First Impressions: Sunday Riley's 'Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm'

Raise of hands, how many of you have been coveting this beautiful, blue baby for months?! *both hands raised* It's well worth it, may I add. I picked this cleansing balm up during Sephora's yearly VIB ROUGE event, where ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is 20% off; all brands, all fragrances, no exclusions of any kind. Sephora is the Wonka Factory of highend beauty, the mecca of all beauty lovers. This year has had its fair share of great skincare and makeup releases, and with the holidays right around the corner, the best of what beauty has to offer is popping up all over the place. Its overwhelming at best, but at the same time, what a joy it is to be able to partake in the festivities.

Sunday Riley is that highly coveted, good-stuff for your skin that costs a buttload...yet, you feel and look good with it on, no matter if you look like you just rolled out of bed or just going to the world premiere of the new James Bond flick, you really can't do much wrong when using Sunday Riley products. Granted, with that being said, it may not be for everyone; not every product may be well suited for sensitive skin types (at least to use everyday) but, when it comes down to it, her products speak volumes, and the masses absolutely love what they have to offer.

I've tried two SR products prior this, but they ended up not working out because I got them surrounding their hype, not really based on my skin needs (tisk Jewels!), I just couldn't help myself though...but this cleansing balm, on the other hand, can suit almost every skin type, except maybe the extremely oil.

This balm has vanilla, tangerine, sweet orange, chamomile, and blue tansy essential oils; thrown in with organic cocoa and moringa butters (Emma Hardie fans rejoice!). And it smells almost distinctly of cocoa, but not in anyway overpowering. The blue balm itself is absolutely lovely to look at, and the consistency and formula of the balm is quite creamy without being thick, and never feeling heavy on the skin. You just need a little to do the trick, rub those palms together for a few seconds than start massaging that makeup off your face! Its a very therapeutic experience with all the aromas you get from the lush ingredients thats thrown in, and something I see myself reaching for my evening cleanse.

Out of a 5-star rating, I give it a 4, reason being: The packing and the product itself is absolutely stunning, would look grand on the vanity, floor, bookshelf, it's just so beautiful. The smell is comforting while not being strong, has a great slip, great at removing makeup and impurities; but, at the end of the day, its just a very nice, hydrating balm cleanser. Its more beautiful in appearance than anything else, and normal/dry skins would certainly love the feeling of this, especially when used as a mask. 

If you're looking for a basic, does-what-it-says-on -the-tin balm, go with Clinique's Take The Day Off Balm; its a no fuss, no muss kind of cleanser, fragrance free, and does great with all skin types, especially sensitive. On the other hand, if you want a more luxurious experience, with a rich, thick, and creamy balm that will take off your makeup punched with a little something special in between, than I'd pick Emma Hardie's Moringa Cleansing Balm. If want something in between but different, with just a bit of UNF, than go the Blue Moon route. Or, if you haven't tried anything from the Sunday Riley brand before, I think this one is a good choice to try first, or one of their many oils. This isn't the BEST of the best of balm cleansers I've ever tried, if I had to pick out of the 3, I'd go with Clinique because it's simple and efficient, and sometimes I don't need all the extra goodies in a cleanser that I'm just going to end up washing off my face anyway.

Either way, I was satisfied with this cleanser and I'd repurchase on the account if I wanted to put something interesting back into my routine, if I was bored of the same old boring balm (sorry Clinique). I do think its worth a look, especially if you're a Sunday Riley fan, you certainly won't be disappointed. 

Its now available at Sephora online or in-stores (call to check for availability) and retails for $50.  

Cleanser Review: Clarins Extra-Comfort Cleansing Cream vs Extra-Comfort Anti-Pollution Cleansing Cream

photo credit: amazon.com

When a brand discontinues your favorite product, the usual follows: crying, screaming, pulling your hair,  giving the company nasty looks through your computer screen...listen, we have all been there. I know I have, hence why I'm making this post about Clarins' Extra-Comfort Cleansing Cream. The Goddess of Skincare herself, Mrs. Caroline Hirons, got pretty much everyone on this planet in love with this jar of goo, even me. You can read her quick little review on the original here, and her thoughts about the new reformulation here.

Its a thick, rich, cleansing cream with that dynamite smell that Clarins is known for and that all fans of the brand absolutely adore. Its such an experience on the skin with using this cleanser, that I couldn't really remember loving a cleanser as much as this one prior. It makes you forget about every other cleanser that you've ever used (a bit of a stretch, maybe?) , because you never want to use anything else...except on the day that you found out it's no longer going to be sold, and that they are coming out with a reformulation of the product... whilst throwing in the verbage 'anti-pollution' in the middle of it.  ?!?!!? If you're feeling a bitch-face through your screens, its because I'm making a hard one. 

Listen: Clarins, next to La Roche Posay, are two brands that I hold very dear to my beauty heart, they were the first brands that I got into when I started my beauty adventure. I'm their ride or die chick so-to-speak, but sometimes you need to take a step back and literally be like, 'WTF BUT WHY?!' Even to your favorite brands.

At the same rate, I can't knock the new one till I try it, right? So, thats what I decided to do, I took the plunge once my Extra-Comfort ran (almost) dry (I left just a bit in the jar...no matter how much I got the urge to scoop it all out and slather it all over my body...just so I can compare the 2 for this post. The sacrifices that were made...). Long story short, I ended up loving the Anti-Pollution version as well, thus I deserved a swift kick in the arse for giving this one the cold, hard shoulder in the beginning. 

photo credit: clarins.co.uk

Its in no way shape or form like the original,  nothing beats it, nothing tops that luscious, glorious cream in jar. I still find it a shame that Clarins decided to do away with it, truly. But honestly, this new formulation isn't all that bad, really. YET, it fails to replace it.   

Differences: The obvious packaging change, from tub to tube. The color of the cream is also slightly different; the original was cream in color, while the reformulation has a very slight pink tone to it. And the consistency is quite different; the original being just a bit thicker and I feel a bit more easier to work with. 

With all that being said, I can't say anything negative about the reformulation itself, if anything, it gets the job done just as well as the original, and my face is just as happy with it. It still works well for dry, sensitive, normal and even combo skins types; oily and acne skins, you may need to step back from this one, it may be a bit much.

For now, I'm throughly enjoying the Anti-Pollution Cleansing Cream, regardless of all the gripe and fuss I keep making about Clarins discontinuing the original one, and will probably end up repurchasing it again once I run out. This cleanser is more on the expensive side, in most places I've checked, it ranges but usually goes up to being about $44 for the 200ml tube; though I purchased mine here for over $10 less than that; and I found another online beauty shop that has it for even less than that price, at $26, here, which seems to be the best price I've found thats available to ship to the US. 

If you tried both cleansers, how did one over the other fair for you?

Friday Fail: Perricone MD Nutritive Cleanser

It's only fair to not treat all beauty products the same...as it also comes with the territory of a beauty blogger, you can't love every product you try, which is why I created the 'Friday Fail'...my first 'fail' is the Perricone MD Nutritive Cleanser. I really enjoyed this cleanser in the beginning, maybe because I never tried it before, breaking myself into the Perricone world...than with continued use I just started to dislike it, now at the very last drop of the bottle I am just eager to finish it up and toss it already.

According to Perricone's website description:

...Nutritive Cleanser provides anti-aging benefits and reveals brighter and smoother skin, leaving it looking radiant and perfectly prepared for treatment.

Not worrying too much about the anti-aging benefits (with no wrinkles its hard to notice any change w/that), I didn't feel that my skin was 'radiant' looking after I washed it off it just felt, clean. Not stripped cleaned though, it may be for some skin types because it is a 'light' foaming formula, just regular, basic drug-store bought cleanser- clean; and it smells like baby powder?? Its light and powdery scent first threw me off, but just continued to do so with every use, though not unbearable, it wasn't my favorite.

Honestly, this cleanser did nothing for my skin. It didn't harm it but, it did no good for it either. Obviously, this is my personal opinion but $39 for a very basic cleanser such as this is not worth the hype or the price tag, to be completely honest. This doesn't steer me away from the brand but, this will not be a repurchase for me.