Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel

As my Liz Earle Cleanse and polish came to a gradual end I decided to hold off on a repurchase in an attempt to try and use up some of the cleansers I currently have knocking about in my stash. I was very reluctant to use another cleanser as my skin is very sensitive and I don't like to chop and change my skincare a lot, but I prevailed and reached for the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel.

I've never tried anything from Oskia before, nor have I heard much about the brand so I very much went in with an open mind. Oskia are an all natural British brand, they use 98% natural ingredients in all products they manufacture if you would like to read more about the brand see here. Coming from a regular Joe (no skincare qualifications as such) I do find the whole 'Nutritional skincare' thing that Oskia have going on a tad bit gimmicky, when I see the word 'nutrition' I immediately link this to internal, thing's we eat, drink not stuff we slather on the skin. So yes, after reading about the brand I was  a tad sceptical but here's my thoughts-

Quite contrary to the name this cleanser is NOT in any shape or form a gel cleanser. I took the pictures above in hope that they might give people an idea of what the texture of this cleanser is like. I have to admit the texture is odd and not like anything I've tried before. On first application the product is sort of jelly like with a salmon pink colour, when applied to the skin this transforms into a balm cleanser the texture at this point is quite oily, after massaging in I apply water, the texture turns milky and creamy (picture three) the oil dissolves into a milky cream cleanser that you can easily rinse away or towel off. Although I do think this adds a little bit of 'fun' to the cleansing experience I do feel like it adds unnecessary time onto cleansing as I felt like there were three steps on my cleansing alone.

So how does this perform? I've been using this for four weeks now and I'm still not sure how I feel, on first impressions it was love but after continued use I do think this cleanser for me has more cons than pros. As for pro's I do love that this cleanser works well with my combination skin. This hydrates dry patches, but didn't leave any greasy residue behind. After cleansing my skin never felt dry, tight or uncomfortable. This worked really well during breakouts calming painful under the skin spots. At the end of the four weeks, the texture of my skin has improved drastically and looks a lot clearer. However the biggest difference is the appearance of my skin. I've never found a cleanser that manages this before but my skin looks a lot brighter and more radiant. Pigmentation/scarring and dull skin seem to go hand in hand, this cleanser didn't reduce the pigmentation but the overall appearance of my skin looked a whole lot brighter.

For me though although my skin seems to love these oil/milky hybrids- I don't. It's going to sound lazy but for me a con is the amount of extra time added on to cleansing. In the mornings before work I did find that this added on a lot of extra time that sadly I just don't have. This also didn't do a fantastic job of removing make up, in all honesty this didn't remove make up in the slightest. I'm a fan of 'double cleansing' (make up remover followed by cleanser) but with this cleanser I felt like my skin got a little overwhelmed with the amount of products. Using an oil/balm make up remover, followed by slathering my face in an oil again (with this cleanser) just didn't quite work for me. For me this was another huge con as with my Liz Earle cleanser I can literally do two washes and all scraps of make up are removed (without the need to go in with further products.) Smell was also a big no no for me. Although this says 'rose scented' I didn't find the rose to be overpowering but I just wasn't a fan of the smell, it didn't smell clean more musky. Strangely enough this cleanser also made my flannels smell weird… okay I'll elaborate, I usually like to swap my flannel every 2-3 days but with this cleanser I had to change them daily, as I found that when my flannels dried they smelt like what can only be described as cat sick. After reaching paranoia stage I decided to stop using this cleanser and return to another cleanser (using flannels) and the flannels didn't smell, when I returned to this the smell returned… (ew.)

Will I repurchase? No, I think I'll give this a miss. Although I got this at the reduced price of £22.50 (Oskia had a £10 off first purchase offer) it's almost double the price of my beloved Liz Earle Cleanser (which I've already repurchased!) Sorry Oskia this just wasn't for me. On a side note I do want to mention how great the Oskia site is, when I ordered this the package arrived literally 2 days later, they include a little pouch with mini samples in and a brochure with Oskia products and skincare information I thought this was a nice added touch.

Have you tried the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel?