{Review} The Body Shop Cucumber Cleansing Milk & Freshening Water

I was at the Body Shop several weeks ago and they had a great promotion going on: get any two items from the Originals line for $10. That's not a huge savings, only a few dollars, but I'd been eyeing the two items above, the Cucumber Cleansing Milk and Freshening Water for a while now and figured it couldn't really hurt to give them a try.


First off, they both smell absolutely delicious!!! Like the most fake but delicious cucumbers you could ever smell. TBS says that the cleansing milk will cleanse skin and lightly moisturize. It does that, and a bit more.


It is a light cream cleanser, more runny than a typical cream cleanser.


I know people with oily skin are probably cringing right now, but honestly if you want to do without a moisturizer during the day, using this in the morning might just work for you.

What this cleanser is good at is helping remove base makeup when washing your face. IT IS NOT AN EYE MAKEUP REMOVER!!! I was reading reviews on TBS website and people were saying that they use this to remove waterproof mascara and stuff, but trust me on this one, you do not want this near your eyes. With a cheapie face brush (TBS sells one for $3, Sephora has one for $5) this cleaning milk will get rid of most of your foundation and concealer without drying out your face. It rinses off, but it does tend to leave a film like most cream cleansers (and cleansing milks) do.

I've been using this mostly in place of my Noxema, which I finished a couple of weeks back (stay tuned for many empties at the end of the month!). I just massage a generous amount of this cleanser onto my face and neck for about one minute, tissue off, and the cleanse with my normal cleanser. I'm not rally a big fan of the film this cleanser leaves, but to remove base makeup it is perfect. And I've even used it to shave my legs a few times, too! Very handy.

A word of warning: both of these products are HEAVILY scented. I don't have very sensitive skin, but every now and then it does make even my skin itch. If you have sensitive or dry itchy skin these are not the products for you.


The Cucumber Freshening Water is a cooling and soothing toner. To be perfectly honest, other than feel nice, it didn't do much for my skin at all. I used it following the cleansing milk to make sure all of my makeup was off, but it didn't really moisturize, exfoliate, clean pores, or anything like that that other toners claim to do.

Unfortunately, this toner doesn't really sooth my skin at all. TBS claims that this toner will not dry out, but it did dry my skin a bit, especially around the nose. And it does,surprisingly, for a product advertised for sensitive skin, contain alcohol. As I mentioned above, it is very heavily scented so the first few times I used it it irritated my skin quite a bit and made me itch. What I later did was add about a teaspoon of glycerine to it. It no longer irritates or dries my skin out, but if you have sensitive or dry skin I would still really stay away from products that are as heavily scented as these.


This toner comes with a flip top but I usually just unscrew the top, otherwise I end up wasting a lot of product.


In conclusion, for the price these were average products, but definitely not meant for sensitive skins like TBS claims. If you do have sensitive skin TBS has a great aloe line that will probably work a lot better for you.

Have you tried these? If yes, how did they work for you?

Info:

Price: $5.99 ea (retail)

Ingredients:

Cleansing Milk: Water (Solvent/Diluent), Glycerin (Humectant), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (Emollient), Cetyl Alcohol (Emulsifier), Stearic Acid (Emulsifier), Triethanolamine (pH Adjuster), Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil (Emollient/Skin Conditioner), Benzyl Alcohol (Preservative), Lanolin (Emollient), Phenoxyethanol (Preservative), Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus) Juice (Natural Additive), Fragrance (Fragrance), Hexyl Cinnamal (Fragrance Ingredient), Geraniol (Fragrance Ingredient), Butylphenyl Methylpropional (Fragrance Ingredient), Citronellol (Fragrance Ingredient), Linalool (Fragrance Ingredient), Hydroxycitronellal (Fragrance Ingredient), Benzyl Salicylate (Fragrance Ingredient), Green 5 (Colour), Yellow 5 (Colour).

Freshening Water: Water (Solvent/Diluent), Rosa Centifolia Flower Water (Natural Additive), Polysorbate 20 (Emulsifier), Sodium PCA (Humectant), Alcohol Denat. (Solvent/Diluent), Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus) Juice (Natural Additive), Benzyl Alcohol (Preservative), Fragrance (Fragrance), Hexyl Cinnamal (Fragrance Ingredient), Glycerin (Humectant), Citric Acid (pH Adjuster), Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Extract (Natural Additive), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Skin-Conditioning Agent), Geraniol (Fragrance Ingredient), Methylparaben (Preservative), Butylphenyl Methylpropional (Fragrance Ingredient), Butylparaben (Preservative), Ethylparaben (Preservative), Isobutylparaben (Preservative), Propylparaben (Preservative).