearing full make up-i use eye & lip make up remover (that i wipe all over my face to take off some of my face make up too-this break some people up so don't copy me), then followed by this (then ended with a facial wash)-and even when i used this as the second step-it wasn't enough to get rid of all of my make up (and i never even put on that much make up anyway!).

I tested by wiping toner on my skin with cottons after i used this, and there'd still be traces of foundation left. That means it's not clean yet, right! Sometimes i even need to use a second helping for this product (if i noticed my cotton to be very dirty after i wipe them off) before washing my face-so i needed to use a LOT of product. No wonder it ran out pretty fast (thankfully it was cheap ahahaha).


This is my cheek after using the product to take off my make up, looks clean but not always as clean as it looks, haha... This cleanser claims to be enriched with Vitamin E and Cornflower extract (is that cornflower i am smelling? Together with chemical stuffs hehe) and the good thing about this cleanser was it's very light, cooling, pleasing to use (and i love how it turns to watery substance, i think it reacts to body temperature because i let a blob rested on my palm for a while put of curiosity and it started to melt!) and really soften my skin, so i'm guessing the Vitamin E and Cornflower extract really worked! I think it'd be very amazing for people with dry skin (because it didn't dry out your skin), but it does work really well on my (very) oily skin as well. The downside would be it not being strong enough, but then again it never really claimed to be a make up remover-didn't it? If it's still available i'd definitely recommend it for people who are looking for a nice, affordable, cooling and unique cleanser that woudn't dry out-and soften instead-your skin. I wouldn't recommend it for people with sensitive nose (who are fussy about their cleanser being chemical-smelling) and who are looking for a strong make up remover. This is not a make up remover, it'd pretty great as a second cleansing step though (after your make up remover), especially for people with dry skin (if you already used a make up remover, then you can test out the 3 in 1 part and not wash your skin with a facial wash anymore. I did leave it like that for a bit before washing my face a few times and it was nice, but i just feel "dirty" if i haven't wash them off with water!). Would i repurchase this? Yes, if it's still around, especially if they are on promotion haha. Since it's unlikely to still be available, i might try out the Balancing Cleanser (but this one's a facial wash so it'd be different) in the future (of course waiting for a promotion...). I am quite pleased with how the gelly lotion turned into a watery substance (getting bored of my good ol' cleansing oil hahaha), so i am currently keeping an eye for something (affordable) like this! The only similar thing i've heard about was Menard's Tsukika Cleansing Cream-which is a HIGH END brand and i am not really a high end cleanser user kind of person cheapo, so i will keep on looking (please do comment if you know any drugstore/local/Korean branded alternative-coz i am too cheap for anything too expensive when cheap cleansers do their job perfectly!). Have you ever tried any cleanser from Oriflame (i have used plenty of their other cleansers before i started this blog!) and did you like them? #Pink