“Fair of Face” Gentle Cleanser

 “Fair of Face” is the 7^th English Rose Cosmetics’ product and I would like to share with you why I’ve chosen to develop this type of product.  The inspiration for the name "Fair of Face" comes from the Mondays Child Poem.

Decisions decisions….

The type of face cleanser will depend a lot of time and lifestyle and skin requirement of the individual.  A lot of beauty editors extoll the virtues of double cleansing using a facial oil/balm and then water based foaming cleanser to remove the first cleanser and any remaining traces of grime.  This is time consuming but probably necessary if you live in a polluted city.  For those that don’t live in polluted cities or work from home (lucky us), than we have less grime to remove and too much cleansing will disrupt the skin barrier.  Be it laziness or lack of time some of us don’t want to spend too much time on a cleansing routine. 

I never use bar soaps (too alkaline) or foaming gels (contain irritants) and am too lazy to use lotions & balms, but I wanted something using plants that was convenient to use in the shower or over the sink.

Foaming Component

This is a clever packaging invention that turns liquids into foams, so you can use a watery natural formulation that turns into a foam making it super convenient to use.

Ingredients

Water, glycerine (humectant) barley protein (conditioning) sucrose laureate (emollient/emulsifier) decyl glucoside (surfactant from corn) Quillaja Saponaria (soaptree bark) phenoxyethanol (preservative) ginger oil (fragrance)

Quillaja Saponaria Molinas

Chilean Soaptree bark (Quillaja Saponaria Molinas) is sustainably harvested and Ecocert approved by the manufacturer (Desert King) to reduce oil, shine and spots without leaving the skin feeling tight and dry.  Included at 6% as the primary cleansing agent.

Desert King did a 4 week in vivo on 30 volunteer’s average age of 25, with varying degrees of acne. They had to wash their face twice a day with a gel containing 2% Quillaja and results were measured at 2 weeks and 4 weeks, the before and after photos are quite impressive.

After 4 weeks the volunteers rated their satisfaction as follows:-
93% reduction in greasy skin
62% reduction in acne lesion’s
75.8% less evident pores
79.3% less shiny skin
82.8% good for delicate skin & washing away impurities
17.2% tightness & dryness
93.1% no adverse reactions

Decyl Glucoside is a biodegradable plant derived gentle surfactant with foaming capabilities and is popular in natural formulations – it’s included at 3% and is the secondary cleansing agent.

Barley Protein moisturises and conditions dry skin, and is recommended to use post shave due to its healing properties.  It is used at 10% and is the primary moisturising active.  Glycerine locks in moisture and is used at 1.5%

Sucrose laureate is a plant based fatty acid ester emollient/emulsifier. 
Ginger Essential Oil gives a natural invigorating fragrance and has the allergens removed.

Tip – leave the foam on spots for about 10 minutes before rinsing off.  Most foaming products will irritate the skin after 10 minutes so this is a good indication of its mildness.  Also recommend using a 2^nd cleanser on a cotton pad to check the effectiveness of “Fair of Face”.

 

Rating

Value for money – costs £13.00 for 160ml due to the inclusion of 20% natural plant actives which are considerably more expensive than SLS/SLES cleansing agents, most face washes would also contain less than 1% plant actives. 

Available – here  

Effectiveness – gently cleans the face without leaving a tight feeling, skin feels refreshed, calm and clean

Pampering factor – mild creamy foam with ginger aroma that’s a pleasure to use in the shower or over the sink

Recommended – this does not contain allergens or irritants so is suitable for sensitive skin, and is highly effective on spot prone skin