Review! fresh Soy Face Cleanser

With one of my Sephora purchases, the cashier dropped this fresh sample into my bag:

It was kind of gel-ish and gooey right out of the package, but it smoothed out and lathered well.

I started with a full face of makeup.  Here is it's opponent!  Work-day-old makeup, full eyeshadow with mascara, eyebrow fill, blush, and foundation, plus setting and contouring powders.  I'm winkin' at ya to show the eyeshadow it has to get off:

My first step is always to apply a warm, wet washcloth to my face and let it sit there for a few seconds to help soften up my mascara and generally encourage the makeup to loosen up.  Then I gently wipe my face, stopping intermittently to wash the cloth with soap, rinse it out, and then keep on wiping.  I usually get a lot of the makeup off of my face before any cleansers ever touch it.  It just seems like a waste to use soap on the stuff that is willing to come off easy.

So, here I am after that:

You can see there is still a lot of eye makeup, and lots of mascara on my skin now.  There is still a lot of makeup on my face, you just can't see it.  I know it's there because it is always there.  At this point, I usually use almond oil to finish cleansing my face.  If I use cotton rounds to wipe the oil on my skin, then I can see all the dirt and makeup it picks up.  Of course, I'm testing out the fresh cleanser, so I didn't use oil yet.

So, I washed my face with the fresh cleanser.  My face was really clean; almost squeaky clean.  It did not get rid of all of the mascara, and there was still some eyeshadow hanging out at the lash line.  However, I am cautious with soap around my eyes, so it is possible that it was a lack of vigor on my part that left the eye makeup remains.

Immediately after washing, my skin felt tight.  It wasn't so intense that it felt stripped, but my oil treatment felt like a relief.  At this point, I wasn't liking the cleanser.  I don't want to strip my skin of any of its moisture.

I swear I'm wearing a shirt.

Anyway.  To finish, I used my now-beloved almond oil to wipe my face and get rid of the rest of the eye makeup.  I was not surprised to see how much makeup came off of my eyes, but, I was stunned to see how clean the rest of my face was!  I usually get a lot of makeup off with the oil wiping, but other than the eye makeup, there was nothing left on there.  Nothing.

Here is a very unflattering shot of my face after using the oil.  You can see how the only difference is now all my eye makeup is off:

After seeing how clean my face was, my opinion changed from negative to neutral.  I still didn't like the tight feeling, but I did like how clean my face was.  I use facial cleansers, and this one did a better job of removing the makeup than the others.  However, my other cleansers don't leave my skin with that tight feeling.  Then again, I use oil as a final cleansing and moisturizing step, so does it really matter?

I'm still debating that question.  I have a few bottles of cleansers left to use before I have to decide on an answer.

UPDATE - I purchased a travel-sized bottle of fresh Soy Face Cleanser, and I am very happy with it.  I use it twice a week, in conjunction with my almond oil cleansing routine.