Review : Philosophy Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser

Product Description
Our award-winning daily facial skin cleanser is formulated to gently cleanse, tone and melt away all face and eye makeup in one simple step, while lightly hydrating the skin.

features and benefits

• deep cleans pores and eliminates makeup build-up
• natural oil extracts help condition skin
• fragrance-free formula

This is my first foray into the brand, after hearing good things from a good friend of mine. I have been using their moisturizer for a while now, but have yet to review it. This cleanser is a 6ml sachet which I gotten from the Tangs counter while my friend was purchasing their products.

I have been wondering about their products for some time, with their interesting names and award-winning products. This cleanser is one of their award-winning product so it made sense for me to get a sample of it. I was dismayed to read that it is a foaming gel. My skin does not take well to any foaming products.

I used it for a week before deciding that its not for me. With a gel texture, it foams slightly and seemed to provide a light cleansing to the skin without any initial irritation at first. With subsequent usage, I noticed that the broken capillaries on the wings of my nose were getting redder and its definitely a bad sign to my sensitive skin and I decided to stop it from further damage.
My skin seemed to be flaking as well, after days of usage and it is probably drying out my skin.

Key Ingredients :
Sodium Lauroamphoacetate: Acts as a mild surfactant that gently cleanses the skin without irritation or residue.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil: Lightly hydrates the skin leaving the skin comfortable, not pulled or tight.
Sodium Trideceth Sulfate: Pulls dirt, debris, and makeup from the skin and dissolves them.
Twelve-Essential Oil Blend (Including Rosewood, Sandalwood, Sage): Helps soften, soothe, and rejuvenate the skin.
This is what Paula's take and it certainly sounds bad.
"This cleanser is overloaded with irritating ingredients. The fact that it is listed as “Best of Sephora” merely means that lots of Sephora customers are using a cleanser that is hurting their skin. Fragrant oils are abundant in this cleanser, and all of them contain volatile components that are irritating to skin. Philosophy also included black pepper extract, just in case the fragrant oils weren’t irritating enough. Those of you who use this cleanser may not see the irritation it causes because most of the irritation is taking place under the skin, where collagen is being damaged and free-radical damage is being generated, but it is happening nonetheless. For the health of your skin and your beauty budget, please consider switching to a truly gentle water-soluble cleanser."

It scored 3.7 from an astounding 2287 users on Makeupalley.

Ingredients :
Water, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Coco-Glucoside, Coconut Alcohol, Peg-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, Aniba Rosaeodora (Rosewood) Wood Oil, Geranium Maculatum Oil, Guaiac (Guaiacum Officinale) Extract, Cymbopogon Martini Oil, Rosa Damascena Extract, Amyris Balsamifera Bark Oil, Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Oil, Cinnamomum Cassia Leaf Oil, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil, Piper Nigrum (Pepper) Seed Extract, Polysorbate 20, Glycerin, Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Yellow 5 (Ci 19140).