Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm - review

Released back in March (I believe) I've been looking for an excuse to try this stuff out.

The Rant

OK, I'm going to get my main gripe out of the way first: this stuff is not good at removing heavier eye makeup - it will remove light eye makeup, but it struggles a bit with waterproof mascara or liner.  And it also can be stingy around the eye area if you're trying to insist that it fulfils this purpose.  This is somewhat annoying, as full sized, this costs around the €50 mark (for 105g) but hey, I already knew it wasn't meant for eye makeup remover, I guess I just thought, given its formulation, it might be up to the task.  Now that I know it's not, I just use a normal eye makeup remover first when I use this stuff.

The Rave

In terms of cleansing the rest of my face, there's no problems at all - it removed every other scrap of makeup and left my face feeling a supercharged version of amazingly soft to boot.

It's suggested that you can use this product as a mask as well as a cleanser by applying it to your face and covering with a hot cloth for about 10-15 minutes (which helps to further soften your face), but I would only do this if I were using it as the second step of a double-cleanse, or if my face were already clean (otherwise you're just leaving dirty oily muck soak into your face).

The Formula

This is quite a thick oily balm - it comes with a spatula for scooping it out and also a decent washcloth (am I the only person in all of christendom who isn't in love with muslin cloths?)  There are no parabens, no mineral oils.  The only alcohol is a preservative.  In terms of ingredients, it's got a lot of goodies like sweet almond oil, beeswax, elderberry oil, wheat germ oil, oat kernel oil, shea butter, glycerin, starflower seed oil, orange peel wax, mimosa flower wax, rose flower wax, coconut oil, lavender oil, geranium oil, eucalyptus oil, chamomile oil, jojoba seed oil, mint leaf oil, grape seed oil, orange oil, clove leaf oil... ok... I just know you dozed off there, so quick summary: "oils and waxes abound".

It has an extremely strong scent.  Beware!  I personally love it, my genius of an aromatherapist uses a lot of these ingredients in her custom blends for me (rose, geranium, chamomile, orange, almond oils...) but it's not a scent you can ignore, so I can understand that not everyone would like it.   Definitely this is one to have a sniff of before you purchase :-)  And to understand its function: it's a cleanser first, it's a masque second, it's a makeup remover third, and it's not an eye makeup remover.

Given the high concentration of oils and waxes and given that it contains shea butter, I probably would hesitate to recommend this to someone with oily skin (but I don't think I'd recommend any oil/balm-based cleanser to anyone with oily skin anyhow).

Look here for more information.  Do I recommend?  Ehhhhhhhhh.... tentatively, but honestly more as a non-makeup-removing cleanser and/or treatment masque than as a makeup remover.  And at the price, you can get better.  I'll use it up, but I personally won't replace it.  If I'm honest I think that the Elemis Pro-Collagen Cream Cleanser frankly is a better all-round cleanser than this (and my beloved Shu Uemura remains the daddy of them all).