Creme de la Mer The Cleansing Gel - review

Creme de la Mer have a number of different cleansers, none of which I found so far are particularly amazing for makeup removal however*.

The lotion-based cleanser (The Cleansing Lotion), unfortunately didn't do it for me – it contains fennel, and as I may have said before, I’m a bit hit-and-miss with fennel, sometimes I love it, sometimes it makes me gag.  The smell of fennel in this product gave me a niggling headache, so back out the door it went, donated to a friend of mine who I believe liked it.

The Cleansing Foam I use every second morning (alternating between that one day, and Natura Bissé AHA Cleanser the next) in the shower, and I love it – it’s a gentle foaming cleanser, a smidge of it works wonders at cleansing and freshening up my face, although to-date it hasn't been a great makeup remover, it works fine for lighter makeup alright.  I will post more on this one, because I have found a device that turns this cleanser into a passable makeup removing cleanser (more on that to come in another post later).

So onto the point of this post, The Cleansing Gel...

This is, as it sounds, a gel-based cleanser, designed to “gently draw debris, excess oil and pollutants away from the skin without irritation or drying”.  So far so true – it definitely is a great face cleaner and although it’s gel-based, and washed away with water, it doesn’t dry out my skin at all.  Its intended audience is those with oily and combination skin, as you’d expect – but I’ve used this when my skin has been a little dry and it’s worked fine for me then too, with no adverse effects.  That said, I probably wouldn’t recommend it for dryer skinned ladies for longer term usage.  To use it, damp-down your skin, massage it in until it lathers-up, and rinse it with warm water.  So far so simple – standard enough gel-based/foaming cleanser stuff.  And it works fine.  It will remove lighter makeup quite well, but it’s not a makeup remover per se.  But I won’t be repurchasing.

Why not, you ask, since I’m an absolute dyed-in-the-wool CDLM acolyte!  As Agent Smith said in The Matrix: "it’s the smell, you see".  It’s not a bad smell, it’s inoffensive enough actually.  But picture a really cheap smelling herbally-piney-scented shower gel in a cheap plastic container in a cheap hotel.  Picture the green colour of it.  Now picture using a slightly thicker version of that to wash your face.  That’s precisely what it smells like.  Looking at the ingredients listing, it does contain some goodies, mixed in with a lot of chemicals and CDLM’s Deconstructed Waters stuff, but honestly, I can’t get past the look and smell.  When I use this, I feel cheated, like CDLM is taking the absolute p*ss out of me.  For that reason, for the cost reason, because there’s other stuff out there better, and for reasons of my particular skin type, I won’t bother.

200ml of this will set you back €95.  So far so pricy.  Look here for more information on this.

* I believe that the line-up now includes a cleansing oil, which I imagine should be good for makeup removal.  Must look into it.