Biore Cleansing Oil

Ingredients:

Mineral Oil, Peg-12 Laurate, Isododecane, Isopropyl Palmitate, Water, Polyglyceryl-2 Isostearate, Decyl Glucoside, Polysorbate 85, Glyceryl Oleate, Isostearic Acid, Isostearyl Glyceryl Ether, Myristyl Alcohol, Isostearyl Glyceryl Pentaerythrityl Ether, Bht, Fragrance, Citric Acid.

Textbook-wise — if you will check COSDNA, take note that Isopropyl Palmitate has a comedogenic rate of 4 and is also tagged as possible irritant. Isostearic Acid, Glyceryl Oleate and Isopropyl Palmitate as per Skincarisma are known to trigger fungal acne.

Trial Duration: 3 days

Price: 349 PHP (BeautyMNL) / around 7 USD – 150 ml

*** The price I indicated above is the regular tag of this item. I did not buy this personally but rather got it as a freebie when I bought Biore UV Covering Base – Oil Control

Packaging:

Non-Sampler should look like below (not my picture):

What I got:

Current Skin Condition: Combination with random peeling

Review:

For the record, I have always been a Micellar Water person. I use Micellar Water to remove my sunscreens and makeups on a daily basis then follow it with a gentle cleanser. But because I got this for free and I can see a lot of people liking this product, I thought of giving this one a try. I have always been too scared of pure oils when it comes to cleansing or even leave-on’s. I think if you’re the type of person who struggles with acne for a very long time, you would understand where this fear is coming from.

Personally, I’m surprised with how this item functioned. First, it removed my sunscreen and makeup so easily. Second, it didn’t break me out.

The way I used this product is that I massage it to my face for at least 30 seconds, aiming to make the oil contact all the makeups and agitate it a little bit, nothing harsh.  Afterwards, I wash my face with regular water, not too cold and not too warm. Lastly, I followed it with my favorite cleanser which is  Simple Moisturizing Facial Wash.

The feel of this cleansing oil when removed by water will give you a smooth and squeaky kind of clean. I did not feel any oil leftover in my face which I do expected because after all, this is oil. This oil when you massage it into your skin will turn murky – this is the oil doing some action.

For this test, I took some commonly used cosmetics (sunscreen included) into my arm:

*** the order is described as the first picture.

*** this includes tinted sunscreen, eye shadows (liquid), foundation, lipstick, crayon eye liner, liquid eye liner (waterproof), eye shadow (powder), mascara (waterproof), eye brow wax with colored powder,  eyebrow pencil and concealer

In this example I used roughly 1/3 teaspoon of Biore Cleansing Oil. Massage it for 30 seconds, let is sit there for couple more seconds (for pictures) and rinse it with water.

I’m not sure how this picture was taken but my arm looks longer? Meh.

In the picture above, you will see that the oil went murky due to the dissolved makeup. If you will look closer you will see that the liquid eyeliner is still visible. After I took some pictures (which took like 15 seconds), I immediately rinsed the oil with water and tap my skin with towel (just tap and not rub).

This is what it looks like now:

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nothing left

In the picture above, you will see that nothing was left even the liquid eye liner we spotted before we rinsed it. I haven’t followed this with any cleanser for the record, so the removal was only done by the cleansing oil itself.

In addition to its cleaning power, this cleansing oil did not break me out. However, do note that this contain fragrance. The smell is very light and I personally did not notice it right away. I only went to smell the bottle itself hence I realized that it does have scent after all. I would imagine that they added this very faint smell to mask the original smell of oils. It didn’t bother me at all and it is very easy to miss unless you’re looking for it.

I’m glad that the original container of this item comes with a pump. It will definitely make the dispensing a lot easier and less messy which I think is valuable when dealing with liquid oils. I also like the fact that it did not left my face feeling greasy or oily, giving me the impression that you can end the cleaning from this point. However, oil is a very tricky substance to play with your skin. Despite having a squeaky feel of your skin, I would suggest to follow it with your favorite mild cleanser. There’s no need to use heavy duty soaps or cleansers for this. This cleansing oil already attracted the junks out of your skin. The goal of you second cleanser is just to remove any residue of this cleansing oil.

Takeaways:

• This cleansing oil can be used every day for mild to waterproof makeups.
• Some ingredients may trigger acne (esp.  fungal) hence every once in a while (not necessarily everyday), use a cleanser that prevent acne of such
• Make sure to cleanse with water thoroughly and follow it with your mild cleanser (Simple Moisturizing Facial Wash is a personal recommendation)
• This can be use regardless of your skin condition

Would I buy this again? Yes.

I highly recommend this product to everyone. However, please review the ingredients listed and make sure that you are compatible with them. Some people have reported breaking out after using this product. I would assume that they are not compatible with some ingredients in this item or they did not use it properly. Regardless, I personally like this product and will use it further.

Truecica Mineral 100 Calming Suncream SPF50+ PA++++ – Some by Mi

Ingredients:

Water, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Dipropylene Glycol, Zinc Oxide, Silica, 1,2-Hexanediol, Niacinamide, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Water, Titanium Dioxide(CI 77891), Sodium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate, Stearic Acid, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Lauroyl Lysine, Disodium EDTA, Acrylates/C10-30 lkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Adenosine, Centella Asiatica Extract, Artemisia Vulgaris Extract, Caprylyl Glycol, Madecassoside, Asiaticoside, Asiatic Acid, Madecassic Acid

As per COSDNA, there are 3 ingredients that may cause acne:

• Butylene Glycol (1)
• Stearic Acid (2)
• Zinc Oxide (1)

Other than those, everything seems ok for use. Of course, these are textbook facts. I will discuss further how my skin reacted to these ingredients.

Trial Duration: 2 days

Price: 569 PHP (Shopee Mall — SOME BY MI) / around 10 USD — 50 ml

Packaging:

Current Skin Condition: Acne prone with dry patches

Review:

Protects your skin from “Photoaging”

Truecica Mineral 100 Calming Sunscreen boast to have PA++++. The metric indicates that this provides extreme UVA protection. So far, this is the highest point in our metric system and only few have this much “+” already in their label. I can’t tell you though that this is working or subpar as the metric itself is a little questionable to be honest. I tried going out every once in a while wearing this and no browning / tanning were observed. Also, this might be too advance to tell but for the record, no additional wrinkles were added in my inventory while using this product.

Whitening

Hmmm, whitening.

This term gets to be thrown out so easily and quite interchangeably with “brightening” and “lightening” when it comes to Asian skin care. I checked the ingredient list and can’t see anything that that has somewhat bleaching properties. I do noticed though that there is Niacinamide. This ingredient is known to minimize the size of the pores, brighten skin tone, treats hyperpigmentation and anti-wrinkles to name some. Based from my personal experience, I did notice that my face is a little brighter than the usual. So if we are going to use the term “brightening”, then I would say yes. Yes, it did brighten my face. However, with very short time I had with this product I can’t tell you though if it helped me in the hyperpigmentation due to acne. So for this aspect – no comment.

Wrinkle Improvement

Like in the “brightening” claim of this product, the key ingredients for this is Niacinamide. However, same with above, it will take a lot of time to see if my wrinkles are actually less. I’m only my early 30’s and to be honest, I don’t have much yet. Hence, I can’t comment on this claim. Do note though that it claims to have one of strongest rating when it comes to UVA protection (PA ++++), together with Niacinamide, this make sense.

Sunscreen for sensitive skin

This though I can answer more. This product claims to have non-nano factors that will not be absorbed by the skin which is ideal for people with acne prone skin.

However –

This does not work as beautiful as it meant to be…at least for me. I saw a lot of people praising this in the internet and online shops saying that it works like wonder for them and this is the only sunscreen that really did not cause them issues. Unfortunately, I’m not part of that statistic.

 Just to give you an idea on how my skin was when I started using this – basically I have some dry patches due to my Tretinoin and Azelaic routine. I do have some inactive clogged pores that are hard to see even upfront…but it is there when you touch them. I do have a lot of acne hyperpigmentation too due to my recent reaction to Tretinoin but there’s really nothing active other that the one below my chin (aspiring) and one near the scalp.

Going back, after two days of trying this product, my quiet clogged pores in my chin became more apparent and two became pimples. In my left eyelid, I managed to catch what appears to be two “ripe” clogged pores. Between my eyebrows, few clogged pores appeared. They were not there when I started this trial so I can’t blame this on my current routine.  Also, to be fair, I only put a light and unscented moisturizer before using this sunscreen so I can’t blame my Tretinoin or Azelaic for it.

Other than the eyelid and new entries between my eyebrows, no other clogged pores are worth noting after this. It appears that an ingredient (or probably more) caused my clogged pores to wake up and advance. I don’t know what these ingredients could be as the listing has no apparent culprit other that the three I mentioned earlier. There is a possibility that this is more of a personal reaction and other may not experience it.

Below are some of the pictures of my screen before and after:

Before applying sunscreen (with moisturizer absorbed already):

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Aftermath (2 days after):

Note: Those items in red circle are there before the trial however, they are very small and less noticeable when I started. The one in orange is the aspiring I mentioned earlier. It is its first day before I took the sunscreen. The one below the orange circle and the reds in left “ripen” after the sunscreen.

These are new as there are no clogged pores on those areas when I started using this sunscreen

These are new to me as well.

85% moisture essence, lotion-like texture with no white cast finish

This sunscreen is not sticky considering that it is mineral. The texture of the lotion itself is not dry and true to its claim that it is lotion like. It glides smoothly in my face and does spread quite nicely. I did not have any issues about this getting stuck in my lines, nose and other corners. From my experience with other sunscreens I would say that when you put it, it is light but not the lightest out there.  However, when it dries, it is hard to tell that it is there.

It did not dry my skin. However it did not contribute any moisturizing effect on my skin despite its claim that it has 85% moisture essence. My skin still has the initial dryness issue I mentioned earlier…just not worse.

I also did not notice any white cast afterwards. It went almost invisible to my skin after few minutes.

Spread:

Without flash, natural light

With flash

A little shiny at first

After 30 mins:

Natural light

With flash

Smell

Reading the product listing, it is true that they don’t have any artificial scents, but it still has fragrance. There are oils worth noting that contributes to its lemon to green tea like scent, almost similar to Biore Watery Essence Sunscreen but lighter. These are Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil and Asiaticoside. They are known as natural fragrance. Some people tends to have irritations on these items especially when used in larger amount.

Though I can live with the scent that this sunscreen has, for me though, I would prefer not to have it no matter how “natural” or light they are. I’m a huge believer that not all-natural products are good for your skin. Our skin has no need for fragrance and these ingredients might only cause irritation.

Final thoughts:

I’m a little skeptic recommending this one despite all the good points I mentioned (lightness, texture, no-white cast etc). The thing is, if the reaction might be a conflict related to my routine (which contains Azelaic and Tretinoin), it’s no good for acne prone then. Let’s be real here. People with acne prone skin may be already be involved in medical grade routine. Their routine tends to have strong ingredients perhaps due to prescription or over the counter items such AHA, BHA, Retinol / Retinoid and Azelaic to name some. If this is the cause of my inactive clogged pores getting triggered then we maybe be we should be more specific with the claims.

For now, it’s a take-at-your-own-risk kind of recommendation. A lot of people are praising it but unfortunately for me, I fell on that smaller statistic that did not have good reaction in this sunscreen.

Would I try it again? Yes. I’m planning to consume the whole tube and make a new review again. I will not erase this but I would like to give this a second chance. The reason for it is because this sunscreen feels a lot better than those that I tried. It is very light and it works very well on my makeup (I have a separate review for it).  For the record, I will not pull out my routine (which contains Tretinoin and Azelaic) just to give way to this sunscreen. I will consume them as is and this sunscreen as how it is meant to be.

I’ll keep this posted once the new review is ready.

If you want to see my under the makeup review of this product, check out this link.