Review: Ole Henriksen Pure Truth™ Melting Cleanser

I was so excited to try the Ole Henriksen Pure Truth™ Melting Cleanser. I was trying to hold out for a sample before purchasing, but the 1floz size caught my eye during a visit to Sephora during the sale and before I knew it, it was in my basket. I didn't want to go with the full sized product as I hadn't tried this before and hadn't really tried a gelée cleanser at all, only balms and oils (which I love). Though because this is new and different, it's instantly on any skincare junkies want list, or at least, it was on mine.

As one would expect, it's a clear jelly-like consistency. It's tinted orange as with most of the Pure Truth line products in Ole Henriksen's line. It comes in a very sturdy glass jar which surprised me as it was the travel size, but it was a pleasant touch. The lid is sturdy and the product comes boxed and also sealed. It very faintly smells of citrus but I didn't find it overwhelming in the slightest. The 1oz size retails for $12 and it also comes in a 4oz size for $34 which I find quite reasonable, though do note I'm a fond user of the eve lom, which isn't quite so cost effective, ok, it's ridiculously priced, but awesome.

The texture is strange, yet cool? It's like goo. I can see young boys in their early teens loving this stuff (not for the intended purpose, mind you - but my brother was always scaring me with magic shop blood, and jiggly "body parts" that had interesting textures). It's thick, yet bouncy. Ok, I'm going to stop trying to describe the texture as we'll be here all day. What are the claims?

According to the box, "this 3-in-1 cleansing gelée effortlessly melts the most stubborn makeup and gently dissolves everyday impurities leaving the skin superbly hydrated. Vitamin C, rose hips and cherry seed oils pamper, nourish and unveil a purely radiant and healthy complexion". Sounds great.

"Directions: Use dry hands and massage into dry skin to melt away makeup and impurities. Add warm water and rinse clean."

So I first tested this the day I was wearing/testing the Too Faced Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipsticks. That also included a mixture of the Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide in Creme (which is a touch too dark and a touch too yellow and accentuates every single dry patch - but I'm just using up the Sephora sample) and the Makeupever Forever Matte Velvet Plus in #15 (which I'm trying to use up but it is lasting forever!), a Tarte eye primer sample that I don't recall the name of, but I think it might be the brightening one, Makeup Forever Smokey Lash Waterproof Mascara, and one of Tarte's Airblush Maracuja Blushes.

I applied an amount that seemed appropriate (it doesn't tell you how much to use which is slightly vexing - are we talking a pea or a cherry?) and rubbed it into my dry skin. I know the box tells you not to put it in contact with your eyes, but how else is it supposed to remove waterproof mascara? I put it on my eyes since I'm a rebel (not really) though I did get a bit of extra blurry vision, but it didn't burn or sting. I rubbed it in and let it do it's work, and rubbed it in again. I also massaged it all over my face. I did wind up having to add more in the middle which was a bit annoying, but first time user error strikes again.

I actually cheated to get it off since I wanted it to work so badly. Even though the instructions don't tell you to use a muslin cloth, or washcloth or anything, I used my muslin cloth with warm/hot water.

Then I took some cotton pads and some trusty CLINIQUE Take The Day Off Makeup Remover For Lids, Lashes & Lips to see if there were any remnants.

Only a bit of greyness showed up on my right eye, not too bad (yes, I marked these with a sharpie so I would remember, and it's not easy on wet cotton!)

The left eye wasn't so great though.

The face also was a bit disappointing. Can you imagine how it would have been had I not used the muslim cloth??!

And finally lips. This was actually more disappointing than the face, because I made a point of rubbing this into my lips really well and most of the Too Faced lipstick had worn off by this point, I was only dealing with the remnants.

But I'm generous and I like to give things another shot, so I tried it again.

I was wearing slightly less makeup. The same base, the same blush, the same mascara, but I wasn't wearing anything else on my eyes. I had also spritzed myself with a makeup setting spray earlier in the day (-10 hours), and I had been wearing a pretty standard lipstick (not long wearing) which had worn off during dinner. I decided, however, to follow the instructions and not use a muslin cloth because it doesn't say you need to and I admit that the results on my first attempt would have been far worse if I hadn't used one. What I did do this time around was use more product, a lot more product. I also rubbed it into my eyes and let it sit even longer and rubbed it into my skin and let it sit longer, hoping it would help break up the makeup

Much better on the eye front, although I lost several lashes during the process. This cotton pad shows the remnants for both eyes.

However, this was left on my face after using the Ole Henriksen which bummed me out. That is a lot of foundation left kicking around after using a product that should have easily removed it all based on the claims. I wasn't even wearing a primer!

There's just something off with this product and I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure if they need to add an ingredient that really dissolves makeup like it already claims to, or whether they need to say "use a muslin cloth to wipe away excess product and help remove any remnants". I can't lose 8 eyelashes every time I take my makeup off and I don't when I use some of my other cleansers. Nor am I willing to use a zillion other products in combination with this when this claims to effortlessly take off everything!

So this review is a bit of a downer. I am returning my travel jar and going back to my tried and true. It was fun to try this product. It looks so cool, but looks aren't everything.